The Verge: Disney has never lagged in animatronics or high technology for its shows and theme parks — they're more or less tiny, high-tech surveillance dystopias with classic rides, exorbitantly expensive food, and all your favorite TV and movie characters from childhood. But a handful of patent applications pointed out by MarketWatch are particularly interesting
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This is pretty damn cool. Quadcopters are pretty awesome and it is really cool to see them coming more and more into everyday use. Little autonomous drones doing work sounds really cool, especially when that work is entertaining people. The hovering screens make me think of the billboards in Repo! The Genetic Opera, but cooler still are the giant puppets, which would be really really neat to see walking around. I am curious how the drones would detect obstacles on the ground from so high up however. We may be nearing a point where drones could find their place in theater and other live events. Either as lighting or effects work, and that will be cool to see.
So at first I thought it was kool and a little creepy for the giant marionette puppet. A walking puppet the size of Godzilla, just strange. Then also the Macy’s day parade with walking floats, I mean that would be pretty dang awesome but still CRAZY!!!
THEN I click and watch the light show link in the article. WOW it was just amazing to watch the precision that the drones were able to hold on to and the lights. The precision of programming and tracking of the drones in real time and then translate that information to the moving light is very impressive. Just plain amazing what people keep thinking of and striving for.
To add to my previous comment, I was starting to think about the need of programming and how I struggled so much with a simple arduino project last year. I feel to make sure future generation is a success in this life that computer programming is a very much-needed skill. Something every school should start to teach. I will make sure that my children are versed in the language of the computers, if I get there.
This kind of just blew my mind a little. I feel like it would be extremely cool to see, but also the whole concept is a tad scary. Aside from the giant puppets (which are also creepy) fireworks made by technology?? Light shows led by basically little robots in the sky?? It all sounds almost extra-terrestrial. I don't know about you but I like the experience of fireworks. The smoke falling from the sky, the loud booms, the crackles, all of it. I would hate to see the next generation be ENTIRELY consumed by technology. We are already surrounded and reliant on technology every day. Do we need technology for fireworks at the Disney castle too??
But STILL. VERY cool. I would love to see it. Disney is incredible and magical in every way.
It’s a lot more fun to see drones entertaining people rather than spying and shooting at them. Adam showed me a video just yesterday where Disney used drones to put on a pretty fantastic light show. The light show itself was cool but not really my thing, what was amazing is how the drone communicate with each other. The drones are able to seamlessly follow moving lights and use mirrors to bounce the light off each other. I’m curious how much of detail goes into programming them. I’d bet at this point there is probably software good enough to do all the hard calculation and you could just say “Hey drone follow the pretty light” To get that many drones to cooperate without this function would be doable but impractical. The first videos of these things when they came out were much less sophisticated and only involved 8 drones at the high end. These are much faster, clearly smarter, and way better controlled. I’m excited to see what the result of thee patents will be.
It was only a mater of time till Disney hoped on the drone train. I'm really excited to see what comes out of this and what really got me pumped up was the linked articles within the article about the previous accomplishments with drones such as the light show and the amazingly agile drones who communicated with each other to find positions. Personally I hope that Disney not only makes large marionettes, but also looks into creating large flying puppets such as the dragon that flew over magic kingdom a while back.
http://youtu.be/1GybwLXie4g
Technology is constantly changing, and Disney as it says, is one to try something new that nobody had done before, and implement the idea into their shows. To be able to take a drone and program it to do a task is one thing, but to take a fleet, and coordinate the entire production, requires a particular set of skills that requires the ingenuity and insight to make this idea come to life in more ways than one. By taking a patent like this, is essentially going to make Disney have a greater production value. I mean who doesn’t like seeing something new, bold, or daring. To be innovative enough and try something, rather than look back in the past and wish you did but you didn’t only hurts you in the long run. This is just another reason why Disney is constantly outdoing itself and everyone else, because they aren’t afraid to try and try again to turn something magical.
This is a pretty cool idea. I get the use with puppets and think it has potential, but really like the use with light. On one level its kind of like having a huge array of moving lights that have a full 6 degrees of freedom instead of just the standard 2 or 3. This can allow for a really dynamic entertainment experience. Watching the video though, I think there still is room for considerable improvement in the technology. The concept and ideas are really awesome, but I saw some stabilization problems with the drones and I would be interested to know how they would deal with onboard power if they needed to be used in like a 2 hour show.
Yep, that sounds like Disney, I hope it works, that will be cool to see. My opinions about companies mass-patenting ideas are somewhat conflicted. On one hand it is sad that if they never plan on using the idea, someone that might want to can no longer without paying maybe more than they can, and on the other hand it is good to know that there might be a room somewhere at Disney were people are paid to sit around all day and come up with these ideas.
I have heard in my two crits so far, and I imagine I will continue to hear: "Be careful, don't burnout". So as I was reading the first half of the article, I was thinking to myself, once I go and read the list, I'm going to identify with at least a couple of the traits, and my first thought is going to be that it is a badge of pride. Everyone sees it all the time around CMU, that its a good thing to try and do more than you can and kill yourself doing it. I figured I would on some level see something that I see myself doing, and that I would really need to think hard about how to change that. However when I read through this list, it was nice to feel like I have a pretty good handle on my personal affairs in this respect. I think I am a person who enjoys to work, and feels satisfied when I complete something, but I dont think it is to an unhealthy degree.
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