Disney Imagineer | HoloTile Floor Behind the Scenes Clip (ft. Lanny Smoot ) - video Dailymotion

80PoundMedia

Imagineer Lanny Smoot is the first Disney employee since Walt to be inducted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and in this video he discusses the big milestone and showcases an exciting new project he's working on called the HoloTile floor.

Transcript

00:00 [KNOCKING]

00:03 Come on in.

00:06 Hi.

00:07 How are you?

00:08 Hey, Lanny.

00:08 Great to see you.

00:09 Great to see you.

00:10 We heard about your upcoming induction

00:12 into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

00:13 And we know you're very busy, but we just

00:16 had to stop by and say congrats.

00:18 You know, that's great.

00:19 Come on in.

00:20 Thank you.

00:22 Wow.

00:24 Yeah.

00:25 Wow.

00:25 So this is where you quite literally make the magic.

00:28 This is exactly where the ideas are hatched

00:31 and where we prove them out.

00:33 So wait, how did you even get started working

00:36 in research and development?

00:37 You know, I've had a long career,

00:41 20 years with the Bell System, Bell Labs, Bell Communications

00:45 Research, Telcordia doing research

00:47 for the telecommunications network.

00:49 25 years ago, I came here to Walt Disney Imagineering R&D,

00:54 and I've been here for all that time inventing and having fun.

00:57 Wow.

00:58 So you've been here for quite a while, obviously.

01:00 Yes.

01:01 So what does being an Imagineer mean to you?

01:04 You know, being an Imagineer is using technology in service

01:08 of making people happy.

01:10 Come on, that's the world's greatest job.

01:13 You've invented quite a lot around here.

01:15 Don't you have over like 100 patents?

01:18 Well, it's 106, but I won't quibble.

01:21 Are those some over there?

01:22 Yeah, come on over.

01:24 Take a look.

01:26 So I've invented electromagnetic eyes for our animatronics

01:32 to make the eye movement compact.

01:35 The eye itself is doing all of the work.

01:38 This goes a few years back, interactive zoetrope.

01:41 We brought it up to date, making it

01:43 so that talking into a microphone

01:45 brings the characters on the zoetrope to life.

01:48 This one's been well-documented.

01:50 You can see it on the internet as the interactive zoetrope.

01:54 And yeah, and just some fun from the past.

01:58 Wow.

01:58 Well, you've got to have a favorite invention or two,

02:00 right?

02:01 Well, yeah.

02:02 Let's bring it up to date.

02:03 It's always the things that I've done most recently

02:05 that I'm most excited about.

02:07 And I've designed and created the most realistic,

02:10 expandable, extendable lightsaber.

02:13 And many of you may have seen it in our parks.

02:17 Well, you've left quite the mark.

02:18 And now you're being inducted into the National Inventors

02:20 Hall of Fame.

02:21 How does that feel?

02:23 You know, it's an amazing honor.

02:25 And for an inventor, it's incredible.

02:31 And I'm humbled and excited.

02:35 Well, Walt is the only other Disney employee

02:37 to receive this honor.

02:38 And you're now the second.

02:39 That has to be pretty special, huh?

02:41 You know, when I realized that Walt Disney himself

02:44 was the only other person at our company

02:46 that's received this honor, it caused really

02:51 a lump in my throat.

02:53 It's amazing.

02:53 Walt and his accomplishments are incredible.

02:56 And to follow even slightly in his footsteps,

02:59 it's a wonderful honor.

03:01 Yeah.

03:02 Hey, we heard there was something

03:03 about a floor tile or something.

03:06 What's that all about?

03:07 We call it the hollow tile floor.

03:09 And it's a very special piece of technology.

03:11 And you know what?

03:12 I'd like to show it to you.

03:14 Let's take a walk over.

03:15 And we'll see the hollow tile floor.

03:18 Let's do it.

03:19 Yeah, let's go.

03:20 Come on.

03:22 So this is the hollow tile.

03:23 It is.

03:24 And as a matter of fact, I'm going

03:27 to do a little demonstration of it.

03:30 So I can walk on this omnidirectional floor

03:35 in any direction I want.

03:37 It will automatically do whatever it needs

03:40 to have me stay on the floor.

03:43 And what's amazing about this is multiple people can be on it

03:46 and all walking independently.

03:49 They can walk in virtual reality and so many other things.

03:53 So where are you hoping this tech ends up?

03:56 You know, imagine a number of people being in a room,

03:59 being able to be somewhere else collaboratively

04:03 and moving around, doing sightseeing.

04:06 Imagine theatrical stages that might

04:08 have these embedded in them so that dancers

04:12 can do amazing moves.

04:14 Not me, but really good dancers.

04:17 So there are just so many applications

04:20 for this type of technology.

04:22 And we don't know yet where it will be used.

04:26 Well, it's official.

04:27 I think you probably have one of the coolest jobs.

04:30 Yeah, I think you're right.

04:31 It gives me an amazing opportunity

04:33 to use these inventions that I've made

04:35 in service of people having fun.

04:38 Well, Lanny, it's been great catching up with you.

04:40 Thanks for showing us around.

04:42 Thank you, and come back soon.

04:45 (snoring)

04:47 (purring)

Disney Imagineer | HoloTile Floor Behind the Scenes Clip (ft. Lanny Smoot )

Category

Transcript

Recommended