Level up with Universal's new patent applications (opens in new tab)

By Robert Niles: Universal has filed new patent applications for more life-like animated theme park characters, vending machines that sell customized products, and a new way of loading people onto theme park rides.Let's start with that last one. Theme parks traditionally load their rides on a first-come, first-served basis. Yes, many parks now are selling line-skipping passes that allow shorter waits for visitors who buy them. But at some point, the regular queue and the "line-skip" queue mer...