A semi-recent post on Wired Magazine’s website provided a round-up of new and upcoming personalized and customizable Disney parks products. The item that caught my eye was a mention of a patent that was approved this summer for an “interactive cake.”

Apparently I’m behind the times, because this story did get some play in the Disney and tech blogospheres about two years ago, when the patent was first filed. But still, the fact that the patent was actually approved is noteworthy in my book.

When I think “interactive cake” my mind’s eye goes to the auto-with-moving-wheels and fire-breathing-dragon sort of cakes that appear from time to time on Food Network programs like Ace of Cakes. However, the interactivity in the Disney patent appears to be limited to images, moving or otherwise, being projected onto desserts via specialized pico projectors.

Now I’m thinking the cake becomes more of a movie screen, like the water spray is the movie screen in Fantasmic. The only time I’ve seen something like that was on an episode of “Ace of Cakes” in which Duff and the gang created a multi-textured all white cake that was used as a screen during the Baltimore Contemporary Museum’s 20th birthday celebration. Film of birthday parties was shown on the birthday cake.

In this figure below (and in the patent text), it looks like Disney could take this one step further. If guests cut or otherwise alter the cake, the image will change. For example, a “river” projected onto the cake could become a “waterfall” if a piece of the cake is [Read more…]