This ride gets more thrilling as you get more scared

So what is it that we are looking at here, some sort of swing that doubles as a torturing device?

You are close. Imagine if there was a thrill-park ride that got more
thrilling as you were thrilled. I realize that there was way too many
variations of the word “thrill” in that last sentence, but here is what
people at Nottingham University are attempting:

These rides are essentially