News

March 5, 2012 - Robotics Institute graduate student Laura Trutoiu helps animators make facial movements seem more real. Laura is a former Disney Research, Pittsburgh Lab Associate, and a current collaborator with Senior Research Scientist, Iain Matthews. [More...]

December 6, 2011 - While the business model for 3D television and gaming is still being established, research in lab centres around the globe are tackling the issues inherent in fooling the brain into 'seeing' a 3D image. [More...]

November 1, 2011 - Recently, we published an article discussing some exciting work by Disney Research... We had a chance to gain additional insight into the SideBySide program. Karl D.D. Willis, Ph.D. candidate at Carnegie Mellon University and a lab associate at Disney Research, was kind enough to spend some time answering some questions for us. [More...]

October 29, 2011 - Researchers at Disney Research (Pittsburgh – Pennsylvania ), present SideBySide, a stunning system designed for ad-hoc multi-user interaction with handheld projectors. [More...]

October 25, 2011 - Researchers at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University have devised a system called SideBySide that enables animated images from two separate handheld projectors to interact with each other on the same surface. [More...]

October 21, 2011 - Engineers at Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University (both of Pittsburgh, PA, USA) have developed a system called SideBySide that enables animated images from two separate handheld projectors to interact with each other on the same surface. [More...]

October 21, 2011 - Disney Research unveiled a new project called SideBySide - an interactive projected system that allows multple people to play and work together. Projected images by more than one device can become aware of each other and respond to other projections: - [More...]

October 18, 2011 - What's cooler than a pair of handheld projectors? A pair of handheld projectors that interact with each other. SideBySide is a prototype handheld projector system from Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University. Aim two of the devices at adjacent spots on a surface, and the projected images react to one another. [More...]

October 18, 2011 - I think this is something worth mentioning. Disney Research has innovated the use of Pico projectors. These Pico projectors are no longer just projecting images. They actually interact with the images. Using infrared camera and markers, images become interactive once they are near each other. Apart from the games, some real life application like file transfer and etc can be made possible. [More...]

October 18, 2011 - Video gamers are certainly going to have a completely rejuvenated gaming experience as the next generation of games will probably do away with baffling choice of screens available and switch to handheld projectors instead. Screens like HD, 3D, touch and more, the handheld projectors will now replace the screen with a wall. 'SideBySide' is one such gaming system exemplifying this technique. [More...]

October 17, 2011 - Kids these days just don't get thrilled by tiny projectors the way they used to. Disney Research is hoping to address the problem with its new SideBySide prototype, a pico projector that interacts with images projected nearby. The device outputs both visible and infrared light, while a built-in sensor detects the latter, allowing it to react to the image. [More...]

October 17, 2011 - There are a bewildering choice of screens available to modern video gamers, what with HD, 3D, touch and more. But perhaps the next generation of games will do away with all of that and replace your display with a humble wall. Karl Willis and colleagues at the Disney Research labs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have come up with a multiplayer gaming system called SideBySide that uses handheld projectors to let you play on any nearby surface. [More...]

October 17, 2011 - We’ve seen our fair share of pico projectors that work decently enough for what they were created to do, but somehow they never really took off and entered mainstream consciousness since it never had a “killer app” or a “killer purpose” apart from being a novelty. Hopefully this handheld projector system that was developed by Karl Willis and colleagues at the Disney Research labs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will fare differently. [More...]

October 17, 2011 - We've lamented that handheld projectors aren't quite worth toting around just yet. But that could soon change if Disney's research wing manages to get their SideBySide interactive projectors past the prototype stage. [More...]

October 17, 2011 - Disney Research have developed a new and innovative concept called SideBySide which provides a method for gamers to be able to interact with each other using projected characters. The SideBySide system projects images onto a surface which then become aware and responsive to other nearby projections. [More...]

