soupy11
Cast Member Wannabe
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2004
- Messages
- 1,590
Hey guys, more of a lurker around these parts, but just came home from a fascinating seminar put on by the Disney Research vice-president, Joe Marks.
The presentation was part of the Distinguished Lecture series at the University of Waterloo (where I am studying hydrogeology). Our computer science department hosts these events and they can really attract some big names. Waterloo is basically a revolving door for Research in Motion....
Anyways, I took copious notes and wanted to share some of the highlights, because as far as I can see, a lot of this stuff has been pretty quiet. Apologies for the bullet-point list, I am in the last couple weeks of school and I don’t have a pile of time to edit together a nicer report.
Intro
• Joe Marks has been 4 years with Disney Research
• Has 3 degrees from Harvard! Computer Sci mostly.
• Competed against UWaterloo for Team Harvard in comp programming event….Harvard lost! YES!
• Worked for MERL (Research Director)but resigned when they explained they could not follow his vision
• New CEO of Disney (I presume he meant Iger) approached him and explained that he envisioned a research program akin to Microsoft
• The stated common mission would be Invention – Discovery with all work to be peer reviewed and published
Sample Project – Video Retargeting
• Since content made today will likely be played on machines that haven’t even been invented yet, a big goal is to cover formatting basis
• Video retargeting allows on the fly linear scaling (think letterbox, pan and scan, etc.) . So for example a 16X9 shot film can be reformatted 4:3 on the fly and lose of proportions, etc is negligible and non-noticeable
• Showed some very cool examples with Snow White and how in Pan and Scan she looks matronly (think pooh sized) but with this tech, her proportions are kept and she appears young and vibrant! (think anorexic)
• Hilarious bit about screen actors and how they usually build into their contracts the fact that you can’t add 10 pounds to them during broadcast!
• Is CGI all Disney is pushing? He told a story about a huge expense report for an order of red wagons to carry around all of the paper Disney artists were using for Princess and the Frog.
• Demo’d BetweenIT tech. This reduces time needed in 2D artwork with drawing fine character movement. Demo included a pretty upset Tink.
• Started talking about CGI and Simulation of Matter
• Robust collision stuff showcased cloth, hair, and other materials reacting with objects in amazingly lifelike situations. Note “The Incredibles” character had 5000 strands of hair to model….Rapunzel had >500,000
• Said he had “countless” long blond haired models running around (smiled here to indicate that maybe his job isn’t all that rough!).
• When difficulty arose with this collision modeling for Rapunzel’s hair, he approached the director to see if a short-haired brunette could be substituted. (Director exclaimed “That is not in my vision!” Heh)
Parks and Resorts
• He then went on to discuss research in park operations….specifically in audio animatronic work
• Feels Disney is far behind current research in robots. (For the most part Disney animatronics are relegated to hydraulic systems that have to be bolted to the floor, which makes them immobile and lacking in interactivity
• Robot control demos showed real time actors controlling large audio animatronic doing Tai Chi (Joe joked that Epcot China could see robots leading visitors through morning Tai Chi routines)
• Turtle Talk w/ Crush was brought up as a huge success story and he claimed that 3 months of training goes into a CM before they can take the controls (which consist of buttons, i.e. smile – push 1, laugh – push 2, etc.)
• This button mashing makes it less an acting job and more of an exercise in video gaming – they are working on eliminating this through voice interaction, camera capturing, etc. to bring a performance to this type of experience
• This tech could also read the guest’s faces to really provide some neat interactivity
• Talked and displayed some prototypes of a new tech called Holographic Zoetrope
• No 3d glasses needed…the holographs (think hitch-hiking ghost type effect) are interactive and respond to microphone input
• Talked about the coolest souvenir ever! Computational Materials….
