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Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

No docs attached to it last I saw though, unfortunately.
They seem to never post the docs for that type of permit, although in this case I doubt there is very much interesting stuff in them anyways.

Still, it's exciting to see the first permit that's actually for the park specifically.
 
They seem to never post the docs for that type of permit, although in this case I doubt there is very much interesting stuff in them anyways.

Still, it's exciting to see the first permit that's actually for the park specifically.
Yes, indeed!

In a few days/weeks, we may be able to at very least download any review comments for the plans from the county. They sometimes include interesting details... although, usually it's just stuff like, you need one more fire hydrant within X feet of Y. Still. Something!

 
Yes, indeed!

In a few days/weeks, we may be able to at very least download any review comments for the plans from the county. They sometimes include interesting details... although, usually it's just stuff like, you need one more fire hydrant within X feet of Y. Still. Something!


UPDATE: Here are the Review Comments that were posted today... As I suspected, just boring stuff about how many feet away drainage needs to be and whatnot, but here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Review-Comments01.jpg
Review-Comments02.jpg
 
Permit for Electrical for what I assume is the back of house/construction trailers was filed today. Absolutely nothing of interest included, just passing along any itty bitty bit of news I come across lol.

Permit: E19016894
File Date: 12/04/19
Address: 4120 Destination Parkway
Status: Internet Incomplete
Expires: 06/04/20
TYPE SUB TYPE WORK TYPE
Electrical Permit
Commercial
New Service
 
Just in...U.S. Dept. of Homeland security just gave up on their attempt to use Facial scanning technology to identify all travelers coming into the USA.....ACLU had previously filed suit saying facial recognition was invasive of privacy.....Ironically, this was just reported by Comcast Infinity & NBC.:)
 
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What the US government forces on citizens and what a private corporation uses with paying guests are different though. A disclaimer when you buy your park ticket already allows them to do lots of things like track you in the park. If you don’t like it, don’t go, is kinda the attitude.

There was some pushback against MagicBands, and even fingerprint scanning at theme parks, so it’ll be interesting to see how and if facial recognition gets implemented. But I mean, they already use it for hotel guests Express and I’m not seeing any outrage. :shrug:
 
What the US government forces on citizens and what a private corporation uses with paying guests are different though. A disclaimer when you buy your park ticket already allows them to do lots of things like track you in the park. If you don’t like it, don’t go, is kinda the attitude.

There was some pushback against MagicBands, and even fingerprint scanning at theme parks, so it’ll be interesting to see how and if facial recognition gets implemented. But I mean, they already use it for hotel guests Express and I’m not seeing any outrage. :shrug:
True....but it's still a blow against that technology, which outside of the Chinese government's usage of their own tech, doesn't have much of a market at this point in time. If the market for it remains small, the cost of a massive working technology ( the hotel facial works even worse now then when they first implemented it), and possible lawsuits, may not be something investors get behind.
 
A major problem with that technology is it simply is “racist” by design. Now, let me give context to that.

The vast majority of research into facial recognition technology was done with white subjects. Therefore, the technology tends to work better with lighter skinned people. The darker your skin the more biased the technology is against you and the more likely you get pulled aside because it doesn’t recognize you. This was a part of the case the ACLU was making, and it still applies to its usage in a theme park.

I personally feel that a technology that singles out darker skinned people should not be used anywhere until the proper due diligence has been done to change the current statistics. We sadly are not there yet.

Also, I don’t remember where I read this, but I believe it has more trouble with women as well as it was also mostly tested with males. I can’t verify this though bc I haven’t looked into it enough. This is actually an interesting phenomenon in medicine that in the past decade has started to be corrected. The “average person” used with FDA approval of drugs was a white middle aged male. John Oliver did an episode on this last point on Last Week Tonight a bit ago. I recommend watching it.

A Reference: The Best Algorithms Still Struggle to Recognize Black Faces
 
A major problem with that technology is it simply is “racist” by design. Now, let me give context to that.

The vast majority of research into facial recognition technology was done with white subjects. Therefore, the technology tends to work better with lighter skinned people. The darker your skin the more biased the technology is against you and the more likely you get pulled aside because it doesn’t recognize you. This was a part of the case the ACLU was making, and it still applies to its usage in a theme park.

