Disney's Magic Bench - An Augmented Reality Application
Disney Research has come up with a beautiful augmented reality application called 'Magic Bench' that makes it possible for anyone to interact with charming & vivified animated characters. As can be seen in the picture below, user just needs to sit on a bench and he might have an elephant or a rabbit next to him - teasing him, playing with him etc. This technology is infact one step ahead of augmented reality as user need not to wear any headgear or hold a handheld device in hand etc. Also, unlike conventional augmented reality application, in Magic Bench a group of people could participate in a single augmented reality experience.
Image Source - Reference 1
User sits on a bench in front of a sensor that captures the scene, does the 3D reconstruction in virtual space and populates virtual space with animated characters. This 3D virtual space populated with animated characters is reflected on a large screen infront of the user so that he/she and others could enjoy the scene that unfolds. The sensor comprises of depth sensor and RGB camera. Depth sensor comprises of IR projector and IR camera. IR projector projects IR light in a form of thousands of dots onto a subject. A video feed of this projection is captured by IR camera and sent to IR processor. Processor reads the distortion in the dots pattern to construct a 3D virtual space.
Image Source - Reference 1
In this application of Magic Bench, RGB camera aligns with depth sensor information to create a real time 3D reconstruction of real world in virtual space and displays it on a large screen. Disney engineers have used Microsoft Kinect as a sensor for this application. There is a small problem of deep shadow in 3D reconstruction and it is due to the misalignment of RGB camera and depth sensor. In order to address this problem a modified algorithm is used that creates a 2D background/backdrop using RGB camera. Bench is critical in the application as it solves multiple objectives - a) it allows more than one person to participate in augmented reality experience, b) it let the sensor exactly know the location of users and their gaze, c) it is fitted with haptic sensors that are synchronized with the animated actions on the screen to give real experience to the users, d) it creates a stage with a foreground and background having bench in the middle.
According to Disney, Magic Bench is a perfect example of combination of creativity and innovation and Disney's continual endeavor to leverage technology to enhance system of tomorrow.
By: Ms. Sandhya Sharma - Asst. Prof., ECE, Chitkara University, H.P.
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