• This computation material utilizes the concept of caustic imaging (think light playing through a glass of water)
• An image can be imprinted in a block of glass (like a bathroom block) and when light plays through it a startling life-like image appears refracted through the glass and displayed on the wall. Said that these images can be updated through computer input so images can change throughout the day. Pretty interesting
Behavioural Studies
• He mentioned that he finds social science fascinating since he is such a noob in regards to it!
• Disney is consumed with studying crowds and improving efficiency
• “People behave strangely when they are being entertained!” Crowd laughed
• Huge issue for Disney is crowd control. Epcot is packed at the front in the morning but empty in the World Showcase….vice versa in the afternoon
• Dream Cruise ship is also suffering from this….said 2 hot tub areas are packed while a third goes unused…same with the bars on board.
• Carried out a study called D-Tour. 1000 families were approached and asked to carry an android phone for the day (Epcot). This phone tracked movement and gave out info (maps, info, etc.) in an effort to direct crowd movement to different park areas
• Tests were carried out in which an incentive would be texted to the phone holder. (ie. 50% off hot dogs in the American Pavilion). By the way – Joe says people form the UK can’t resist hot dogs…he has the demographics to prove it!
• 50% off raccoon hat in Canada
() wasn’t much incentive…only 3% purchased it. (It was August, he joked!) 15% went to Canada to look at the hats!
• All in all, the incentives did effect crowd movement and helped to disperse crowds throughout the park – also 20% of the incentives were used (ice cream discounts, etc.etc.)
• He talked about other mobile devices and how over 1 million photos are taken every day. He wants to have GPS device in these handheld units communicate with the park so that when a guest takes a pic with it environmental lights flash illuminating the picture…basically the whole park lights up for photogs!
• Discussed Test Track and the ride photos and how most guest simply snap pics of the ride photos and move on. His idea and they tested it with a sample size of n = 133,000! was a pay your own price incentive. They had guests name their price for ride photos. The average was near a buck…lol. Said that it wasn’t much of a success until they decided to put signs up that they would split the sales with Make a Wish Foundation. 8 times the normal sales were made and profit was way up. Said that families felt engaged in the process and buying became fun again.
That’s about it for my notes…if you have any questions, let me know, I will try and give more details if needed.
The presentation was part of the Distinguished Lecture series at the University of Waterloo (where I am studying hydrogeology). Our computer science department hosts these events and they can really attract some big names. Waterloo is basically a revolving door for Research in Motion....
Anyways, I took copious notes and wanted to share some of the highlights, because as far as I can see, a lot of this stuff has been pretty quiet. Apologies for the bullet-point list, I am in the last couple weeks of school and I don’t have a pile of time to edit together a nicer report.
Intro
• Joe Marks has been 4 years with Disney Research
• Has 3 degrees from Harvard! Computer Sci mostly.
• Competed against UWaterloo for Team Harvard in comp programming event….Harvard lost! YES!
• Worked for MERL (Research Director)but resigned when they explained they could not follow his vision
• New CEO of Disney (I presume he meant Iger) approached him and explained that he envisioned a research program akin to Microsoft
• The stated common mission would be Invention – Discovery with all work to be peer reviewed and published
Sample Project – Video Retargeting
• Since content made today will likely be played on machines that haven’t even been invented yet, a big goal is to cover formatting basis
• Video retargeting allows on the fly linear scaling (think letterbox, pan and scan, etc.) . So for example a 16X9 shot film can be reformatted 4:3 on the fly and lose of proportions, etc is negligible and non-noticeable
• Showed some very cool examples with Snow White and how in Pan and Scan she looks matronly (think pooh sized) but with this tech, her proportions are kept and she appears young and vibrant! (think anorexic)
• Hilarious bit about screen actors and how they usually build into their contracts the fact that you can’t add 10 pounds to them during broadcast!
• Is CGI all Disney is pushing? He told a story about a huge expense report for an order of red wagons to carry around all of the paper Disney artists were using for Princess and the Frog.
• Demo’d BetweenIT tech. This reduces time needed in 2D artwork with drawing fine character movement. Demo included a pretty upset Tink.
