Inside Disney’s ‘Area 51,’ Where Lightsabers and Other Tech Are Invented | WSJ
Summary
TLDRディズニーの最も実験的な技術を探求する研究開発ラボで、最も装飾された発明家であるラニー・スムートが、新しいアトラクションの創造に貢献しています。彼はロボットの眼球や「スターウォーズ」のライトセーバーなど、物語にフィットする技術を開発しています。さらに、ホロタイルという新しい技術を開発し、ディズニーのテーマパークの魅力を高めるために、新しい体験を提供する可能性があります。スムートは、ディズニーの技術と物語を組み合わせることで、リピーターのお客様を引き付ける魔法を作り出しています。
Takeaways
- 🧩 脚本介绍了迪士尼研究与开发实验室的创新技术,这些技术对于吸引游客至迪士尼乐园至关重要。
- 🔒 实验室被比作51区,保密性极高,以确保外界不了解内部正在进行的工作。
- 🤖 迪士尼面临来自环球影城等竞争对手的日益激烈的竞争,需要不断创新以保持领先。
- 🏆 Lanny Smoot是迪士尼最杰出的发明家,拥有超过70项迪士尼专利和超过100项职业生涯专利。
- 👀 Smoot发明了电磁眼睛技术,用以替代传统机器人头部的机械结构,提高动画效果。
- 🎨 在迪士尼工作超过25年,Smoot帮助创造了多个标志性的特效,如《魔发奇缘》中的变色龙帕斯卡尔的眼睛。
- 💡 故事是迪士尼创新的核心,技术必须服务于故事,如《星球大战》或迪士尼角色的故事。
- 🚀 Smoot将电影中的虚构物品,如电脑生成的光剑,变为现实中的可操作物品。
- 🌟 他开发的“英雄光剑”是迪士尼迄今为止最逼真的光剑,曾在2023年关闭前的星球大战主题酒店中使用。
- 🤖 Smoot还开发了一种名为holotile的全向跑步机,允许多人在物理空间中无限行走。
- 🏆 Smoot因其在迪士尼的工作被选入国家发明家名人堂,成为继沃尔特·迪士尼之后第二位获此荣誉的迪士尼人。
- 🔧 Smoot仍在不断探索和创新,他的工作不仅技术上先进,而且在迪士尼乐园中得到了实际应用。
Q & A
ディズニーの研究開発ラボはどのような場所ですか?
-ディズニーの研究開発ラボは、最も実験的な技術を開発する場所で、一般にはArea 51のように人々が内部で何が起こっているか理解しないようにしています。
ディズニーのパークに客を引き付けるために重要な役割を果たしているのは誰ですか?
-ディズニーの最も装飾された発明家であるLanny Smootが、パークに客を引き付ける重要な役割を果たしています。
Lanny Smootはディズニーで何を担当していますか?
-Lanny Smootはディズニーの特許のリーダーで、70以上の特許を持つとともに、彼のキャリアを通じて100を超える特許を取得しています。
Lanny Smootが開発した「电磁眼」とは何ですか?
-「电磁眼」はロボットの頭の内部にある多くのメカニズムを置き換えるためのアイデアで、磁石とコイルを使って目の動きを制御するものです。
ディズニーの物語性はどのように重要ですか?
-ディズニーでは技術は物語にフィットしない場合、スターウォーズやキャラクターの物語に役立ちません。物語は王様です。
Lanny Smootが開発した「ヒーローライトセーバー」とは何ですか?
-「ヒーローライトセーバー」はディズニーが開発した最もリアルなライトセーバーで、2023年に閉鎖したスターウォーズホテルでのパフォーマンスに使用されました。
ディズニーのライバルであるユニバーサルは今後どうなりますか?
-ライバルであるユニバーサルは2025年にフロリダのテーマパークを大幅に拡大する計画があり、ディズニーは2019年以来行っていません。
Lanny Smootが開発した「ホロタイル」とはどのような技術ですか?
