Disneyland is venturing into the world of artificial intelligence. Jon Snoddy of Walt Disney Imagineering detailed two AI projects that the Disney production team is now working on. The news was confirmed by Snoddy himself, in an interview with CNET at the SXSW Conference and Festivals in Austin.
As per the report, Pascal is basically a miniature robot which can be held in one's arms. It is said that Pascal is actually the result of engineers' testing of how tiny a mechanism they can build to operate an AI character. Snoddy also said that the artificial intelligence in Pascal can sense when someone is talking to him so that he can also move along. The Imagineers plan to give life to Pascal's mouth, skin and eyes along with manual hand controls.
As Snoddy said, Pascal is "not just a character" but a character and a performer and with the help of AI fans can meet both.
Snoddy describes Jake as a project that explores the extent that Disney can venture on when it comes to autonomy. Jake is an R2D2-like robot, which is entirely autonomous and it wanders around like a pet puppy. The Imagineers have already taken him to the Star Wars Launch Bay in Disneyland last summer. And some lucky guests stumbled upon Jake's first outing in the wild, like one YouTuber DAP's Magic did, reported CNET.
Here is Jake:
