The eyes may be the window to the soul. But what do you see when you look into robotic eyes so real that it’s almost impossible to tell they are just empty, mechanical vessels? At Siggraph, the annual conference for graphics geeks that ended last week, Disney researchers created an animatronic eye that moves in a lifelike way, makes eye contact and tracks those who pass by. “We wanted two things from the eye,” says Lanny Smoot, senior research scientist at Disney Research. “It should be able to see or have vision, and it should move as smoothly and fluidly as the human eye.” The animatronic eye was one of the 23 exhibits in the emerging-tech section of the conference. “Each year there’s always been some consistent themes,” says Preston Smith, emerging-tech chair at Siggraph 2010. “But this year there hasn’t been one thing that has leapt out in front of others.” Instead a variety of technologies jostled for attention: new 3-D display technologies, augmented reality and robotics. Siggraph 2010 showed research not just from universities but also from corporate labs, including Disney's and Sony's. Above: A Seeing Eye Disney Research’s animatronic eye is relatively simple in its design. The eye has a transparent-plastic inner sphere with a set of magnets around it, painted to look just like a human eye. It is suspended in fluid and has a transparent outer shell. Using electromagnets from the outside, the eye is moved sideways or up and down, giving it a smooth and easy motion. “It is as fast as the human eye and as good as the human eye,” says Smoot. The pupil and the back of the eye are clear. A camera placed at the rear of the eye helps the eye see. Smoot hopes the mechanism can be used to create prosthetic eyes. “The prosthetic eye based on this won’t restore sight, but it can restore cosmetic appearance to those who have lost an eye,” says Smoot. The animatronic eye won the “best in show” prize at Siggraph this year. Photo: Daniel Reetz/Disney Research

In-Air Typing Interface Not everyone notices them, but those fingerprint smudges that accumulate on touchscreens can be extremely annoying. One way to keep the screen clean is to carry around tiny wipe cloths. A better way could be to just not touch the screen at all when you type. A new user interface lets users type letters in the space above the keypad. The system uses a tiny camera with a wide-angle lens that, in conjunction with the software, can accurately detect the position of a fingertip in space. But this requires additional hardware that is housed in an extension about 2 inches wide at the bottom of the phone. “You hold your finger over it, and in a quick second it registers the position calibrating the device,” says Preston Smith, emerging-technology chair for Siggraph 2010. “You can then go over the keyboard picking out letters to type.” And because tactile feedback is important in typing quickly, a motor attached to the back of the display vibrates briefly when users hit the keys. For now, the system only recognizes a single finger, so its the hunt-and-peck model of typing at work. But Smith is optimistic about the research’s future. “It’s a first step,” he says. “Over the years I have seen so many first steps that become ready to hit market in five years. This could be one of those stories.” Photo: Takehiro Niikura/University of Tokyo

360-Degree 3-D Display Not needing glasses for 3-D is enough to blow the minds of most people. But take it to the next step — a 3-D display that isn’t flat and requires no glasses — and it becomes a prop from a sci-fi film. In stores, Sony’s pushing big, flat screen 3-D TVs that require a pair of special glasses. But in its labs, the company has created a prototype 3-D display wrapped in a cylinder that’s 10 inches tall and has a diameter of 5 inches. While it’s smaller than a TV, that shape lets you stand anywhere in front of it and see a 3-D image, like a little holographic projection of Princess Leia. You can even reach into the display and turn the objects inside it to see them from all angles. “If you are looking at a figurine of a head, you can reach out with your hand and rotate that object within the display,” says Smith. “It provides a level of interactivity you haven’t had before.” The cylindrical 3-D display has a video input, so it can be hooked up to a PC. The video data is supplied from the PC and used to render the object in the display. The image is generated by a graphics processor in real time. The display also has a gesture sensor so you can wave your hands in front of it to change the orientation of the image inside the display. The system can show both static and moving images. For now, the 3-D display seems like a lab experiment but Sony hopes that eventually it can be find a home in video games, museums and advertising. Check out Sony’s video demonstrating the prototype: <object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BFKC-NKRFw&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BFKC-NKRFw&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640"></embed></object> Photo: Daniel Reetz/Disney Research

A Zoetrope for the Future One of the oldest forms of animation, the zoetrope (or "wheel of life") is a device that spins a series of images to produce the illusion of action. Typically, zoetropes are cylindrical with slits or mirrors to separate the images and create the sense of motion. Invented in the 1850s, the zoetrope was once a popular form of parlor entertainment. The technique is still used today. Disney Pixar created a wonderful zoetrope in 2007, using characters from the movie Toy Story. Modern versions like Pixar’s use LED strobes to replace the slits, and use 3-D figures to replace the two-dimensional images in old-fashioned zoetropes. But zoetropes have one fundamental flaw, says Smoot: They are repetitive. “When the zoetrope completes one complete cycle or spin, it starts again, but it offers the same thing,” he says. “What we wanted was an unending show that people could interact with.” So Disney researchers created an interactive zoetrope using eight pingpong balls with slightly different faces painted on them. The balls are placed on a platter that is spun. The entire setup is lit with LED strobe lights. The zoetrope displays just one of the eight faces, depending on the audio level of the person speaking into an attached microphone. “It is an example of real-time, interactive, stop-motion animation,” says Smoot. Photo: Daniel Reetz/Disney Research

Acroban Robot The Acroban robot is no Marvin, the Paranoid Android. Instead, Acroban promises a sunny personality that’s just right for kids. The Acroban, a robot created by INRIA, the French Institute for research in computer science, is “playful and compliant.” Through its interactions with humans, the robot can maintain its balance, thanks to a vertebral column and hips and ankles that are designed to mimic the human body. The most interesting part of the robot is how well it reacts to situations that would seem almost normal in a human context. For instance, when the robot is walking, a person can hold the robot arm and drive it in any direction easily. It’s like steering children who are just learning to walk, says the researchers. All of this is done without providing the robot with any sort of verbal command. As the robot gets more sophisticated, it can move objects and interact with children, almost becoming a friend to them, say the researchers. Photo: Daniel Reetz/Disney Research

Floating-Face Hologram Heads floating in space chatting with those around them might seem like a scene out of Harry Potter. Or it could be an experiment to see how people interact with holograms. Holorad, a Salt Lake City company, can create 3-D holographic images that float in space and don’t require special glasses. The company teamed up with Disney Research to create eight floating heads. As a user talks into a microphone, a floating head appears and chats back. Sounds creepy, right? Well, prepare yourself for the future. Someday, the technology could be used in theme parks and retail stores to draw in consumers. Photo: Daniel Reetz/Disney Research

Smart Laser Projector The next generation of laser projectors will not just send information but also gather data at the same time. As it sends out laser beams to form an image, the Smart Laser Projector also acts as a probe assessing the shape, position, orientation and texture of a surface. The advantage is that it can improve interactive displays, because it does not require projector-camera calibration or tracking the projection surface separately. Photo: Daniel Reetz/Disney Research