New Living Character Meet and Greets being tested at DL

[pixiedust629]

I absolutely cannot wait until I can hold a conversation with Mickey-- forget the autographs or whatever, I just want to say hi and hear a hi back! I agree with a commenter on the blog-- I'm 5 again!!

Even just today, I was talking to Mickey at work... he didn't have any Guests so we were chatting about the Oscars, especially the one Walt got for creating Mickey himself!! It would have been way more fun if he could have joined in the convo with the rest of us. Guess he was saving his voice for Fantasmic on Sunday night... lol?

We've been wanting more magic in the parks... and that day is coming!!!!
:sohappy:

 

[coolmark18]

Sorry but I still think this is a 2 person job - even with the patent.

Mickey says 'Are you ready to have some fun'? He then rasises his arm to do the next line 'Great!'. However, he says 'You sounded a little unsure at first' and its only once the line has started that he changes his arm position.

'Aww. What a cute princess. Ah well'. His arms and the content of what he says do not match. At times he shrugs his shoulders as if to say 'Ah Well' but he comes up with 'What a cute princess'. The content and gesture dont match.

Mickey starts dragging the two girls over while saying 'It sure is nice to see you both' and then says 'Why dont you come stand over beside me' Even when they have reached their destination,

Mickeys actions sync up well with long, rehearsed speeh. "You be the princess, and I'll be the prince" *moves in closer with hand to mouth - "just dont tell Minnie - okay?"

 

[WDWGoof07]

This is so cool! I hope they phase this into normal operation for Mickey and other characters sooner rather than later. I'd love to have a chat with Goofy!

 

[sublimesting]

This would have to be applied to all characters and used consistantly otherwise I could see llittle kids being totally creeped out. Think about it..we all love Mickey the way he is now but what if the only Mickey we knew was a living character version and then one day we run across the frozen grinning mickey. You'd wonder happened to him, did he stroke out, is he just grimacing at me in sinister fashion...why won't he talk to me, what's he looking at?! What, why, why, WHY!!!???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sublimesting]

Could be worse:




MUCH WORSE

 

[AswaySuller]

I think this is absolutely ground breaking... just fantastic... Great job!

I think kids kinda think of the characters as big teddy bears at the mo and know something isn't quite right, but this will put the magic and belief in where it isn't currently and will certainly prolong it for a few years.

Even when I was old enough "to know" I still kinda liked pretending I didn't to my parents to keep the dream alive!

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Could be worse:



MUCH WORSE

:ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

I have never seen that one before.

"Why do they always make these things so hard to bite open?"

 

[disnyfan89]

I still think we are several years off from ever seeing this technology implemented into meet and greets through out the park. What is most likely to happen is that after they are done "play testing" we will see this technology disappear for a year or two. It will then be implemented into an interactive show featuring one of our character friends at the parks. IMO We will see articulated heads featured in all shows and parades before we see this technology introduced in a real meet and greet setting.

 

[oommggitskait]

wow..... its just WOW..... and i understand everyone wanting to break it down and figure out the workings.... but i really just want to enjoy the magic :wave:

I feel the same way. I mean - I would love to know how it works - but right now, I'm just so amazed. Very magical

 

[DisneyGAL4Life]

This is amazing! It will take a long time to implement throughout the parks, but folks are not giving Disney enough credit. So many people seem to be worried about what kids are going to think if some characters talk while others do not, but this is an issue that we have faced for years. Characters already talk in shows and not in meet and greets. :dazzle:

I always thought it was a shame that the characters did not talk, so I think this is a great accomplishment! :sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Sorry but I still think this is a 2 person job - even with the patent.

Mickey says 'Are you ready to have some fun'? He then rasises his arm to do the next line 'Great!'. However, he says 'You sounded a little unsure at first' and its only once the line has started that he changes his arm position.

'Aww. What a cute princess. Ah well'. His arms and the content of what he says do not match. At times he shrugs his shoulders as if to say 'Ah Well' but he comes up with 'What a cute princess'. The content and gesture dont match.

