Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, it’s off to do science we go.
In the early 1990s, Disney brought modern computer graphics to its films by signing a deal with Pixar, which led to movies like Toy Stoy, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E. Now, Disney is starting its own scientific enterprise: The entertainment giant says is will create two brand new research centers, one at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the other at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Disney says that working with the Swiss institute will help them keep up with the newest developments in computer imaging and animation. But it’s not all about the movies: The universities say Disney’s involvement—and dollars—could propel technologies useful for creating computer simulations of complex phenomena, or developing robotic vision.
And speaking of robots, the first task of the Carnegie Mellon lab is to see whether they build machines to entertain the crowds at Walt Disney World. Jessica Hodgins, who will head the operation, says she hopes to make robots that can interact with visitors to the Magic Kingdom for as long as 15 or 20 minutes.
Perhaps this is why Disney forbade employees from bringing guns to work—robots might be taking their jobs.
Image: flickr/Savannah Grandfather
October 10th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
You never can be too careful with a subject like this people need to take notice.
October 15th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
[...] Content: Discoblog: Disney Opens New Research Labs Discoblog: Woman to Marry [...]
October 27th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
The gun laws are sure getting crazy. Im glad I got my FFL a few years ago. I bet soon you wont be able to get one at all.