You know, here at DFB, we love to keep track of Disney permits filed for the parks, but did you also know that we love checking out Disney patents? It often feels like Disney has its hand in about everything, and putting all of these clues together can give us a good idea of what the company is working on.

Frozen Ever After animatronics

This new patent filed for 3D projecting has us pretty excited for what could come.

The patent is currently pending, but is “a method determining an orientation of a mechanically animated surface relative to one or more projectors configured to project content onto the mechanically animated surface, dynamically rendering the content based on one or more parameters derived from the orientation of the mechanically animated surface relative to the one or more projectors, and resetting the content on the mechanically animated source using the one or more projections.”

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

What does that actually mean? It sounds like Disney is working on new technology to project onto animontronics. Disney already uses this technology on rides like Frozen Ever After, but it sounds like there will be multiple projections, sensors, and more systems to make it look even better.

Frozen Ever After

The patent also talks about “an artificial intelligence (AI) model may be utilized by the performance system to render projected content and movements of the animatronic. In some examples, a real-time puppet may also provide feedback to the performance system to allow user interaction with the animatronic.” Uh, that sounds SO COOL!

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway

Projections on animatronics allow for more flexibility as opposed to an animatronic with a fully mechanical face, since you can update the projection more easily than updating the whole animatronic. With this technology, it appears that guests could interact with the animatronic and have it respond to them in real-time.

Mine Train

This technology is set to be used in theme parks, and although we don’t know which project, it sounds pretty neat. In Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin in Magic Kingdom, in the queue, Buzz used the original projection technology. We would love it if this new technology were coming to the queue during its major refurbishment so we can talk to Buzz (pretty please, Disney!).

Hey there Buzz!

We’re going to be keeping an eye on this to see where it’s being used, so make sure you keep following Disney Food Blog for more updates!

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Where do you hope this technology goes? Tell us in the comments.