'The Walking Dead' Ride To Use Screams To Charge Mobile Phones

When it comes to advancements in amusement park rides, the high speeds or death-defying drops are [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

When it comes to advancements in amusement park rides, the high speeds or death-defying drops are usually the selling point, but The Walking Dead - The Ride at Thorpe Park Resort offers guests a helpful feature: the more you scream, the more you can charge your phone.

Devices on the ride reportedly use "kinetic energy harvesting" to convert vibrations, g-forces, and screams into electrical energy. Pieces of equipment then store the electrical energy created by screaming and are distributed throughout the park for guests to drop by and charge any number of mobile devices.

While on the ride, an LED system lights up that alerts guests to how much energy they're creating through their screams. The device itself, however, is jet black, blending into its surroundings as to not disrupt the aesthetics of the ride.

"The Walking Dead – The Ride is 15 out of 10 on the scare factor scale, so it makes sense to be able to combine and harness our visitors' screams and the ride's vibrations to help solve a problem each and every one of us faces; losing the charge on our mobiles when we're on a day out," John Burton, a creative at Merlin Entertainments who helped design the ride, revealed to Blooloop.

The 90-second experience might not offer guests a direct benefit of their devices being powered, but the communal experience of helping other attendees will encourage riders to scream even louder.

"In launching The Walking Dead – The Ride we want to ensure our guests are offered something they can't get anywhere else. Our new and exclusive immersive experience is hands down one of the most thrilling, terrifying and now intelligent on offer in the UK," Dominic Jones, divisional director at Thorpe Park, explained. "Being chased by walkers is guaranteed to be quite literally spine-chilling. We can't wait to leave our guests powered up for the rest of the Year of The Walking Dead series of unmissable events for 2018."

Thorpe Park Resorts will also be offering a Walking Dead-themed live-action maze in May, a "Zombie Hunt" this summer, and Fright Nights this October.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. Fear the Walking Dead will debut its fourth season after The Walking Dead concludes its eighth, at 10 pm ET on April 15. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.

Would you be brave enough to take a ride on the Walking Dead-themed attraction? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T Blooloop]

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