I was listening to the Disney Dish podcast (knowing that Jim Hill is hit-or-miss) and he mentioned that Disney just filed a patent that would essentially remove the cast member from the photographer role, at least for things like Meet and Greets. The camera would use a form of AI to know when you are in place and posing and automatically take the photos. He said that Disney is using machine learning to analyze all of the Photopass pictures taken over the past few years so that the computer can "learn" the characteristics of the typical photo so it knows when to take a shot. It is also being trained to look for obscene gestures, etc. so that it won't take photos when those are present. Aside from taking a job away from a human, he said that the images that the computer takes have a better quality than those taken by a human because the camera can be completely still and make better adjustments for focus, exposure, etc. The big question is what that would mean for people who want pictures taken with their own cameras. Would the cast member working as the greeter be able to take the photos or would people just be out of luck if they wanted pictures taken with their own camera? Interesting potential development, to be sure.
