How Disney Built A Realistic Lightsaber

Science is Future

I tested Disney’s coolest new tech…  Today I’ve been invited behind the scenes at Walt Disney Imagineering, the place where Disney brings their craziest ideas to life - from STUNT ROBOTS to a real life version of The Force, to adorable little droids!   On this show Huge If True, we explore how tech can improve people’s lives - by living longer, going farther, doing more. But the reason I’ve loved Disney since I was a kid is they use tech to improve lives another way… by making people happy. And that means they end up pushing forward tech in some crazy, unexpected ways.   So let me take you inside the magic, to show you the cutting edge tech they’re building… how it works… and what happens when we put it to the test!  Chapters:  0:00 What is Disney building next? 1:11 What does Walt Disney Imagineering do? 1:52 What are Disney’s new droids really like? 2:47 How do Disney’s new droids work? 5:08 What’s the world’s most realistic lightsaber? 6:17 How do Disney’s lightsabers work? 8:05 How do you make The Force real? 9:53 How does Disney’s holotile work? 11:59 What will Disney use holotile for? 12:48 How does Disney use robot stunt doubles? 13:57 Special guests!! 15:54 Why is Disney tech huge if true? 16:15 :)   Bio: Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.   Gear I use:  Camera: Sony A7SIII Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro  Welcome to the joke down low:  Why’s it so hard to tell a good Star Wars joke? They all feel forced.  Find a way to use “force” in a comment to let me know you’re a real one who made it to the end of the description :)

Transcript

00:00Ready?

00:04This is the world's most realistic lightsaber.

00:09And I'm holding it because today I got the chance to go behind the scenes with Walt Disney Imagineering.

00:15The place where Disney brings their craziest ideas to life.

00:18From stunt robots, to a real-life version of the Force, to these adorable little droids.

00:24On this show, we explore how technology can improve people's lives by living longer, going farther.

00:31But the reason that I've loved Disney since I was a kid is that they use tech to improve lives a different way.

00:37By making people happy.

00:39And that means that they're pushing forward what tech can do in some really crazy, unexpected ways.

00:45So let me take you inside the magic to show you the cutting-edge tech that Disney is building,

00:51how it really works, and what happens when we put it to the test.

00:56Let's do this.

00:57This is what we call our Imagineering department.

01:00Where we dream up our new projects.

01:03Oh, that's cool!

01:12When Walt Disney started building Disneyland,

01:14he needed people to help him build rides and robots and castles,

01:18every aspect of this new kind of park.

01:20He needed people who would think outside the box.

01:22Their job was to imagine ways to bring the magic of Disney to life.

01:27So Walt called them Imagineers.

01:29Today, the Imagineers have built these legendary parks all around the world.

01:33And they constantly come up with new ideas for them, here, in their research and development lab.

01:38Let's take a walk through R&D.

01:40Awesome.

01:41This way.

01:42Let's take a walk through R&D.

01:44Come on with us right this way.

01:45We have some friends we want you to meet.

01:47These are the latest and greatest BDX units.

01:51Hello.

01:52How are you?

01:53Can I give you a little boop?

01:55Go for it.

01:56For this show, I've gotten to meet some very cool robots that can walk over uneven ground,

02:01or get pushed, or even open doors.

02:04But what makes these droids different is their personality.

02:09They're just so cute.

02:12And that cuteness comes down to a bunch of very specific design and engineering decisions,

02:17from how this robot walks to how it does this little chimmy.

02:20These droids aren't autonomous.

02:25They're told exactly where to go by a person holding this console.

02:29So, of course, I wanted to try it.

02:31Okay, so I'm gonna do a little dance.

02:34I'm gonna move his head around.

02:36Can I try Tantrum?

02:37You can, absolutely.

02:38He's gonna get hangry for a second.

02:41Yeah.

02:42How do I ask him to walk?

02:46Tap and then move the stick forward or any direction.

02:50Ooh.

02:51Hi.

02:52It's important to understand that I'm telling a droid what to do.

02:55Walk here, throw a tantrum.

02:57But I'm not telling it how to do that.

02:59The actual way that it responds to me comes down to its training.

03:03Using ducklings as inspiration, Disney Imagineers created a series of animations,

03:08like in a Disney movie, for how the robot should walk or jump or shimmy.

03:12Then they put a digital version of the robot into a simulation.

03:15Most of the time, when robots are trained this way, they're given a goal,

03:18and then they're rewarded based on how well they meet that goal under different circumstances.

03:22So, for example, walk from A to B over different terrain.

03:25This is reinforcement learning.

03:26So we actually have some live training going on on our computers right now.

03:29So that's what you're seeing here is the thousands and thousands of robots

03:32trying different things, stumbling a little bit, and trying something different.

03:36In this case, though, the droids are rewarded not just for walking from A to B,

03:39but also for how closely they follow the animations while they do that.

03:44In these digital worlds, they can get way more reps than they would in the physical world,

03:47and they don't get damaged.

03:48Then the Imagineers upload that training to the physical robots,

03:51and they test them with these cute little harnesses.

03:53Until eventually, the droids are ready to go out into the world all on their own.

03:57Well, with help.

03:58These are not the robots that are most likely to be doing your laundry or working in a factory in the future.

04:03But their design means that they're on the cutting edge of robotics in a different way.