• Started talking about CGI and Simulation of Matter
• Robust collision stuff showcased cloth, hair, and other materials reacting with objects in amazingly lifelike situations. Note “The Incredibles” character had 5000 strands of hair to model….Rapunzel had >500,000
• Said he had “countless” long blond haired models running around (smiled here to indicate that maybe his job isn’t all that rough!).
• When difficulty arose with this collision modeling for Rapunzel’s hair, he approached the director to see if a short-haired brunette could be substituted. (Director exclaimed “That is not in my vision!” Heh)
Parks and Resorts
• He then went on to discuss research in park operations….specifically in audio animatronic work
• Feels Disney is far behind current research in robots. (For the most part Disney animatronics are relegated to hydraulic systems that have to be bolted to the floor, which makes them immobile and lacking in interactivity
• Robot control demos showed real time actors controlling large audio animatronic doing Tai Chi (Joe joked that Epcot China could see robots leading visitors through morning Tai Chi routines)
• Turtle Talk w/ Crush was brought up as a huge success story and he claimed that 3 months of training goes into a CM before they can take the controls (which consist of buttons, i.e. smile – push 1, laugh – push 2, etc.)
• This button mashing makes it less an acting job and more of an exercise in video gaming – they are working on eliminating this through voice interaction, camera capturing, etc. to bring a performance to this type of experience
• This tech could also read the guest’s faces to really provide some neat interactivity
• Talked and displayed some prototypes of a new tech called Holographic Zoetrope
• No 3d glasses needed…the holographs (think hitch-hiking ghost type effect) are interactive and respond to microphone input
• Talked about the coolest souvenir ever! Computational Materials….
• This computation material utilizes the concept of caustic imaging (think light playing through a glass of water)
• An image can be imprinted in a block of glass (like a bathroom block) and when light plays through it a startling life-like image appears refracted through the glass and displayed on the wall. Said that these images can be updated through computer input so images can change throughout the day. Pretty interesting
Behavioural Studies
• He mentioned that he finds social science fascinating since he is such a noob in regards to it!
• Disney is consumed with studying crowds and improving efficiency
• “People behave strangely when they are being entertained!” Crowd laughed
• Huge issue for Disney is crowd control. Epcot is packed at the front in the morning but empty in the World Showcase….vice versa in the afternoon
• Dream Cruise ship is also suffering from this….said 2 hot tub areas are packed while a third goes unused…same with the bars on board.
• Carried out a study called D-Tour. 1000 families were approached and asked to carry an android phone for the day (Epcot). This phone tracked movement and gave out info (maps, info, etc.) in an effort to direct crowd movement to different park areas
• Tests were carried out in which an incentive would be texted to the phone holder. (ie. 50% off hot dogs in the American Pavilion). By the way – Joe says people form the UK can’t resist hot dogs…he has the demographics to prove it!
• 50% off raccoon hat in Canada
() wasn’t much incentive…only 3% purchased it. (It was August, he joked!) 15% went to Canada to look at the hats!• All in all, the incentives did effect crowd movement and helped to disperse crowds throughout the park – also 20% of the incentives were used (ice cream discounts, etc.etc.)
• He talked about other mobile devices and how over 1 million photos are taken every day. He wants to have GPS device in these handheld units communicate with the park so that when a guest takes a pic with it environmental lights flash illuminating the picture…basically the whole park lights up for photogs!
• Discussed Test Track and the ride photos and how most guest simply snap pics of the ride photos and move on. His idea and they tested it with a sample size of n = 133,000! was a pay your own price incentive. They had guests name their price for ride photos. The average was near a buck…lol. Said that it wasn’t much of a success until they decided to put signs up that they would split the sales with Make a Wish Foundation. 8 times the normal sales were made and profit was way up. Said that families felt engaged in the process and buying became fun again.
That’s about it for my notes…if you have any questions, let me know, I will try and give more details if needed.
