Skip to main content

Disney's 'Magic Bench' Puts You in the Picture with Animated Figures


A new "Magic Bench" designed by Disney Research lets you interact with endearing animated characters — and no special glasses or headsets are required.
Instead, the complete environment — the seat, the sitter and the cartoon humanoid animals — is mirrored on a screen opposite the bench, making it possible for others to watch the scene unfold. 

How does the illusion work? A camera and sensor capture images and gather depth information about physical objects — the bench and the person — that algorithms integrate with the 3D animations, the researchers wrote in a study. Meanwhile, haptic sensors built into the bench deliver vibrations that are synchronized to animated actions on the screen, creating the illusion that the animated figures are occupying real-world space next to the user.  
"Our mantra for this project was: hear a character coming, see them enter the space, and feel them sit next to you," Moshe Mahler, principal digital artist at Disney Research, said in a statement.
 Augmented-reality overlays animated elements into views of the real world, typically by using special optical devices or mobile technology. However, one of its limitations is that its illusion can be glimpsed by only a single user. The Magic Bench allows groups of people to gather in a single environment and collectively participate in an augmented- reality experience, all at the same time, according to the study authors.
Sitting on the bench triggers the augmented-reality experience , introducing a character into the scene. In a video demonstration, a small cartoon donkey trots into view and kicks the bench, generating a sharp sound and making the seated person jump in surprise. Another test shows two people on the bench, reacting as they "feel" an animated rabbit leap up beside them and jump up and down. When a user passes his hand over the rabbit, a shadow moves across its head — as though it were occupying the same physical space as the person next to it.

Researchers used the real-color camera and the depth and color sensors in a Microsoft Kinect to capture the real-world scene of the Magic Bench and the person (or people) on it. Rebuilding them in 3D places the bench between a foreground and background, which can then be populated with whimsical characters. But the Disney engineers discovered that if the reconstructed 3D scene were viewed at an angle, missing data and a small difference in alignment between the camera and sensor created gaps in the image known as "depth shadows."
To eliminate these depth shadows, designers layered another element into the scene — a 2D background captured by the Kinect's RGB camera, which seamlessly aligned with the scene when viewed head-on, the study authors wrote. Once the "stage" is set, it's ready to be shared with animated co-stars — from elephants offering up a glowing orb to a giraffe lending an umbrella during a sudden drizzle.
Disney Research technicians presented the Magic Bench at SIGGRAPH 2017, an annual conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques, that was held in Los Angeles from July 30 to Aug. 3.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Electronics Engineering?

Electronics engineering, or electronic engineering, is an electrical engineering discipline which utilizes non-linear and active electrical components (such as semiconductor devices, especially transistors, diodes and integrated circuits) to design electronic circuits, devices, microprocessors, micro controllers and other systems.  It also deals with the design and application of circuitry and equipment for power generation and distribution, machine control, and communications.   In other worlds we say that electronics engineering is an area which purely describes the study and areas of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. Due to many amendments taken place in the field of electronics, electronics engineering has been divided into many sub categories including digital computers, power engineering, telecommunications, control system, radio frequency engineering, signal processing, microelectronics and instrumentation.Electronics engineering homework help p...

What Is Artificial Intelligence ?

Since the invention of computers or machines, their capability to perform various tasks went on growing exponentially. Humans have developed the power of computer systems in terms of their diverse working domains, their increasing speed, and reducing size with respect to time. A branch of Computer Science named  Artificial Intelligence  pursues creating the computers or machines as intelligent as human beings. Definition  AI (artificial intelligence) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning (the acquisition of information and rules for using the information), reasoning (using the rules to reach approximate or definite conclusions) and self-correction. Particular applications of AI include expert systems, speech recognition and machine vision. Or we can say that Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that aims to create intelligent machines. It has b...

What Is Rectifier?

A  rectifier  is an electrical device composed of one or more diodes that converts alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). A diode is like a one-way valve that allows an electrical current to flow in only one direction. This process is called rectification. A rectifier can take the shape of several different physical forms such as solid-state diodes, vacuum tube diodes, mercury arc valves, silicon-controlled rectifiers and various other silicon-based semiconductor switches. Rectifiers are used in various devices, including: DC power supplies Radio signals or detectors A source of power instead of generating current High-voltage direct current power transmission systems Several household appliances use power rectifiers to create power, like notebooks or laptops, video game systems and televisions. What is a rectifier? When the voltage is applied to the P-N junction diode in such a way that the positive terminal of the battery is connected to t...