New Disney Patent Points to a Virtual Environment You Can TOUCH!

Disney has been putting in WORK on the virtual reality (VR) front.

VR Experience

It feels like every few weeks we’re seeing Disney file a new patent for creating virtual immersive experiences. Whether it’s limiting VR hardware to be more usable or developing zombie-fighting aids, there’s a BIG focus on VR right now. Now, Disney has made a new innovation that could help us to TOUCH those VR environments.

Disney filed a patent for “Systems and Methods to Provide an Interactive Environment in Response to Touch-based Inputs.” Basically, it’s a way to let your hands influence a VR image — without the use of controllers. Take our friend here… .

©Disney

What we’re looking at is the user (That could be YOU one day!) and an interactive object on the table. The band on the user’s wrist is a sensor that helps the interactive system understand when something has come into contact with your skin. So, when you pick that little guy up, the system knows!

©Disney

From there, this action can help to influence the VR or augmented reality image that the user sees. For instance, our little guy could appear to have a speech bubble so that the user can perceive him as speaking to them.

©Disney

And, the applications are not so limited! Two users could use the tech at one time with one interactive object and the system would be able to recognize the inputs as separate.

©Disney

It’s interesting tech and the application of it could be anything! Like many interactive environments, this would be difficult to implement in a user’s home as a consumer product (although it could!), so we may see it appear in a controlled environment like a theme park.

©Disney

Well, Disney is actively implementing VR activities in the theme parks right now, so maybe we’ll continue to see these cool innovations. Stay tuned to DFB for all the latest Disney tech updates!

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