Disney Enterprises (Burbank, CA) has filed a patent for a system that predicts when individual theme park guests will cross environmental exposure thresholds, including heat, humidity, sun, noise, and air pollution, and then automatically adjusts their itinerary to avoid them.
The patent, published April 2, describes a phone-based system that combines three data layers: local weather sensors placed around a venue, personal health and tolerance data from the guest, and regional weather forecasts. Rather than issuing blanket heat advisories, the system is designed to generate personalized mitigation responses, such as reordering a guest’s day to front-load outdoor activities before peak temperatures or scheduling indoor breaks before a predicted exposure threshold is crossed.
There’s no timeline for when or if this will roll out, but it signals where Disney is investing R&D attention as summer heat becomes an increasingly serious operational challenge for theme parks.
How the System Works
The patent (US 2026/0090771 A1, filed September 30, 2024) describes a system built around a server, a user device such as a phone or wearable, and one or more local weather sensors deployed at the venue. The server collects weather data including forecasts and regional environmental conditions, then combines that data with optional user-specific information to make predictions about when a person will approach an exposure threshold.
The user-specific data the system can draw from is broad. The patent lists activity itineraries, work schedules, heart rate, breathing rate, blood sugar, prior exposure history, health history, tolerance information, and recent meals. A user can also input personal tolerance levels for heat, humidity, noise, air pollution, and sun exposure on a low-to-high scale.
Once the system predicts an approaching threshold, it can generate mitigation options. These range from simple alerts (“Exposure limit approaching. Seek shade and cooler temperatures.”) to automatic itinerary adjustments. The patent describes reordering a day plan to move outdoor activities to cooler morning hours, scheduling additional breaks, or routing a guest to indoor or shaded locations.
The system is designed to run continuously, recalculating as environmental conditions change throughout the day. It can also store prediction and mitigation data on the server to improve future recommendations.
Theme Park Use Case
The patent explicitly names theme parks as one application. It describes a scenario in which a guest attending an amusement park has an itinerary of rides, food breaks, and rest periods. If the system predicts the guest will cross an air pollution exposure threshold (the example given is smoke from a nearby wildfire), it can recommend an updated itinerary that includes taking indoor rides and scheduling breaks earlier in the day.
The patent’s scope extends well beyond theme parks. Other use cases described include construction workers at outdoor job sites, athletes in pre-season training, farmers managing plant exposure, frozen food transported in semi-trucks, and animals under supervision. The system is designed to work for “a person, an animal, or a plant.”
What the Patent Does Not Say
The patent does not mention integration with any existing Disney app, including My Disney Experience or the Disney resort app. It does not describe crowd management or revenue optimization as goals, though the underlying mechanism (directing guests to specific locations based on conditions) could serve those purposes. It does not use the term “artificial intelligence,” describing instead a processor-based prediction system. And it does not describe family-group coordination, addressing only individual users.
The three named inventors are Gregory Brooks Hale (Orlando, FL), Gary David Markowitz (San Juan Capistrano, CA), and David Benson Gilmore (Orlando, CA).
Patent details
US Patent Application Publication US 2026/0090771 A1, published April 2, 2026. Filed September 30, 2024 (Application No. 18/902,253). Applicant: Disney Enterprises, Inc. The full patent document is available at the USPTO patent database.
