FIRST LOOK: Disney's New Invention Could Give You "Superpowers"

We often dream about what it would be like to be Disney Imagineers.

Disney Imagineers riding Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Disney World

Being able to come up with the latest attractions, restaurants, lands, technology, and more is no doubt something to celebrate, but we love celebrating it from the fan side of things just as much! Imagineers are always looking to the future and creating the most innovative ways to bring Disney to life, and we had the lucky opportunity to see some of that new technology firsthand — come with us!

Disney Imagineer Lanny Smoot introduced his latest invention, the HoloTile floor, earlier this year and honestly, we can’t stop thinking about it. So, when Disney gave us the chance to see this new technology in person, you know we had to jump at it!

©Disney Lanny Smoot shows off the HoloTile floor he invented.

Disney describes the HoloTile floor technology as the “world’s first multi-person, omnidirectional, modular, expandable, treadmill floor.” Basically, all those tiny tiles you see rotate and move to keep any object in the center of the floor. What’s more, MULTIPLE people can be on the floor moving in different directions simultaneously.

©Disney

See Disney’s original HoloTile floor video below:

But, we got our own sneak peek at this technology IN PERSON thanks to Disney Imagineering. One of the most amazing things we saw was that someone outside of the holo tile floor can move a chair or other object around on it! This could be used to give people “superpowers”!

©Disney

The HoloTile floor can be as big or as small as it needs to be by adding or taking away tiles. It compensates for whatever you do when you walk on it — so you will never run out of “floor,” and multiple people can be walking on it without ever hitting each other. Imagineering shared that light bouncing off your legs shows the floor where you are at any given moment.

HoloTile demonstration

Imagineers say they can use HoloTile to virtually walk through projects being built to see where the holes are. It could also be used within attractions for stage shows or ride vehicles!

Disney Imagineer Lanny Smoot on HoloTile.

Disney said this invention could also have lots of application for Virtual Reality — it could take you into the parks virtually, or be used as part of an immersive gaming platform. Imagineers already use it to play a game — BB8 Ball! We expect to see a lot of HoloTile showing up in Disney Parks and beyond!

HoloTile demo

Stay tuned to DFB as we bring you even more updates about the latest technology from Disney Imagineering and more!

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Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney to attend their media preview of the latest Imagineering projects. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