Mickey starts dragging the two girls over while saying 'It sure is nice to see you both' and then says 'Why dont you come stand over beside me' Even when they have reached their destination,

Mickeys actions sync up well with long, rehearsed speeh. "You be the princess, and I'll be the prince" *moves in closer with hand to mouth - "just dont tell Minnie - okay?"

I disagree. :shrug:

 

[Buried20KLeague]

How long will it be before the usual members on this message board start to criticize and bash the talking mickey? My guess is soon.

Well, we're 9 pages in and nothing but extreme praise thus far... So that would make your guess wrong.

Maybe those that complain do so when there's reason to, and praise when there's reason to as well. Hmmm... Interesting concept...

 

[rodserling27]

Could be worse:

get that Islamic Fundamentalist Mickey rip off outta here! :lol:

 

[imagineer boy]

You know, I don't think a lot of kids will be scared by the talking mickey. Why? Because he has the ability to sweet talk to them and tell them its alright and can probably get them to come closer.

 

[JPWDW2]

Here's my cent on this:

I'm almost sure this is a one deal person and here's why. Taking a look on the .pdf patent released couple of days ago and finding info on the voice transformation system used, I got:

"A more general speech tranformation system is suggested by an article (...) "Voice Conversion Through Vector Quantization". Googled it and found very interesting info.

Voice conversion technique through vector quantization and spectrum mapping is proposed. This technique is based on mapping codebooks which represent the correspondence between different speakers' codebooks. The mapping codebooks for spectrum parameters, power values, and pitch frequencies are separately generated using training utterances. This technique makes it possible to precisely control voice individuality. The performance of this technique is confirmed by spectrum distortion and pitch frequency difference. To evaluate the overall performance of this technique, listening tests are carried out on two kinds of voice conversions: one between male and female speakers, the other between male speakers. In the male-to-female conversion experiment, all converted utterances are judged as female, and in the male-to-male conversion, 57% of them are identified as the target speaker.

Links:

http://www.upd.edu.ph/~dsp/DSP_research_compilation/VQ_fullpaper.pdf
http://dea.brunel.ac.uk/cmsp/DimICASSP2004.pdf
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/l...218148.pdf?arnumber=4218148&authDecision=-203

So what do you say, one man deal, two or more?

 

[Mimi]

Wow! While I can see that this technology and its logistics could take a very long time to fully develop, I bet Walt's mouth would be watering at the site of these videos! Awesome! Growing up I did feel the magic of Disney but I never really did believe in the characters because they did not speak... these clips could have changed a cold-hearted cynic into a true believer! Imagine the possibilities!!!

 

[the-reason14]

Wow! While I can see that this technology and its logistics could take a very long time to fully develop, I bet Walt's mouth would be watering at the site of these videos! Awesome! Growing up I did feel the magic of Disney but I never really did believe in the characters because they did not speak... these clips could have changed a cold-hearted cynic into a true believer! Imagine the possibilities!!!

I know what you mean. I remember as a child wondering why minnie and mickey never talked to me, but only talked when they were on stage.

 

[Maerj]

I know what you mean. I remember as a child wondering why minnie and mickey never talked to me, but only talked when they were on stage.

I'm telling my 2 year old that Mickey and the gang don't say anything face to face with you because they are big stars and don't want to get sued for offending anyone.

As far as this new Mickey meet & greet...AMAZING! Its like the cartoon character has come to life and is completely real. If they had this at WDW it would be the highlight of my trip!

 

[piratetreasure]

(Disneyland, 1962, if I'm not mistaken)

I think that as costume technology improves, they actually become less unnatural-feeling. I think that 10 years from now, it'll be the static, unblinking heads that we consider creepy.

I'm not gonna be sleeping well tonight.

But anyway, seeing Mickey really talk was just so surreal and freaky but fantastic at the same time. Hope it works out well!

 

[Fantasmic]

That actually made me cry it's absoloutly amazing