News Exploring Disney Research Labs' 'Holotile Floor' with National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee Lanny Smoot

[wdwmagic]

Exploring Disney Research Labs' 'Holotile Floor' with National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee Lanny Smoot

Exploring Disney Research Labs' 'Holotile Floor' with National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee Lanny Smoot

www.wdwmagic.com

 

[Doberge]

Congratulations, Lanny!

(heads up that autocorrect changed Lanny to Larry in the sentence about Madame Leota).

 

[DisneyCane]

He's done some pretty incredible engineering and I'm glad that they highlighted his contributions with this honor. The "holotile floor" is really impressive and is exactly what is needed to bring virtual reality to another level. When the patent expires, Apple will come out with the iTile floor and pretend they invented it!

He is a much better inventor than actor. I wish they had done the interview off the cuff instead of scripted just to better see into Lanny's personality.

 

[KatiebugFan]

Even his name sounds like a Disney character.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I saw a video about this. The technology is really cool!

Will we ever see it in WDW? Probably not.

 

[denyuntilcaught]

Absolutely incredible achievement and I'm happy he's getting his proper recognition. Congrats!

 

[Drdcm]

This is a cool video. Finally an interesting tile floor!

 

[Doberge]

He is a much better inventor than actor. I wish they had done the interview off the cuff instead of scripted just to better see into Lanny's personality.

I had the same thought. It's interesting, at least to me, who becomes more public facing and gets a lot of credit (and blame) for projects and become household names in the parks community and who is more quietly behind the scenes not getting much public recognition. And then Lanny seems to straddle the two by getting some of the recognition he deserves for his work while still not receiving enough to be more well known in the community.

 

[imagineer97]

This looks cool! Can't wait for it to never be implemented in the parks!

 

[Brian]

I see a lot of future applications of this technology, including a dream attraction of mine, "Standing in Line, featuring Flash the Sloth."

 

[DisneyCane]

I see a lot of future applications of this technology, including a dream attraction of mine, "Standing in Line, featuring Flash the Sloth."

They could bring the WDW experience to the home with this technology and VR. There can even be an in-app upgrade charge to wait on a shorter line.

 

[Purduevian]

I saw a video about this. The technology is really cool!

Will we ever see it in WDW? Probably not.

I doubt a guest will ever step on this type of floor, but it could make for some really interesting performances. Kind of like the Rey treadmill from Star cruiser, if they ever do another Star Wars stunt show it could be a very cool effect.

 

[Tha Realest]

I doubt a guest will ever step on this type of floor, but it could make for some really interesting performances. Kind of like the Rey treadmill from Star cruiser, if they ever do another Star Wars stunt show it could be a very cool effect.

Given how much of WDW’s clientele have walking issues and the liability issues, I could see this sort of insertion being viewed as ableist.

 

[DisneyCane]

I doubt a guest will ever step on this type of floor, but it could make for some really interesting performances. Kind of like the Rey treadmill from Star cruiser, if they ever do another Star Wars stunt show it could be a very cool effect.

I can also see it used as a tool for filming. People can walk without actually going anywhere. It can save on studio space for certain scenes.

I doubt a guest would walk on it but I guess it could be turned into a ride system where you have a wheel-less ride vehicle that rides on it. I leave it to people with much more creativity than I have to figure out the ride it would be used for.

 

[James Alucobond]

I could see this being interesting in an Encanto attraction. There are a lot of similarities between the motion it produces and how Casita works, and you could use it with objects instead of guests.

 

[JoeCamel]

I could see this being interesting in an Encanto attraction. There are a lot of similarities between the motion it produces and how Casita works, and you could use it with objects instead of guests.

Obviously this is for a MJ moonwalkthrough attraction.......

 

[MisterPenguin]

All future walk-through attractions will be just one small room.

 

[imagineer97]

All future walk-through attractions will be just one small room.

An office.

 

[_caleb]

In the video, I noticed a segment where there's a wooden crate moving across the holotile and someone in the foreground is waving their hand as if to use the Force to move it!

Loads of people around here insist WDI has lost it ("Disney forgot how to innovate"), but Lanny's work, and stuff we've seen from WDI's stuntronics/robotics divisions prove that any struggles at the parks are a management issue, not a creative one.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

In the video, I noticed a segment where there's a wooden crate moving across the holotile and someone in the foreground is waving their hand as if to use the Force to move it!

Loads of people around here insist WDI has lost it ("Disney forgot how to innovate"), but Lanny's work, and stuff we've seen from WDI's stuntronics/robotics divisions prove that any struggles at the parks are a management issue, not a creative one.

Say what you want about Starcruiser, but things like the Lightsaber training and many other functions of the experience were incredible. The problem is that a lot of these experiences are not (practically) scalable. And that’s (one of many reasons) why they got “locked” behind a paywall.