What's up guys? Since the new technology of virtual realities is becoming more popular, I thought it would be cool to find out just how effective it is.
In its most early days, virtual reality has been used to create interactive experiences between humans and technology. Some examples include video games and virtual tours/walk-through demonstrations.
Today, VR is being developed even further and is being put to use in many fields of engineering that we have been talking about. I did a little research and found out how large-scale companies utilize this technology to better business and enhance both real-world and virtual experiences.
I discovered that the Walt Disney Company has one of the most innovative uses for VR. Back in the day when Walt Disney was still alive, he would present his ideas for rides, them parks, and even motion pictures and their universes by constructing 2D and 3D visual models on a flat surface (This method was true when presenting the concept of "Epcot" and The Magic Kingdom in Disney Land in California).
So what's the big deal? The point is that The Walt Disney Company has undergone an extreme shift from using visual models to introduce, design, and build new concept ideas: Today, the Walt Disney "Imagineers" use high-tech VR facilities to design new hotels, rides and parks! They have been developing this technology for the past 9 years and use it to design almost everything they build or add on to the parks. What better way to present a concept of a new ride by virtually taking an audience ON that ride??
Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) has a digital immersive showroom (DISH) in the backlot area of Epcot in Orlando, Fla., and a next generation version, dubbed Deep Dish, at WDI headquarters in Glendale, Calif. The Orlando DISH uses high definition projectors and focuses on three walls, and the Deep Dish in Glendale uses 4K visuals (four times the visual fidelity of HD) along with a fourth wall and a floor projector for nearly full immersion.
Walking into a DISH room is like walking into a holodeck. You start in a large empty white room. But once you put on the 3D glasses and the tracking monitor and the lights go out, the room becomes a life-sized 3D version of the Bora Bora Bungalows at Polynesian Village Resort that you can walk through and see from multiple angles as you move around. Multiple people can stay close to the person with the tracking monitor to get the same perspective. With large groups, the monitor remains stationary in the center of the room.
According to Mark Mine, creative technology executive at WDI’s Creative Technology Studio, the technology also allows the two DISH rooms to link up so participants on both coasts can experience the same walkthrough.
He says, “We have a proud 60-year tradition of using physical models to help our designers visualize, work on, and figure out how to build our theme parks and attractions, but now we’ve gotten into the whole virtual reality realm with interactive real-time computer graphics to help us analyze and understand the things that we’re designing.”
Mine says, “The physical models continue to be a big part of our design process, but the virtual models have very distinctive advantages, particularly when you want to experience what the guest is going to see when they walk through a new land or ride a new attraction or stay in a new hotel room.”
“We have free-ranging vehicles, integrated media, and interactive characters that respond to the guests,” Mine says. “All of these things are very difficult for us to figure out just using physical models. These virtual capabilities help us to figure out these very complicated new attractions that we’re designing.”
Currently, WDI is currently using VR to work on a new Shanghai Disneyland theme park, a new Avatar Land for Disney Animal Kingdom in Orlando, a new Iron Man Experience for Hong Kong Disneyland, and new Star Wars attractions for multiple parks.
Unfortunately, the DISH is highly exclusive to the Disney Company and I could not find any videos about it.
Check out the link for the full article!
http://fortune.com/2015/08/13/disney-imagineering-vr/
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