Thorpe Park’s newest ride will harvest your scream to charge phones
Thorpe Park has announced that its latest rollercoaster will be equipped with devices that can harvest kinetic energy, including its passengers’ screams, in order to charge the phones of other park attendees.
The technology, which was developed alongside researchers at Queen Mary University, is set to be used on the new Walking Dead ride.
The intensity of the screams being recorded will be represented by a series of red LED lights.
In addition to people’s screams, the device will also harvest kinetic energy from the ride’s vibrations. The power can then be used by guests from one of the mobile charge units at Thorpe Park, although you’ll have to wait until the following day if you want to charge your phone using power that’s come from your own screams.
Credit: David Parry/PA Wire
A pair of Walking Dead attractions
The Walking Dead rollercoaster will join Thorpe Park’s other Walking Dead-themed attraction, a scare maze that opened last year where you can scare yourself silly running away from zombies. Unfortunately this low-tech attraction will leave your screams completely unharvested, and hence wasted.
The Walking Dead: The Ride opened on March 23, 2018 for the start of the new season. Initially the scream-recording tech will be placed on trial for three months, but if it proves successful it may end up being installed for longer.
We can’t see people’s screams being an efficient enough energy source that we’ll be able to start closing down power plants any time soon, but harvesting kinetic energy from rollercoasters is still an intriguing idea.
We’ll have to wait for the results of the trial to see whether the system harvests power efficiently enough to warrant using it on a wider scale.
Now that screams can be used to power your phone, what else would you like to see harvested? Let us know @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
