Disney Patents Virtual World Simulator
On January 6, 2022, Disney announced that it received a patent for what they called a Virtual World Simulator. Commentators on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs all began outputting opinions, most of them along the line of
"Is this Disney entering the metaverse?"
and
"Can Disney patent existing technology?"
Haters gonna hate.
Comment seen on Twitter:
Comments seen LinkedIn:
Matthew Wren on LinkedIn dug up the actual patent (thank you!) here:https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&S1=%22virtual+world+simulator%22&OS=%22virtual+world+simulator%22&RS=%22virtual+world+simulator%22
Both of us were reading it with an eye to "What makes this different or deserving of a patent?" To date, most commentators have their own ideas and this blog is represents my hypothesis.
First, unlike others, I don't immediately get my hackles up over the words "Virtual World" and "Simulator". These terms have had so much flux in definition on the past 20 years that the filing of one patent does not represent a definitive statement of what something is.
Reading over the patent, there is one area that I did agree with a few other commentators-- it is hard to find what is unique in the technology. To me, that says, then, that is what it is. It is NOT necessarily unique and that's the point.
I'll say the same thing using different words.
Most of the crowd that crawled over this patent are tech folks. Folks used to looking at AR, VR, and XR hardware and software. They didn't spot much new or interesting.
I agree.
That means that's not where the patent is.
I noticed that there is another element to the patent, however.
The user.
In order for this technology to work, it is critical-- key-- for the technology to AT ALL TIMES know where the user(s) is and what the user is doing in order for the tech to react in real time. So what the technology is actually doing-- and what the patent is asking for (I hypothesize) is permission to watch the user intensely.
Given the hyper focus on privacy and the metaverse lately, it does not surprise me that Disney wants to legally protect what they are doing. So that's a statement saying that Disney might not be claiming that it is ethically correct or incorrect to intensely watch a user...what they are saying is that they are going to. Paying the park ticket price--by the user-- is going to equivalent to giving permission to be watched. Notice how the responsibility shifted there? Disney doesn't own it. The user does. That's a page from the Facebook/Oculus book. So far, Silicon Valley has been able to carry this line and succeed. They don't bear the responsibility-- it is ultimately up to the user. (Note: I'm not stating that I agree. I'm stating that it looks like Disney will observe you if you want to talk live with Obiwan Kenobi.)
If I combine this hypothesis "Watch the user" with the history of Disney, it does seem to follow their playbook.
Exhibit A: Animatronic interactions
In Pirates of the Caribbean Ride, there are several points where, depending on what seat you have in the boat, a pirate will appear to look the rider in the eye. That's not luck. That's Walt Disney's own design. He wanted you to have an uncanny feeling just for a moment--- knowing that it's only an animatronic mannequin but just for a fleeting second, the lifelike glint in the eye as you pass under the bridge and every other rider is looking the other way, one pirate looks right at you and his lip curls into a little more of a smile. The ride wants to engage with the rider. It casts the same lip curl to the same place, back left, last row, every few seconds.
Exhibit B: 2007 and the first interactive queue at Walt Disney World at Soarin'
Shown here: https://youtu.be/GXxAqOlbcxU?t=392
According to AllEars.Net
"It uses motion-detection equipment, heat sensors and computer-generated videos shown on huge screens.You can actually control the games with predetermined body movements. While waiting in this section of the queue, you have the opportunity to play up to five different games. One of the games pits the five sections of the queue against each other in a bird race. You can 'train' your bird by leaning right, left, hard right, and hard left."
Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall with these interactive games (pun intended?). As games with no instructions and nothing "written" needed (so no language translation, no audio track necessary), these were a brilliant way to pass the time for a large crowd enticed to face one direction. As great a design as they were (AND THEY WERE!) users hardly ever figured them out. Visitors are shown walking right past them (!) here: https://youtu.be/utua0TcRok0 Yikes! FastPass users always bypassed them because indeed, who would take playing a large crowd game instead of riding the Soarin ride? Err. Yeah. The interactive games lost. But the headway was made because the game observed the crowd.
Exhibit C: Disney Fans Have Been in the Metaverse, Recreating For Years
There are very few times when I will recommend going into Second Life, but Disney fans have been recreating rides for years (with NO coding skills and Ninja-like copyright evading). There are full park recreations of Disneyland and Epcot that are not hard to find. I personally recommend Magicland Park. I also found Wedcot which I have not tried and there are 'one-offs' which are not full parks but are just single rides that fans have made through the years like Pirates of the Caribbean or the Haunted Mansion. (You can find these on other platforms besides Second Life too!) Note that because these are re-creations, you can totally transport time & space, aka ride rides that no longer exist. 😁
Just the other night as a cold snowstorm was setting in, I visited Main Street, the PeopleMover, The Tiki Room and watched the early stars over Main Street again before I left. This place has daily shows too! All without flights, environmental damage, germs, or cost. Well done to the crew that keeps that park going. It is rated a family friendly place to visit! (They do accept donations of Linden dollars.)
Places like this make AltspaceVR look like kindergarten in comparison for what can be done in terms of interactivity/non-coding. 😉
Longer term, Disney has NOT taken any moves to recreating the mental experience of their theme parks into virtual reality and that loss has been felt. Quite a few times, I've plonked down the money, done the flights, the monorail, the hotel, the transport, and then found myself sipping a cool drink people watching somewhere within a park. I realized that this is the feeling of being there:
- the bricks under my feet
- the music in the air
- the smell of food from the vendors
- the people watching
- the ability to just stand up and walk on to nearly any ride.
There are many discussion boards with dedicated fans who write trip reports with wistful moments of "seeing the castle for the first time" or "last time." It's the mental moments that make up the trip, not the physical. This could all be recreated in virtual reality at what would a dramatic decrease in the use of Earth's resources. Disney could still charge for it. They could patent the fish & chips smell near England in Epcot or the sound of the ducks in the lagoon. Or the feel of the Florida sun radiating up through your shoes on a hot summer day. All of this was within reach for years...but instead they kept just pulling money from the cash cow of the geographic parks. An Annual Pass for Florida Residents is $700.
VR users might pay half that to have unlimited access to a VR 2 park experience. I hope it is in the works.