Thomas K. Carpenter » Disney Imagineering

Three Things We Can Learn From Disney

Tom Carpenter — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 11:31:19 +0000

Last year at ISMAR09, the keynote speech from Mark Mine of the Disney Imagineering group, really intrigued me. I had been a hardcore Disney hater before that, but Mark’s behinds-the-scenes look at the technology of Disney, specifically how they used augmented reality, softened my stance.

Cue forward almost one year exactly, in a strange twist of fate and of overenthusiastic grandparents, I find myself at Disney for a week. Since I was going to be at Disney, I decided to check out all the AR attractions that Mark Mine had talked about in his presentation. I got to see all the applications I wanted to see except one (Magic Sand) and this is what I learned from the experience:

1) True location based gaming can be a blast

The Kim Possible Adventure game in Epcot was my kids favorite event from the Disney properties. Each player receives a cellphone and then they follow the clues around until they solve the mystery. The game uses RFID tags to know when the player is in the right location. This game is as much an alternate reality game as AR, but either could do the job marvelously. There were about eight total missions in the various countries of Epcot and the kids did all of them. I did a few with them and then let them do the rest on their own.

Now that markerless AR is becoming more common with products like Junaio Glue and Google Goggles, I’d like to see someone make a few ARGames based on the Kim Possible model. It was truly a fun experience that the whole family enjoyed.

2) AR needs to be a product not a feature

In the Disney Downtown area, there’s a wonderful LEGO store with amazing statues made of LEGO bricks. In the back of the store, there’s a LEGO AR Kiosk. Since Metaio’s LEGO kiosk was one of the first applications of AR a few years ago, I won’t go into the details of what it is. But what I will talk about is the hour I stood in the back of the store and watched people interact with it.

Quite a number of parents and kids picked up boxes and held them in front of the camera. They seemed amused for a second and then quickly put them down and moved on. I asked a few people what they thought of it and they mostly shrugged without saying much.

The problem I see is that most usages of AR currently are add-on features that are cool in themselves, but don’t actually add to the experience of the product. For AR to be truly memorable it needs to be both conspicuous and integral to the product.

3) Projection based AR is the future of amusement parks

Projection based AR at Disney was everywhere. From Buzz Lightyear’s talking statue; to projected skins across landscapes or objects; or full fledged projected realities that came alive when the haptic chair you sat in moved with the reality. While this one isn’t going to do much for the average AR programmer, as their medium is the cell phone and not an amusement ride, the amusement parks are going to rely on AR more and more for their advanced special effects. I think my favorite example was the Forbidden Journey ride at the Harry Potter area of Universal. I honestly cannot tell you exactly what all was AR, or animatronics, or just smoke and mirrors, but it was truly awesome. It actually felt like you were there in a place that only exists in our collective minds and sprung from JK Rowling. That makes the far-future of AR both scary and exciting, and I’m glad to be along for the ride.

NAB 2010 Show Sets Super Augmented Reality Session

Tom Carpenter — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:32:56 +0000

I haven’t done many press releases as of late, but this one caught my eye due to the various partners involved–”Key Figures from Nokia Research Center, Total Immersion, Walt Disney Imagineering & More To Discuss Cutting-Edge Blend of Reality and Computer Generated Content.”

*** press release ***

WASHINGTON – The NAB Show, the annual conference and expo for professionals who create, manage and distribute entertainment across all platforms, has announced the participants in a Super Session titled “Augmented Reality: Entertainment Meets Ubiquitous Computing.” Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging form of experience in which the real world is enhanced by computer-generated content specific to a location and to an activity. The 2010 NAB Show takes place April 10-15, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The panel will feature industry pioneers Rebecca Allen, director, Nokia Research Center; Gene Becker, managing director, Lightning Laboratories; Chetan Damani, founder and CEO, acrossair; Joe Garlington, creative vice president, interactive projects, Walt Disney Imagineering; and Bruno Uzzan, CEO and co-founder, Total Immersion. They will examine how augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and alternate reality games (ARG) provide new forms of entertainment and new ways of transmitting information by dissolving the boundaries between the real and the virtual.

New Amsterdam Media principal Seth Shapiro will serve as moderator. The session is produced in association with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation and takes place Monday, April 12 at 2:30 pm.

“Augmented reality is a concept that is beginning to change media, entertainment and marketing in tangible, exciting ways,” said Chris Brown, executive vice president, conventions & business operations for NAB Show. “We are very excited that this group of leaders in the space will be at NAB Show to share their groundbreaking work and insight into what’s next for content.”

Rebecca Allen is director of Nokia Research Center Hollywood and Nokia Research Center Cambridge, US. Allen previously directed the Emergence Project at UCLA, an Intel funded research effort involving artificial life, 3D virtual environments, augmented reality and unique interfaces. She was also creative director/executive producer and 3D visionary at Virgin Interactive Entertainment and a member of the world-renowned NYIT Computer Graphics Laboratory and MIT’s Architecture Machine Group.

Gene Becker is managing director of Lightning Laboratories, a professional services company focusing on strategy and action for the connected world of ubiquitous computing, augmented reality, social media and the Internet of things. Previously, Becker was a technical director at Hewlett-Packard, where he led advanced research and business development for Cooltown, a web-based platform for mobile and ubiquitous computing.

Chetan Demani is founder and CEO of acrossair, a company dedicated to building advanced iPhone games and augmented reality applications using the OpenGL library. Previously, Demani launched several successful companies in the internet space, including Imano, a full service interactive agency with clients such as Nestlé, Citibank and Hotels.com.

Joe Garlington is responsible for the creative development of all interactive attractions for Disney theme parks around the world. Garlington has overseen the creation and development of numerous interactive attractions, including “DisneyQuest,” an indoor interactive theme park that debuted in 1998 at Walt Disney World; “Turtle Talk with Crush”; “Stitch Encounter”; “Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor”; the new post show for “Spaceship Earth”; and many more.

As CEO and co-founder, Bruno Uzzan in the driving force behind the growth of Total Immersion, the global leader in augmented reality and a pioneer in commercializing the technology. Based in Paris, Total Immersion maintains a presence in Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong, and has an impressive client roster that includes Mattel, McDonalds, Disney, Coca-Cola, Nike, Twentieth Century Fox and Nissan Motors.

Two-time Emmy® winner Seth Shapiro is a leader in the profitable application of new technology to emerging business models. He has managed digital media initiatives with Walt Disney Company, DIRECTV, Comcast, TiVo, Time Warner Cable, Showtime, HBO, STARZ, and many others, including a variety of startups, venture and private equity partners. Shapiro is principal of New Amsterdam Media, a partner at the Opportunity Management Company, and co-founder of Media Valuation Partners, a leading firm specializing in the economics of media, entertainment and emerging technologies.

About the 2010 NAB Show

The NAB Show will take place 10-15 April 2010 in Las Vegas (exhibits open 12 April). It is the world’s largest electronic media show covering filmed entertainment and the development, management and delivery of content across all mediums. Complete details are available at www.nabshow.com.

News media registration is now available online. Click here to register as press for the NAB Show.

About NAB

The National Association of Broadcasters is the premier advocacy association for America’s broadcasters. NAB advances radio and television interests in legislative, regulatory and public affairs. Through advocacy, education and innovation, NAB enables broadcasters to best serve their communities, strengthen their businesses and seize new opportunities in the digital age. Learn more at www.nab.org.

Total Immersion’s Ghost Hunting Experience

Tom Carpenter — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:31:45 +0000

Mark Pine, the keynote speaker from Disney Imagineering at ISMAR09, gave the audience compelling reasons why truly interactive experiences are the future of entertainment and the one I remember most was: “It’s about connecting with the user.”

Total Immersion has recently partnered with Hanwa Co. (Japan) to create a live action augmented reality video game that connects with the user in much the same way that Mark from Disney had displayed. Unlike the projection based AR system that Disney used, Total Immersion have their guests wear a backpack and wield a video gun to hunt ghosts in the fully explorable house earning points as they capture them.

“We’re demonstrating the magical ability of augmented reality to capture visitors’ attention and imagination,” said Bruno Uzzan, CEO, Total Immersion. “Guests experience real time interaction with augmented reality content — and are pulled into real life videogame, dynamically.”

More pictures can be seen on Total Immersion’s blog about AR and they recently uploaded this video to YouTube.

Total Immersion reports a high revisit rate with teens and gamers which bodes well for AR driven entertainment. Their AR entertainment experience makes me realize that the first real augmented reality HMDs won’t be bought by consumers, but instead will be used in malls and other family entertainment centers to create immersive gaming experiences like this ghost hunt.

As the technology becomes more robust with occlusion, better graphics, and faster tracking; the complexity of the games will grow. It’s not hard to imagine AR games like the one’s described in Larry Niven’s Dream Park taking over the laser tag centers in your local mall. We just won’t tell the kids that they’re really LARPing.

Interactive Entertainment using Augmented Reality

Tom Carpenter — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:57:35 +0000

The use of augmented reality in our daily lives is still a few years away. The technology and business model hasn’t yet reached the point where it’s cheap enough for the masses.

The entertainment business is a different story as they’ve been using augmented reality for some time now. My eyes were opened during the keynote speech at ISMAR09 by Mark Mine, a Walt Disney Imagineering Director. They use AR in a variety of interesting and imaginative ways (well duh! they are Disney afterall.)

“Magic sand” interactive experience using projections on top of sand to create volcanos and playing with turtles.

KimPossible activity using hand-held comm units that led kids on a secret adventure through the park.

Building sized projections of ghosts during holidays like this video of Space Mountain on Halloween.

Mark also showed us some great scenic illusions using projectors on a live scene, but unfortunately I couldn’t find a video. What Mark showed us is how to use AR–right now–by concentrating on the user experience. The Imagineers had over 144 different degrees in their group, but he said the key was to have an art and communications background to go with the engineering. Keep that little factoid in mind all you wanna-be AR designers.

A couple of his best lines were, “Seeing is believing, but touching is truth,” or “It’s about connecting with the user.” The lesson I got from it for AR developers outside of the entertainment industry is to not forget the person using your new-fangled technology.

Mark wasn’t the only keynote speaker from the entertainment industry. Natasha Tsakos who plays Zero, a worker everyman stuck between dreams and reality, in her UP WAKE performance piece, also gave a keynote. Similar lessons can be learned from her experience as with the Disney talk.

Disney and UP WAKE are both big budget productions, but can the little guy use augmented reality to entertain? I don’t know much about the guy in this next video, but he’s giving it his best go.

Or if you’re looking for a company to develop a projection AR entertainment experience right now, then look no further than Globalzepp.

These days everyone is enamored of augmented reality on the smartphone, but we shouldn’t forget there are other ways of using the nascent technology in creative and innovative ways. Projection based AR still has a lot going for it in situations where it can reach a large audience.

ISMAR09 Day One

Tom Carpenter — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:52:38 +0000

Today marks the first day of ISMAR09 which has been the Workshop Day. I participated in the Industry Workshop which was chaired by Noora Guldemond from Metaio. I’m not going to go into a ton of detail today because there’s not much time until the next event, but the presentations and discussions were excellent. The section with the HMD makers, Microvision and Vuzix, drew the most interest as our room population doubled during their part. I plan on doing a whole post later this week or next devoted to the information gleaned from the HMD discussion.

I also got to participate in a wonderful discussion last night with Programmer Joe, Noah Zerkin, Robert Rice and Ori Inbar. The topics flew and so did the time as we went way later than I had planned to stay up. It would have been nice to have Tish (who was in her room working on a presentation) and Rouli (who could not make it) there too. I think I owe a round of drinks for the next round-table.

That’s all for now. Looking forward to tonight’s keynote speaker with Mark Mine from Disney Imagineering and then tomorow for another day of augmented reality goodness.