I personally feel that a technology that singles out darker skinned people should not be used anywhere until the proper due diligence has been done to change the current statistics. We sadly are not there yet.

Also, I don’t remember where I read this, but I believe it has more trouble with women as well as it was also mostly tested with males. I can’t verify this though bc I haven’t looked into it enough. This is actually an interesting phenomenon in medicine that in the past decade has started to be corrected. The “average person” used with FDA approval of drugs was a white middle aged male. John Oliver did an episode on this last point on Last Week Tonight a bit ago. I recommend watching it.

A Reference: The Best Algorithms Still Struggle to Recognize Black Faces
Yeah unfortunately to really work you need something like FaceID, where it maps the contours of the face. Using 2D fails often, even if you're not darker skinned.
 
A major problem with that technology is it simply is “racist” by design. Now, let me give context to that.

The vast majority of research into facial recognition technology was done with white subjects. Therefore, the technology tends to work better with lighter skinned people. The darker your skin the more biased the technology is against you and the more likely you get pulled aside because it doesn’t recognize you. This was a part of the case the ACLU was making, and it still applies to its usage in a theme park.

I personally feel that a technology that singles out darker skinned people should not be used anywhere until the proper due diligence has been done to change the current statistics. We sadly are not there yet.

Also, I don’t remember where I read this, but I believe it has more trouble with women as well as it was also mostly tested with males. I can’t verify this though bc I haven’t looked into it enough. This is actually an interesting phenomenon in medicine that in the past decade has started to be corrected. The “average person” used with FDA approval of drugs was a white middle aged male. John Oliver did an episode on this last point on Last Week Tonight a bit ago. I recommend watching it.

A Reference: The Best Algorithms Still Struggle to Recognize Black Faces

It is worth noting that these systems aren't racist by design but by implementation and that's a big difference. There's nothing that stops this tech from getting better when more examples of POC are factored into testing and learning (assuming that the majority of algorithms use some machine learning component). This is an issue that a lot of the tech industry is facing and from my time at one of the big tech companies, they are doing a lot better about explicitly calling it out and fixing it. Now I do agree with your point that it's just not ready and I hope it doesn't get rushed into the new park in an unready state.
 
It is worth noting that these systems aren't racist by design but by implementation and that's a big difference. There's nothing that stops this tech from getting better when more examples of POC are factored into testing and learning (assuming that the majority of algorithms use some machine learning component). This is an issue that a lot of the tech industry is facing and from my time at one of the big tech companies, they are doing a lot better about explicitly calling it out and fixing it. Now I do agree with your point that it's just not ready and I hope it doesn't get rushed into the new park in an unready state.
I was referring to the program that recognizes faces, which is by design. The original program that the faces were fed into (machine learning) was by implementation. The original program could be updated with more varied faces, which would change the design on the later.

This is semantics though. We’re making the same point.
 
In today's column on Theme Park Insider, Robert Niles echoed and reiterated what most of the IU Insiders have been saying since the F&F debacle. Niles, "Several Universal Creative team members have told me the company has steered hard away from developing new screen-based,media-driven attractions as a result of fan response. Parks listen to fan response". This is something to keep in mind concerning attraction expectations for Epic Universe.
 
In today's column on Theme Park Insider, Robert Niles echoed and reiterated what most of the IU Insiders have been saying since the F&F debacle. Niles, "Several Universal Creative team members have told me the company has steered hard away from developing new screen-based,media-driven attractions as a result of fan response. Parks listen to fan response". This is something to keep in mind concerning attraction expectations for Epic Universe.
Your move Disney.

*Glares at the Imagination pavilion*
 
In today's column on Theme Park Insider, Robert Niles echoed and reiterated what most of the IU Insiders have been saying since the F&F debacle. Niles, "Several Universal Creative team members have told me the company has steered hard away from developing new screen-based,media-driven attractions as a result of fan response. Parks listen to fan response". This is something to keep in mind concerning attraction expectations for Epic Universe.
I think fans are the first to call out something that GP notice at a much later date

The screen thing is a good example. Fans were complaining about it since Gringotts...in the GP's mind it's just now becoming a bit too much
 
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