06 Mar 2015
Disney says virtual reality “cave” is the future of immersion technology
BY Tom Anstey
Walt Disney Imagineering creative technologies lead, Bei Yang, has given insight into what the entertainment giant thinks of virtual reality and its plans for the future, shying away from the popular headset model and instead looking at the potential for a fully immersive virtual environment.
Speaking during a session at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, Yang revealed that Disney has been working on various virtual reality prototypes since the 1980s, developing software in its lab based at Epcot.
Yang said Disney was looking at a different approach for virtual reality than what has been seen recently. Emerging forms of VR are based around head-mounted displays, with Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear both popular devices in the VR market. According to Yang, Disney has been looking at “caves”, as an alternative. The caves would be lined wall-to-wall with super high resolution displays, with interactive features included in the VR attraction.
Disney has advanced the concept, using motion tracking and 4K resolution screen, similar to that seen at Disneyland Paris’ Ratatouille ride, which uses multiple blended 4K projectors as part of its dark ride.
According to Yang, the cave approach would help to cut the motion sickness many can get while using VR. The stereoscopic 3D effects used by headsets, would be replaced by motion tracking 2D images that would appear to have depth, using dynamic perspective to a much larger scale than previously seen.
The approach also allows for attractions to implement a virtual reality experience for multiple people simultaneously. Previous Disney rides such as Ratatouille and a Toy Story shooter have partially tested this technology, though nothing has ever been done to this scale of full immersion in the same manner.
Yang said that the technology is still someway off, with questions remaining, such as to how the motion tracking technology could handle multiple people walking around the immersive environment at the same time.
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