Is this Disney’s first step towards Metaverse development?

Lavina Daryanani
Source: Wiki

Walt Disney’s theme parks might soon get upgraded. Well, the upgrade is not as plain and simple as you think. In what is the latest news, the company received federal approval for a patent that’ll help it create its own metaverse at its theme parks and properties.

How things are expected to pan out in the metaverse

The Walt Disney Company was granted a patent on 28 December by the Patent and Trademark Office for a Virtual World Simulator set to enable multiple users to experience a 3D virtual world from a host of vantage points without the use of any virtual reality headgear like glasses, goggles or digital devices.

As per the patent, the Simulator creates a realistic and highly immersive 3D virtual experience. More so, because it uses multiple projectors capable of generating a high rate of images per second. Additionally, with the use of the SLAM technique, the ever-changing point of view of a visitor moving through a real-world venue would be continuously tracked.

Well, just in November the company had announced that it would be joining with Mark Zuckerberg in crafting their own self-branded metaverse by connecting the physical and digital world using Disney’s collection of IPs. The same includes characters and franchises right from Princess Elsa and Buzz Lightyear to Marvel, Star Wars, The Muppets, and Disney Animation Studios.

A ‘meta’ flashback

The corporation has been testing the VR-AR waters for quite some time now. In 2018, the Disney Imagineers created an animation tool that allowed Disney animators to create in VR. Post that, they also developed a couple of other tools including an AR puppeteering one.

In fact, in a recent statement in November, the company’s CEO Bob Chapek said,

“Our efforts to date are merely a prologue to a time when we’ll be able to connect the physical and digital world even more closely, allowing for storytelling without boundaries in our own Disney metaverse, and we look forward to creating unparalleled opportunities for consumers to experience everything Disney has to offer across our products and platforms, wherever the consumer may be.”

Well, Walt Disney has always been at the forefront of using novel technologies and introducing them to the entertainment world. So, the blending of the physical and digital world for people to interact is definitely a huge leap and would be scripted in its books of innovation.