-「ホロタイル」は世界初のマルチ方向性、モジュール型、マルチプレイヤー対応のホロタイル床で、実際に小さな場所で無限に歩けるようなものです。
ホロタイル技術はどのように動作しますか?
-ホロタイルの床は小さくて可動するディスクのタイルでできており、それらは歩行を無効にするために回転したり傾けることで動作します。LIDARを使用して床が歩行者を追跡し、ソフトウェアで制御します。
Lanny SmootはなぜNational Inventors Hall of Fameに選ばれましたか?
-Lanny Smootはディズニーでの仕事で多くの特許を取得し、科学技術の分野に新しい人々を紹介する責任を負っているため、National Inventors Hall of Fameに選ばれました。
Lanny Smootは今後どのようなことを続けていきますか?
-Lanny Smootは今後も技術を開発し、ディズニーのパークで多くの人々を幸せにし続けるつもりです。
Outlines
🤖 ディズニーの革新技術
ディズニーの研究開発ラボは、最も実験的な技術を開発しています。ラボは極秘のエリア51のように、多くの人が内部で何が起こっているのか理解していません。ディズニーのパークを訪れる客を引き寄せる創造物は、このラボで作られています。ディズニーはユニバーサルなどのライバルと激しい競争を繰り広げていますが、ランニー・スムートはそのライトセイバーの背後にあるディズニーの最も優れた発明家です。彼は70以上の特許を取得しており、彼のキャリアでは100を超えています。彼の特許の一つである電磁眼は、ロボットの頭の中の多くのメカニズムを置き換えるためのものです。この技術は、ディズニーの25年以上のキャリアで、パascalの目の玉やマダム・リオタの浮遊頭、EPCOTのウォーターハープスなどに使用されています。しかし、物語性は最も重要で、技術が物語に合わない場合は役に立ちません。
🚀 ライトセイバーとホロタイルの開発
ランニー・スムートは、スクリーンからほぼ不可能なことを現実のものにするためのアイデアを持っています。例えば、コンピュータ生成のライトセイバーを作り出し、それを実際に客が振ることができるものにしました。彼の「ヒーローライトセイバー」は、ディズニーが作った最もリアルなライトセイバーで、2023年に閉鎖したスターウォーズホテルでのパフォーマンスで使用されました。この技術は、ハンドルのモーターが2つの長いプラスチックの半円柱をアクティベートし、それらが合わさって刃を形成し、フレックスブルLEDストリップで照らされます。また、彼はホロタイルの開発にも貢献しており、これは世界初のマルチ方向性、モジュラー、マルチプレイヤーのホロタイル床で、複数の人々が物理的に小さな場所で永遠に歩けるようなものです。この技術は、将来的にはディズニーパークでフォースを引き出すための新しいアトラクションに使用されるかもしれません。スムートは、ディズニーの外でもその発明に賞賛され、5月に国立発明家名 Fame に選ばれました。彼はディズニーからの2人目であり、初代はワルター・ディズニー自身です。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡ディズニーの研究開発ラボ
💡ランニー・スムート
💡ライトセーバー
💡ホロタイル
💡アニメトロニクス
💡イマーシブスターウォーズホテル
💡ライダーのエクスペリエンス
💡BDXドロイド
💡ライダーのリピート
💡ナショナルインベンターズハロウ・オブ・フェーム
Highlights
Disney Research and Development lab is a highly secretive area akin to Area 51.
Inventors at Disney create crucial attractions for its theme parks, which are the company's most profitable unit.
Disney faces increasing competition from rivals such as Universal, necessitating innovative attractions.
Lanny Smoot, Disney's most decorated inventor, is known for his work on experimental technologies.
Smoot's inventions aim to capture fleeting ideas and turn them into physical reality quickly.
He holds over 70 patents with Disney and over a hundred throughout his career.
The electromagnetic eye is a technology that simplifies mechanisms in animatronics.
