News Disney Unveils Advanced Self-Walking Olaf Built with AI and Reinforcement Learning

[DrStarlander]

I can imagine there being be a cute informal show in a small troll amphitheater with the trolls from Frozen. There seems to be lots of potential to bring to life the non-humanoid (shaped, scale) characters better than possible in the past. And having them next to human actors playing humanoid characters could really be magical.

It's a good thing they are evolving and enhancing how to represent characters in the park. As nostalgic as I am, I'm glad this nightmare fuel isn't still around:

 

[ChrisFL]

What's interesting (and annoying) to me is that the official video from WDI says "Robotic Olaf". I thought Disney was trying to preserve the magic. Calling it "Robotic" seems to be not something they would traditionally do. It reminds me of when I went through Traditions class as a CM ~2008 when they said we don't call them "stuffed animals" because that implies something bad vs "plushes"

 

[Mike S]

This will never come to America.

 

[dmc493]

This will never come to America.

It shouldn’t. Norway is too crowded to support a free roaming robot, and there aren’t any Frozen experiences in DL

 

[Mike S]

It shouldn’t. Norway is too crowded to support a free roaming robot, and there aren’t any Frozen experiences in DL

I was talking about American guests being too touchy, specifically kids of parents that view the word “no” like the worst slur you can think of.

 

[networkpro]

I was talking about American guests being too touchy, specifically kids of parents that view the word “no” like the worst slur you can think of.

They would really need something like this to take care of all the small ones

 

[HauntedPirate]

They would really need something like this to take care of all the small ones

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"EXTERMINATE, ha ha!"

 

[bmr1591]

It does seem like technology similar to this always disappears and is never heard from again. It’s really strange they would invest so much in these creations to put them in the closet after a few months (in some cases, one appearance!).

 

[networkpro]

It does seem like technology similar to this always disappears and is never heard from again. It’s really strange they would invest so much in these creations to put them in the closet after a few months (in some cases, one appearance!).

Not at all when you look at required duty cycles, maintenance, and staffing costs. Its less expensive to hire some meat and cloak them in a furry suit. As previous posters have pointed out, guests can be quite tough on anything they come in contact with and from a sanitary standpoint, they'd almost have to be covered in a fog of hand sanitizer.

 

[ChrisFL]

It does seem like technology similar to this always disappears and is never heard from again. It’s really strange they would invest so much in these creations to put them in the closet after a few months (in some cases, one appearance!).

The Defunctland video dives into this. Short version: it helps get investors because it looks like tech forward stuff since tech companies make the most money in the stock market.

 

[Comped]

They would really need something like this to take care of all the small ones

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I would hug him too. Probably get electrocuted though...

 

[donaldtoo]

Charming, but can Olaf do this…?

 

[Baloo124]

This will never come to America.

I was talking about American guests being too touchy, specifically kids of parents that view the word “no” like the worst slur you can think of.

My thoughts too when I first saw this story.

They'd either need this thing surrounded by an army of CM handlers or in a M&G themed room.
But roaming the streets freely in a U.S. Disney park?? It wouldn't last one day intact.

 

[Stripes]

I was talking about American guests being too touchy, specifically kids of parents that view the word “no” like the worst slur you can think of.

Olaf will be featured on the longships in the Arendelle Bay Show in Paris. He won’t be directly interacting with guests.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I was talking about American guests being too touchy, specifically kids of parents that view the word “no” like the worst slur you can think of.

European children are no better.

I can't see this lasting.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

For all the cynicism here, AFAIK, Mando is still out with Grogu, R2-D2 is still rolling around periodically, the BDX droids managed to get through several different parks, etc.

They'll give Olaf handlers just like the above if they have him out in the crowds. But ultimately, these are all still playtests as the technology develops.

I saw Douglas Fir out at Downtown Disney last weekend. His handler was two feet away not even trying to disguise that he was standing right there speaking into a microphone. That was actually annoying lol but I understand he needed to be able to dive quickly to protect the thing if a guest got overzealous.

While I agree that guests can be terribly behaved, it's not really that different between their terrible behavior with tech and their terrible behavior with regular CM's. Both just require backup.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

When this project is scrapped (as it seems it's very common with all of these initiatives), how many of you want to bet we'll find him a couple of years later in some manager's or director's office like so many other things?

Like a certain drone

 

[DrStarlander]

It does seem like technology similar to this always disappears and is never heard from again

I think because, yes it's expensive and unreliable, etc., but most importantly it's probably because it's not direct-revenue generating. So while WDI can develop it, it doesn't mean park ops wants to pay for operating it.

Unfortunately, a wearable or hand-held product (Magic Band, wand...) that interacts with the characters in a compelling enough way to drive product sales is probably necessary to keep them out on the walkways.

 

[Tha Realest]

This will be another in a long line of neat looking additions that will have a highly infrequent and scant presence in the parks.

 

[sedati]

Phenomenal- I can see why there's only two pages here discussing this impressive achievement but I'm happy to see you guys are dutifully finding a groove on how to negate it.