Disney Research

Disney Research Hub has different priorities to other robot developers; its robots need to move effectively and efficiently – but also with a ton of style and personality. This super-cute biped, based on the BD-1 droid, is a perfect example.

With more than 100 patents, illustrious inventor Lanny Smoot is making history as the first Disney Imagineer to be inducted into the National Engineers Hall of Fame. The only other employee from The Walt Disney Company to do so is Walt Disney himself.

Scientists at Cambridge and Disney Research may be a step closer to making holograms less disappointing, creating new “holobricks” that can stack and tile together to produce large 3D images that can be viewed from multiple angles.

Disney’s animatronics are coming a long way from hippos that wiggle their ears. In the (relatively) near future, robotic versions of Iron Man or Buzz Lightyear could be performing autonomous acrobatics overhead in Disney theme parks, thanks to the newly-unveiled Stuntronics robot.

They say everyone needs to learn to crawl before they can walk, but if you're a stick-like robot dreamt up in the weird and wonderful lab at Disney Research it looks like you can skip a few steps and learn to do majestic backflips first.

To try to add a bit more physical feedback to VR, Disney Research has unveiled a prototype wearable device it calls the “Force Jacket,” which uses a set of inflatable bags to simulate pressure and force in time with visuals.

​If these walls could talk. A new treatment that smartens up walls might not be about to give your bedroom a voice, but it could give it the ability to track your movements and your use of electronics, thanks to a special electrode-laden coating that turns them into interactive surfaces.

Some day, even stopping for a rest on a bench at Disneyland might be an attraction, thanks to a mixed reality prototype called the Magic Bench. Designed to make AR more of a group activity, it allows people to interact with animated characters in 3D space, and even feel them through haptic feedback.

How we interact with ordinary objects in virtual reality worlds could play an important role in selling the user experience. Disney researchers have been exploring these possibilities with a proof-of-concept system that enables users to catch a real ball while immersed in a VR.

Disney Research has demonstrated a new method for wireless power transmission that induces electrical currents in an enclosed metallic structure and could charge your devices automatically the moment you walk into a room, making electrical cords and charging cradles a thing of the past.​

Bipedal robots, such as Boston Dynamics' Atlas may be able to balance on one leg, but Disney Research has gone one better and built a one-legged hopping robot. This unidexter automaton isn't the first hopping robot, but it's the first to not rely on a tether or external power source.

A team at Disney Research has developed a method for crafting 3D printable objects with metal balls embedded inside, which allows the average user to design models that can pull off some quirky balancing acts.