Disney Is Working On A New Audio-Animatronic That Is Positively Next-Level
Nope, this isn’t something from the latest film in the Saw franchise but rather a brand new project Disney Imagineers are hard at work on. Researchers at Disney are constantly coming up with ways to make audio-animatronics in their rides and attraction seem more engaging and life-like and eye contact provides and as yet untapped way that this may be accomplished.
With this in mind, the company has created a system that provides a life-like gaze for human-robot interactions.
New research being conducted by Disney build on the company’s previous work on mutual gaze between robots and humans. They are now presenting a general architecture that seeks to create this gazes from a technical standpoint and through the lense of an animated character. They believe that it is through this gaze that the character becomes more believable giving the illusion of life.
Under the system, it would be possible to tell when visitors are in the environment and identify them based on their actions. The audio-animatronic could then adjust its gaze behavior accordingly. The system will use high fidelity motions to respond to stimulus. The hope is that the mechanisms developed will be able to mimic motor and attention behavior resulting in an interactive human-robot experience.
This skeletal robot is a prototype for testing the interactive capabilities using the system. Take a look at the video below.
Right now this tech is in the early stages of development and it may be a while before it makes its ways to the theme parks. It is however interesting to see that giant strides are being made. This is a project we’ll continue to follow closely here at MickeyBlog. Readers are encoiuraged to keep checking back with us for further news and updates!
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Source; SlashGear