Disney Imagineers use ‘Amazing Destini’ to further Audio-Animatronics research at 2011 D23 Expo
Posted on September 6, 2011
Audio-Animatronics technology has come a long way from its early days in The Enchanted Tiki Room. While that attraction is still enjoyed daily in Disney’s theme parks, newer advancements not only offer more lifelike “robotic” figures performing preprogrammed shows, but the promise of fully automated and interactive characters in the years to come.
And it’s just that interactivity that the creative engineers at Walt Disney Imagineering were “play testing” on an audience of fans at the recent 2011 D23 Expo in Anaheim, Calif. Within the convention’s Walt Disney Parks and Resorts pavilion, “The Amazing Destini” not only offered attendees a chance to have their fortunes told by an Audio-Animatronics figure, but they also took part in ongoing research, helping Imagineers improve Destini’s ability to naturally and autonomously converse, without the aid of humans behind the scenes.
At the D23 Expo, Walt Disney Imagineering researcher Josh Gorin explained the technological details that power The Amazing Destini as well the reasons why Disney has developed the project:
What seems to be a relatively simple interaction for guests chatting with Destini (who likely assume there’s a person “behind the curtain” controlling the character) is actually a complex computer system analyzing in real time facial expressions, speech content, and other telling features that help guide a conversation. Moreover, each guest at the D23 Expo who talked with Destini provided a rich data set for Imagineers to learn more. As Gorin put it, “Everyone who comes to talk to Destini is helping Imagineering to make this technology better.”
The Amazing Destini is part of Imagineering’s Living Character Initiative, which has in the past few years included Lucky the Dinosaur (a free-roaming, interactive, life-sized Audio-Animatronics dinosaur) and the Muppet Mobile Lab, which featured Muppets characters Beaker and Bunsen Honeydew in an interactive street show. But these characters required someone from Disney present at all times to control their movements as well as what they said. The knowledge gained from Destini is paving the way for future characters to be placed within Disney’s theme parks that can interact with guests in a meaningful, in-depth way, without requiring anyone to be digitally puppeteering or voicing them. Gorin describes the system behind Destini as a combination of “computers, sensors, and artificial intelligence,” but ultimately the goal is to have all that technology disappear into the background as guests feel like they are simply chatting with a real character.
The Amazing Destini is part of Imagineering’s Living Character Initiative, which has in the past few years included Lucky the Dinosaur (a free-roaming, interactive, life-sized Audio-Animatronics dinosaur) and the Muppet Mobile Lab, which featured Muppets characters Beaker and Bunsen Honeydew in an interactive street show. But these characters required someone from Disney present at all times to control their movements as well as what they said. The knowledge gained from Destini is paving the way for future characters to be placed within Disney’s theme parks that can interact with guests in a meaningful, in-depth way, without requiring anyone to be digitally puppeteering or voicing them. Gorin describes the system behind Destini as a combination of “computers, sensors, and artificial intelligence,” but ultimately the goal is to have all that technology disappear into the background as guests feel like they are simply chatting with a real character.Those attending the D23 Expo did have a chance to see the technology in action, via a large screen display mounted nearby The Amazing Destini. Imagineers appropriately dubbed the display the “Communicore,” a reference to the old Epcot attraction where guests could learn more about the computer systems that powered the park’s many attractions and Audio-Animatronics figures.
The screen showed the variety of attributes Destini took into account while talking with a guest, including analyzing facial expressions to determine mood, movement, and even knowing whether that person had interacted with Destini before - a short-term memory of sorts. Facial expressions could change the direction of a conversation, depending on if the guest appears to be happy, sad, angry, surprised, or impatient, with Destini able to react accordingly just as real person would.
But The Amazing Destini isn’t specifically going to be installed permanently into any of Disney’s theme parks. Instead, this research project is setting the stage for future characters to come. After seeing this demonstration, it’s easy to imagine being greeted into a restaurant by a familiar Disney character, in Audio-Animatronics form, who will not only be able to chat with guests before they are seated, but also welcome guests back if they are frequent patrons. Queue entertainment could also be taken to the next level with lifelike characters engaging in humorous conversations with guests, entertaining them as they are waiting to board a ride. In fact, if this technology works well enough, characters like Destini could form the next generation of meet-and-greets, becoming attractions on their own.
It will likely be a few years before this technology fully finds its place within Disney’s theme parks but when it does, Disney fans who had a chance to chat with The Amazing Destini at the 2011 D23 Expo can look back and be proud they had an opportunity to help Imagineering in the development of Disney magic.
(Photos by Josh Daws)
Face Recognition Makes the Leap From Sci-Fi
Jen Myronuk
Immersive Labs in Manhattan has developed software for digital billboards that gauges the characteristics of passers-by in order to display ads likely to attract them.