October 17, 2011 - The project is called SideBySide, and comes from researchers Ivan Poupyrev and Karl D.D. Willis. It combines a camera with a projector so that the two on-screen (or on-wall) images can actually interact with each other. Each unit consists of a modified DLP projector which outputs a single color of visible light and also an invisible infrared image. The IR image is detected by the camera of the second device, letting it know what the other device is up to, and where. Take a look:

October 14, 2011 - Current pico projectors are designed for allowing one person to share content with a few. Disney Research is looking to shift this paradigm - DRAMATICALLY. In this new paper, the authors describe several arrangements that allow for multiple users to use pico projectors to create an interactive gaming experience. They call this project SideBySide. [More...]

October 6, 2011 - This is one of the most fascinating stories I’ve encountered in a while. For the past three years, Disney has been running a network of research labs in Zurich, Pittsburgh and Boston under the banner of Disney Research. The locations were chosen so that they could attract the brightest scientists from top institutions like the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard and MIT. The facilities operate in addition to the ongoing research being done at Pixar, Disney Feature Animation and Imagineering. There are roughly 200 total people working in Disney Research including 50 senior research scientists. [More...]

September 27, 2011 - Disney is the largest entertainment company in the world, with studios, TV networks (ABC), sports cable channels (ESPN), theme parks, animation and live action film businesses, theater and even cruise ship interests. Not surprisingly, Disney has a huge research and development commitment. Since 2008, its worldwide R&D team has been unified and, in part due to the influence of its acquisition of Pixar, this unified R&D team is open and publishing. In fact, at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver this year and in Hong Kong at SIGGRAPH Asia, Disney R&D, under the banner of Disney Research Zurich, is one of the most prolific research contributors in the industry. [More...]

September 26, 2011 - A group of Carnegie Mellon researchers, in association with Disney Research of Pittsburgh, are bringing animations closer to reality by modeling accurate eye blinks. [More...]

September 8, 2011 - Adrenalin junkies, step aside: a new base-jumping robot can climb up buildings before deploying a paraglider to fly back down to earth. It is also equipped with an on-board video camera to film the jump. The robot – named Paraswift – is a collaboration between Disney Research and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. [More...]

September 6, 2011 - Two research teams from Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research Pittsburgh are busy developing computer techniques that quickly produce realistic animated facial expressions and body motions-- a real challenge given the myriad capabilities of the face's 43 muscles, the complexity of the human body and our ability to perceive subtle changes in human motion. [More...]

July 1, 2011 - Congratulations to the TeslaTouch team for winning the Best Demo award at World Haptics 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. Receiving this recognition at World Haptics is an endorsement and a seal of approval of international haptics community. [More...]

June 23, 2011 - Market research predicts that there will be as many as 39 million hand-held devices with embedded projectors on the market by 2014. Wouldn't it be a better world if these pocket-size projectors were used for something other than PowerPoint presentations? The folks at Disney Research at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh think so. [More...]

June 10, 2011 - Imagine a virtual car race where you can feel the swerve as you change direction. Now you can experience this sensation thanks to a haptic chair developed by Ivan Poupyrev and his team from Disney Research Pittsburgh. In the video above, see how a regular chair was kitted up with soft pads filled with a grid of actuators, to create tactile feedback that syncs up with the visuals and sound in the racing game.[More...]

June 7, 2011 - LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This week at the E3 Expo, MicroVision, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS) is inviting attendees to visit its booth #546 in the South Hall to experience how mobile gaming can offer a much larger, more exhilarating experience when combined with PicoP® in-motion laser display technology. MicroVision is showcasing several prototype devices, along with its “Made for iPod, iPhone, and iPad" SHOWWX+™ laser pico projector, that enable game play on any surface at up to nine feet in diagonal image size. Unlike competitive technologies, MicroVision’s laser display technology produces images that are always in focus with no color breakup even in constant motion and on uneven display surfaces—two critical criteria for mobile gaming applications. [More...]

June 8, 2011 - Sitting in a movie theater watching 3-D superheroes leap off the screen and soar overhead, it's hard to imagine what direction the next level of media enhancement could take. Maybe viewers feeling wind whipping their hair as the hero flies by or the heat of his laser-beamed eyes warming their cheeks? What if an audience could feel the moisture of a tear as it streams down a heroine's face, followed by a gentle brush of hand wiping it away? [More...]

