Disney Research Team Has Their “Eyes” on Innovation

“There is more than meets the eye.” This saying is especially true for the members of the Disney Research team!

In 2013, the Disney Research team unveiled 3D-printed eyes for their animated characters.

Of course, since it’s Disney, the innovation didn’t stop there; in fact, this year, the Disney Research team upgraded this invention and created realistic 3D-printed human eyes.

The latest innovation is moving Disney closer to creating more precise portrayals of Disney characters.

The people at Disney Research recently presented a paper at SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques) Asia 2014, titled, “High Quality Capture of Human Eyes.”

Along with this paper, Disney Research made the announcement that through 3D printing, they have created a method to capture the intricacies of the eye, not only in appearance, but also how eyes respond to light, textures, coloring and veins.

All of these characteristics were added to enhance the appearance of the characters’ eyes by allowing them to have more expressive and realistic characteristics.

In order to create these realistic 3D-printed human eyes, the Disney Research team employed the help of six volunteers, who were asked to lie on the floor wearing headsets, all the while shifting between 11 different poses.

While this was happening, the research team focused six of their cameras on the volunteers’ irises and then used colored LEDS and different levels of brightness in order to produce changes in the corneas.

From there, these images were then brought together to recreate realistic eye movement. The Disney Research team then reconstructed skin with a 3D printing facial scanning system.

Has this innovation from the Disney Research team piqued your interest? If so, check out this video to get a better understanding of Disney’s 3D-printed human eye!