By NATASHA SINGER
Published: November 12, 2011
FACIAL recognition technology is a staple of sci-fi thrillers like “Minority Report.” Immersive Labs
Smart signs using facial recognition software are scheduled for introduction in three cities this month.But of bars in Chicago?SceneTap, a new app for smart phones, uses cameras with facial detection software to scout bar scenes. Without identifying specific bar patrons, it posts information like the average age of a crowd and the ratio of men to women, helping bar-hoppers decide where to go. More than 50 bars in Chicago participate.As SceneTap suggests, techniques like facial detection, which perceives human faces but does not identify specific individuals, and facial recognition, which does identify individuals, are poised to become the next big thing for personalized marketing and smart phones. That is great news for companies that want to tailor services to customers, and not so great news for people who cherish their privacy. The spread of such technology — essentially, the democratization of surveillance — may herald the end of anonymity.And this technology is spreading. Immersive Labs, a company in Manhattan, has developed software for digital billboards using cameras to gauge the age range, sex and attention level of a passer-by. The smart signs, scheduled to roll out this month in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, deliver ads based on consumers’ demographics. In other words, the system is smart enough to display, say, a Gillette ad to a male passer-by rather than an ad for Tampax.Those endeavors pale next to the photo-tagging suggestion tool introduced by Facebookthis year. When a person uploads photos to the site, the “Tag Suggestions” feature uses facial recognition to identify that user’s friends in those photos and automatically suggests name tags for them. It’s a neat trick that frees people from the cumbersome task of repeatedly typing the same friends’ names into their photo albums.“Millions of people are using it to add hundreds of millions of tags,” says Simon Axten, a Facebook spokesman. Other well-known programs like Picasa, the photo editing software from Google, and third-party apps like PhotoTagger, from face.com, work similarly.But facial recognition is proliferating so quickly that some regulators in the United States and Europe are playing catch-up. On the one hand, they say, the technology has great business potential. On the other, because facial recognition works by analyzing and storing people’s unique facial measurements, it also entails serious privacy risks.Using off-the-shelf facial recognition software, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were recently able to identify about a third of college students who had volunteered to be photographed for a study — just by comparing photos of those anonymous students to images publicly available on Facebook. By using other public information, the researchers also identified the interests and predicted partial Social Security numbers of some students.“It’s a future where anonymity can no longer be taken for granted — even when we are in a public space surrounded by strangers,” says Alessandro Acquisti, an associate professorof information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon who directed the studies. If his team could so easily “infer sensitive personal information,” he says, marketers could someday use more invasive techniques to identify random people on the street along with, say, their credit scores.Today, facial detection software, which can perceive human faces but not identify specific people, seems benign.Some video chat sites are using software from face.com, an Israeli company, to make sure that participants are displaying their faces, not other body parts, says Gil Hirsch, the chief executive of face.com. The software also has retail uses, like virtually trying out eyeglasses at eyebuydirect.com, and entertainment applications, like moustachify.me, a site that adds a handle bar mustache to a face in a photo.But privacy advocates worry about more intrusive situations.Now, for example, advertising billboards that use facial detection might detect a young adult male and show him an ad for, say, Axe deodorant. Companies that make such software, like Immersive Labs, say their systems store no images or data about passers-by nor do they analyze their emotions.But what if the next generation of mall billboards could analyze skin quality and then publicly display an ad for acne cream, or detect sadness and serve up an ad for antidepressants?“You might think it’s cool, or you might think it’s creepy, depending on the context,” says Maneesha Mithal, the associate director of the division of privacy and identity protection for the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission. Whatever consumers think, she says, they should be able to choose whether to be subject to such marketing practices. (The F.T.C. is planning a workshop next month on facial recognition.)ON Facebook, people who find the photo-tagging suggestion program creepy may turn off the system that proposes their names to friends who are uploading photos. If people opt out, Facebook deletes their facial comparison data, according to the site. Users may also preapprove or reject being listed by name in a friend’s photo before it is posted on their profiles.Those options may suffice for many.But in Germany, where German and European privacy regulations require private companies to obtain explicit permission from a person before they store information about that individual, merely being able to opt out does not go far enough, says Johannes Caspar, the commissioner of the Hamburg Data Protection Authority. (Although the United States has federal data protection laws pertaining to specific industries like credit and video rental, no general law requires that all companies obtain explicit consent before storing personal data about an individual.)Mr. Caspar says many users do not understand that Facebook’s tag suggestion feature involves storing people’s biometric data to re-identify them in later photos. Last summer, he asked Facebook to give current users in Germany the power to delete their biometric data and to give new users in Germany the power to refuse to have their biometric data collected in the first place. In the long term, he says, such popular uses of facial recognition could moot people’s right to remain anonymous.Mr. Caspar said last week that he was disappointed with the negotiations with Facebook and that his office was now preparing to take legal action over the company’s biometric database.Facebook told a German broadcaster that its tag suggestion feature complied with European data protection laws.“There are many risks,” Mr. Caspar says. “People should be able to choose if they want to accept these risks, or not accept them.” He offered a suggestion for Americans, “Users in the United States have good reason to raise their voices to get the same right.”
FACIAL recognition technology is a staple of sci-fi thrillers like “Minority Report.”
Immersive Labs
Smart signs using facial recognition software are scheduled for introduction in three cities this month.
But of bars in Chicago?
SceneTap, a new app for smart phones, uses cameras with facial detection software to scout bar scenes. Without identifying specific bar patrons, it posts information like the average age of a crowd and the ratio of men to women, helping bar-hoppers decide where to go. More than 50 bars in Chicago participate.
As SceneTap suggests, techniques like facial detection, which perceives human faces but does not identify specific individuals, and facial recognition, which does identify individuals, are poised to become the next big thing for personalized marketing and smart phones. That is great news for companies that want to tailor services to customers, and not so great news for people who cherish their privacy. The spread of such technology — essentially, the democratization of surveillance — may herald the end of anonymity.
And this technology is spreading. Immersive Labs, a company in Manhattan, has developed software for digital billboards using cameras to gauge the age range, sex and attention level of a passer-by. The smart signs, scheduled to roll out this month in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, deliver ads based on consumers’ demographics. In other words, the system is smart enough to display, say, a Gillette ad to a male passer-by rather than an ad for Tampax.
Those endeavors pale next to the photo-tagging suggestion tool introduced by Facebookthis year. When a person uploads photos to the site, the “Tag Suggestions” feature uses facial recognition to identify that user’s friends in those photos and automatically suggests name tags for them. It’s a neat trick that frees people from the cumbersome task of repeatedly typing the same friends’ names into their photo albums.
“Millions of people are using it to add hundreds of millions of tags,” says Simon Axten, a Facebook spokesman. Other well-known programs like Picasa, the photo editing software from Google, and third-party apps like PhotoTagger, from face.com, work similarly.
But facial recognition is proliferating so quickly that some regulators in the United States and Europe are playing catch-up. On the one hand, they say, the technology has great business potential. On the other, because facial recognition works by analyzing and storing people’s unique facial measurements, it also entails serious privacy risks.
Using off-the-shelf facial recognition software, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were recently able to identify about a third of college students who had volunteered to be photographed for a study — just by comparing photos of those anonymous students to images publicly available on Facebook. By using other public information, the researchers also identified the interests and predicted partial Social Security numbers of some students.
“It’s a future where anonymity can no longer be taken for granted — even when we are in a public space surrounded by strangers,” says Alessandro Acquisti, an associate professorof information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon who directed the studies. If his team could so easily “infer sensitive personal information,” he says, marketers could someday use more invasive techniques to identify random people on the street along with, say, their credit scores.
Today, facial detection software, which can perceive human faces but not identify specific people, seems benign.
Some video chat sites are using software from face.com, an Israeli company, to make sure that participants are displaying their faces, not other body parts, says Gil Hirsch, the chief executive of face.com. The software also has retail uses, like virtually trying out eyeglasses at eyebuydirect.com, and entertainment applications, like moustachify.me, a site that adds a handle bar mustache to a face in a photo.
But privacy advocates worry about more intrusive situations.
Now, for example, advertising billboards that use facial detection might detect a young adult male and show him an ad for, say, Axe deodorant. Companies that make such software, like Immersive Labs, say their systems store no images or data about passers-by nor do they analyze their emotions.
But what if the next generation of mall billboards could analyze skin quality and then publicly display an ad for acne cream, or detect sadness and serve up an ad for antidepressants?
“You might think it’s cool, or you might think it’s creepy, depending on the context,” says Maneesha Mithal, the associate director of the division of privacy and identity protection for the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission. Whatever consumers think, she says, they should be able to choose whether to be subject to such marketing practices. (The F.T.C. is planning a workshop next month on facial recognition.)
ON Facebook, people who find the photo-tagging suggestion program creepy may turn off the system that proposes their names to friends who are uploading photos. If people opt out, Facebook deletes their facial comparison data, according to the site. Users may also preapprove or reject being listed by name in a friend’s photo before it is posted on their profiles.
Those options may suffice for many.
But in Germany, where German and European privacy regulations require private companies to obtain explicit permission from a person before they store information about that individual, merely being able to opt out does not go far enough, says Johannes Caspar, the commissioner of the Hamburg Data Protection Authority. (Although the United States has federal data protection laws pertaining to specific industries like credit and video rental, no general law requires that all companies obtain explicit consent before storing personal data about an individual.)
Mr. Caspar says many users do not understand that Facebook’s tag suggestion feature involves storing people’s biometric data to re-identify them in later photos. Last summer, he asked Facebook to give current users in Germany the power to delete their biometric data and to give new users in Germany the power to refuse to have their biometric data collected in the first place. In the long term, he says, such popular uses of facial recognition could moot people’s right to remain anonymous.
Mr. Caspar said last week that he was disappointed with the negotiations with Facebook and that his office was now preparing to take legal action over the company’s biometric database.
Facebook told a German broadcaster that its tag suggestion feature complied with European data protection laws.
“There are many risks,” Mr. Caspar says. “People should be able to choose if they want to accept these risks, or not accept them.” He offered a suggestion for Americans, “Users in the United States have good reason to raise their voices to get the same right.”
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