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!

Copyright Inventionland, 2014

Sources:

https://3dprint.com/29400/disney-research-3d-eye-study/

https://www.engadget.com/2014/12/05/disney-research-3d-eye-capture/

Media:

https://www.acm.org/icmi/2012/imgs/logo_disneyresearch.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3X5OmHXa4c

The post Disney Research Team Has Their “Eyes” on Innovation appeared first on Inventionland.

Disney’s latest invention idea is a mix of a 3D printer and a sewing machine, which is actually how it works! Once an object has been designed by the 3D modelling software, a layer of felt is then placed on the print bed. Next, the wool yarn is threaded through a needle that is attached to the print head.

Once all of these steps have been taken, it’s now time to create the object. First, the print head moves over the felt layer and lays down the wool in the determined shape. A barbed needle then uses a technique otherwise known as “needle felting” to bind the fabric together. It then pierces the fabric and drags the fibers down through the lower layers and tangles them together in order to create a tight bond.

The final object resembles a toy that has been hand-made and felted. The team sees the potential of this invention somewhere along the lines of current uses for 3D printing, prototyping and customization. Furthermore, they believe that it could be used in order to create parts for “soft” robots and adapted to incorporate hard parts, such as electrical components with the chance for multi-material hard and soft printing.

Although this is just the beginning, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research Pittsburgh continue to diligently work on this 3D printing invention in an effort to make the felted objects more “robust!” Only time will tell what the final product will look and feel like!

Copyright Inventionland 2014

Resources:

https://www.cnet.com/news/disney-research-invents-3d-printer-for-teddy-bears/

https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-05/01/3d-printed-teddy-bears-disney

Media:

https://www.creativeapplications.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/3d_printed_felt_bear_thumbnail.jpg

The post Check out Disney’s Latest 3D Innovation! appeared first on Inventionland.