May 31, 2011 - Sometimes I don’t think games are immersive enough. I'll pull some ridiculous maneuver in Dirt 3, and all I get is a little controller shake. Pffh. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this, because, according to New Scientist, the engineers at Disney Research in Pittsburgh are working a "Tactile Brush" that can mimic motion across your back. [More...]

May 28, 2011 - I like a lot of realism in my games – and movies to a point. I would love to have a chair that allows me to feel the forces exerted on the body during a real car race for instance. I would not want to have the feeling of some ghoul touching me in a scary movie though. I used to routinely scare myself back when the last version of Doom came out just from things jumping out, if it jumped out on screen and touched me I would probably die. [More...]

May 25, 2011 - One of the illusions the team employs is called apparent tactile motion. If two vibrating objects are placed close together on skin in quick succession, people often experience this as a single vibration moving between the two points of contact. In a related illusion, known as a phantom tactile sensation, a pair of stationary vibrations is sensed as a single stimulus placed in between the two. [More...]

May 17, 2011 - The Mouse is coming back to Cambridge. The Walt Disney Company's research division, led by the former Bostonian Joe Marks, is planning to open a small lab in the American Twine Building next month. That's exactly 11 years after Disney shuttered its last lab in East Cambridge, which had mainly developed new technologies for the Disney theme parks as part of the company's famed Imagineering team. [More...]

May 12, 2011 - Disney’s research arm has developed a new form of interactive gaming using a pico projector and motion sensor to control cartoon characters beamed onto walls. MotionBeam consists of a handheld pico projector, an iPod touch and motion sensor unit, including an infra-red camera that can detect objects to incorporate into the game. [More...]

May 8, 2011 - The MotionBeam is a project by Disney Research that explores the use of handheld projectors to interact and control projected characters. Similarly to the project by AirCord ‘Mobile Runner’ the project explores physical movement of the projection device, much like a motion controller, how it may be used to guide and interact with the virtual/projected characters and interact with physical environment. [More...]

April 12, 2011 - Dynamic speakers, with links to both university and industry sectors, were highlights of the IEEE RFID 2011 program, April 12-14, 2011, in Orlando, FL. - Joshua Griffin (Disney Research, Pittsburgh) gave a keynote talk entitled "RF Tags for Entertainment". [More...]

February 3, 2011 - Ominous-looking beams of light often seen shining down in a forest or through church windows - are tricky for animators to reproduce. In addition to oddly-shaped obstructions, like a canopy of leaves, they also have to deal with dust or moisture that scatter light rays to create their foggy appearance. But now a new technique developed by Ilya Baran and a team from MIT and Disney Research Zurich is making the process a lot easier. [More...]

January 25, 2011 - Trinity has appointed a number of world renowned writers, actors, directors, composers and creative technologists among others to lead its dynamic new initiative in the Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture. Among the appointments are composer Bill Whelan, most famous for Riverdance; award winning playwright Michael West; famous author of the Discworld series Terry Pratchett and Disney Research Director, Jessica Hodgins. They will be giving masterclasses to Trinity students and undertaking collaborative research as part of their adjunct professorships and lectureships over the next three years. [More...]

December 29, 2010 - In this digital age, our fingers have learned to love touch screens. They provide an easy, intuitive way to navigate our devices to make them do our bidding. But so far, our fingers haven’t felt any love in return. All glass screens feel the same — they take, but as far as the sensory experience goes, they don’t give back. [More...]

September 23, 2010 - Disney Research Zurich (DRZ) has won the Tell Award for most significant Swiss Technology and Innovation Investment in 2009, the Walt Disney Company, ETH Zurich and the Greater Zurich Area AG jointly announced today. [More...]

August 4, 2010 - At Siggraph, the annual conference for graphics geeks that ended last week, Disney researchers created an animatronic eye that moves in a lifelike way, makes eye contact and tracks those who pass by. [More...]

May 11, 2010 - Having recently received another Academy Award, this time for best animated feature with Up, and only weeks before the long-awaited release of Toy Story 3, (Ed) Catmull came to Switzerland to officially o