Smoot contributed to iconic Disney attractions such as the chameleon Pascal's eyes and Madame Leota's floating head.
Storytelling is paramount at Disney, with technology serving to enhance narrative experiences.
The Hero Lightsaber is Disney's most realistic creation, used in Star Wars Hotel performances.
The lightsaber's design features a motor-activated extension and a flexible LED strip for the blade.
Smoot has developed various technical approaches to creating different types of lightsabers.
Innovations like the holotile floor enable multi-directional movement for multiple people in a confined space.
LIDAR technology is utilized in the holotile to detect and counteract a user's motion.
Smoot's work on the holotile could revolutionize virtual and mixed reality experiences in Disney parks.
His inventions have been recognized with awards outside of Disney, including induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Smoot's legacy includes inspiring future generations of engineers and scientists from diverse backgrounds.
His ongoing work continues to push the boundaries of what is possible at Disney, maintaining a balance between technical excellence and entertainment.
Transcripts
- [Narrator] Playful droids.
(droid squeaking)
Electromagnetic eyes.
And...
(lightsaber whirring)
Yeah, that's real.
- Pretty cool.
- [Narrator] These inventions represent
Disney's most experimental technologies
made here at its Research and Development lab.
- It's more like Area 51.
And we've done a really good job of making sure
that people don't understand
what's happening inside of this building.
- [Narrator] Inventors here build creations
that are crucial to drawing guests to Disney's parks.
The centerpiece of the company's most profitable unit.
Disney is facing increasing competition
from rivals like Universal.
And Lanny Smoot, the guy behind that lightsaber
is Disney's most decorated inventor.
- If I see something that in the real world
that is kind of quirky, maybe an illusion,
and I can build a whole attraction out of that.
(bell clanging)
- [Narrator] With Disney about to embark
on a major expansion of its theme park business
and with competition in the industry intensifying.
- So, any direction.
- [Narrator] The company gave The Journal
a behind the scenes look at the tech
that could make its next attraction.
(fast-paced techno music)
- This is my lab.
I keep an inventory of the things that I need to do,
prototypes that come about quickly,
because an idea I think is fleeting.
If you don't capture it and don't bring it out of your mind
into the physical world, you can sometimes lose it.
And I wanna be fast.
- [Narrator] Smoot is Disney's leader in patents.
He's named on more than 70 with the company
and more than a hundred throughout his career.
- This is the electromagnetic eye.
The idea for it is to replace a lot of the mechanisms
that would be inside of a robotic head.
We call those the animatronics.
This of course, is a much bigger version of it.
There are magnets at the top, bottom, left and right
of the inner eye.
And these coils create a magnetic field
that move the eye left and right, and up and down.
- [Narrator] In his 25 plus years at Disney,
he helped create those eyeballs
seen here in the chameleon Pascal.
The floating head of Madame Leota
inside the haunted mansion.
- Awaken the spirits.
- [Narrator] The water harps at EPCOT.
(soft string music)
And an X-Ray flashlight used to teach fire safety with tech.
But that's not the focus.
- Story is king here.
If you have technology,
but it doesn't fit into a bigger picture,
which is the story of "Star Wars"
or the story of one of our characters, it's of no use.
(lightsaber whirring)
- [Narrator] Some of those ideas
take seemingly impossible things from the screen.
A computer-generated lightsaber, for instance,
and to make them real.
- Can someone get the lights?
I'd like to show off my Jedi powers.
(lightsaber whirring)
We have to make something that a guest can wield
or that they can see on the stage,
and it has to look just like it does in the movies.
(lightsaber whirring)
- [Narrator] This is what Smoot calls the Hero Lightsaber.
The most realistic one Disney has ever come up with.
It was used in performances
at the company's immersive Star Wars Hotel
before it closed in 2023.
- The key issue here was to have something
that was both retractable
but this had the same diameter along its blade,
and it's really hard to do.
- [Narrator] According to the patent,
a motor in the hilt activates
two long plastic semi-cylinders
which come together and extend, making the blade,
which is then lit by a flexible strip of LEDs.
This is just one of the lightsabers
that Smoot has worked on.
Another was used in displays.
- So, I have control of what we call the penumbra.
The light that is sort of ephemerally attached to the saber.
- [Narrator] He's also helped develop technology
for two more, one of which guests used
in real life lightsaber training.
- I have a sort of a cottage industry in lightsabers.
Each of those inventions is actually
a completely technically different thing.
The pressure is greater when a guest
already is familiar with what this thing should be,
and the challenge is to deliver on that belief.
- [Narrator] Getting the magic right
is the kind of thing that can draw in new guests
and turn them into repeat customers, which Disney needs.
Its rival Universal plans to open a major expansion
to its Florida theme park in 2025.
Something Disney hasn't done there since 2019.
And fans are clamoring for new experiences.
- Walt Disney Imagineering is in service
of making the parks attractive.
And if you can make something more fun,
more amazing, more surprising, more people come,
and that's part of our business.
To make sure we have happy people
and a lot of happy people in our parks.
- [Narrator] One recent edition was these BDX droids
for Star Wars Land.
(droid beeping)
(horn honking)
But recreating the familiar isn't all Imagineering does.
Sometimes Smoot's job is creating things
no one has seen before, like the holotile.
- It's the world's first and only multi-directional,
modular, multi-person holotile floor,
which is a sort of an omni-directional treadmill
for multiple people.
(soft chiming)
- [Narrator] Here's how it works.
The floor is made up of tiles of small articulating discs
that spin and tilt to undo walking
or push items in any direction.
- In order for the floor to know where I am walking
and to counteract my motion, we use lidar.
Beams of light or circles of light
are emitted from these devices
and the reflected time of flight of light
lets them know where my feet are on the floor.
And knowing where my feet are and the strides I'm taking,
we can use software to control the floor
to undo my forward motion or my sideways motion.
- [Narrator] Smoot says holotile
is one of his longest projects.
He started on it almost seven years ago.
- I was inspired, I'm gonna go a little off brand,
off the Disney brand to Star Trek,
where they have a thing called a holodeck.
(doors buzzing)
And that allows people to walk around
in a place that is physically small,
but they can walk forever as anywhere they want.
- This woodland pattern is quite popular, sir.
- [Narrator] Disney hasn't announced plans for holotile yet,
but in the future it could allow guests
to harness the force.
- [Lanny] Yeah, look at this.
- [Narrator] Or make them feel like,
they're physically moving through space while using VR.
- [Lanny] Oh wow. Okay.
- The work that Lanny Smoot has done on the holotile
is an incredible contribution
to both how we could potentially design
new attractions in virtual reality, in mixed reality,
in order to leverage that investment that we've made.
- [Narrator] Smoot's inventions at Disney
have even been awarded outside of the company.
- Tonight we have the privilege of celebrating Lanny,
whose work has taken us to places we could only imagine.
(audience applauding)
- [Narrator] In May, he was inducted
into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
- I must have been doing something right
during my years at Disney.
- [Narrator] Making him the second person from Disney
to receive the honor.
The first, Walt himself.
- It's a wonderful honor, but it is also a responsibility
to carry on the bringing of new people,
many people who look like me
into the field of science and engineering.
When I was a kid, I didn't see Black engineers
almost till the time I was one, right?
I grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
It's not a wealthy area, I'll say that.
And being able to be a role model for folks again
that may not have believed that you could go into a field,
it's wonderful.
- [Narrator] But Smoot's induction doesn't mark an ending.
He's still tinkering.
- So, as I talk and my voice is louder or lower,
I am making my little friend
that's just a still image in eight places talk.
I'm proud of the things
that I've been able to do over my career,
that on the technical side, are good technically and used.
And on the fun side, at the Walt Disney Company,
are technical and are used.
So it's been a good, good time and I wanna keep going.
(soft techno music)
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