04:08In a world that uses more and more robotics, how we feel about something,

04:13whether or not we feel something is cute, whether we feel something is well-intentioned as opposed to scary,

04:19matters a lot for how much humans want to interact with robots.

04:23And that also must make the development, I mean, probably more fun, but also by definition more difficult,

04:28because the reinforcement learning has two objectives.

04:32It has don't fall, but it also has be cute about it.

04:35That's what's really challenging about a lot of imaginary projects is we don't want our guests to see technologies.

04:40We want them to fall in love with a character and feel things.

04:44I did feel things. It's hard not to love these little droids.

04:48If you want to know more about how they're made to look so real,

04:51my friend Michelle Carre is making a video all about what it takes to become an Imagineer for her show Challenge Accepted.

04:56And if you're really lucky, you might spot these droids walking around in a Disney park.

05:01Eventually, though, I had to leave my new friends.

05:04I have to go now. Bye, guys, because I have something else to try.

05:08We have made the most realistic, expandable, extendable lightsaber ever.

05:14That's Lanny Smoot. He's one of the world's most famous Imagineers.

05:18He holds over a hundred patents, including for this lightsaber.

05:21I'm going to allow you to extend and retract it.

05:25Now, this is a very expensive prop.

05:28This is a prop, so we're going to be very careful with it once it's extended.

05:33And this is the button that you push to extend it.

05:37I'm going to stand back just so that...

05:39So I just...

05:40Oh, yeah, just that.

05:43Oh, that's cool!

05:48This felt as cool as I thought it would.

05:51And it looked as real up close as it does on camera.

05:54In the Star Wars universe, of course, these Jedi weapons work by channeling energy through a crystal

05:59to create a blade that can cut through basically anything.

06:03In our universe, filming the Star Wars movies,

06:06actors used these fighting prop sticks,

06:09and then visual effects artists painstakingly added the glow in post-production.

06:12But for Disney Parks, they somehow needed to make lightsabers real.

06:17And that was Lanny's job.

06:19How does it work?

06:20So the challenge when you're making a prop for a performer is that it has to look like what we see in the movies.

06:28And you remember in the movies, you know, flashing the light extends, it can cut through all sorts of things.

06:35Well, we don't cut through all sorts of things, but we did want smooth extension of the blade.

06:41It's that smooth extension that isn't possible with lightsaber toys that I've seen before.

06:46Our lightsaber unrolls from internal motors that are pushing it out.

06:51And that was important for our performers to really look like Jedi Knights.

06:57The lightsaber has a clear cap with two long translucent tapes attached to it that unroll from inside the lightsaber,

07:03allowing it to extend upward.

07:04As they extend out of the hilt, the tapes bend into a concave shape to create a rigid blade.

07:09And on those tapes are a series of bright LEDs.

07:12They had to program those LEDs to make that realistic lightsaber glow.

07:16It knows what angle you're moving through.

07:19And it's going to blink its lights a little bit to give it the feeling that it has moved from place to place.

07:24And we're also strobing it a little bit in general to give the life of flickering power.

07:31If two people have them, can the blades touch each other?

07:34This one is not used for battle.

07:37We have a stand-in for it when we have to have our stars moving it around quickly.

07:43This is more for the extension and retraction.

07:46So I should not touch it.

07:48Much like a real lightsaber.

07:50Yes, you don't want to get burned, right?

07:52Of course.

07:53Even though I now understood how they were doing this, it still felt like magic.

07:58Like you can see the kid in me is just mesmerized.

08:02And just when I thought I couldn't feel any more powerful, they showed me how to use the force.

08:08And of course you can go left and right if you like.

08:17This is so cool.

08:21You're strong with the force.

08:23I can't keep a straight face, I'm sorry.

08:26Alright, there you are.

08:28That's a serious Jedi.

08:29Yes.

08:30I take my responsibilities seriously.

08:35But hang on.

08:37How am I doing this?

08:38First, that camera right there is recording my hand movements from above.

08:42And there's another bit of magic on the floor.

08:45Hang on a sec.

08:46So I just got back from the UK where I was training to drive a real Formula E car.

08:52No joke.

08:53And while I was there, I was also using the sponsor of this episode, Surfshark.

08:56Surfshark is a virtual private network, or VPN, which means that when I'm traveling I can make my computer think that I'm somewhere else.

09:02I really like that because I want being online to feel like I'm still at home, even when I'm traveling so much for this show.

09:08I want my streaming shows to still show up, I want things to automatically be in dollars, I want shipping to be in the United States, those kinds of things.

09:14But then, when I get home, I sometimes want my computer to think that I'm somewhere else.

09:18This is really useful when I'm sitting here at this desk doing a lot of research for Huge If True episodes.

09:23Sometimes I want to see government sites from another country or things like that.

09:26I just go to Surfshark, like this, and then I set my location to one of a hundred different places.

09:31So I can be anywhere in the world still at home.

09:33If you don't use a VPN, you might find it useful.

09:35I know I do.

09:36If you want to try it, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

09:38And for the Huge Crew, for you guys, they're offering four extra months for free if you use my link, which is surfshark.com slash Clio.

09:44It's also in my description.

09:45Go check it out.

09:46Now, back to Disney.

09:47This is Disney's famous holotile, also invented by Lenny.

09:54It's basically a treadmill, but in any direction.

09:57I've been wanting to try this since I saw my friend Marques walk on an earlier version.

10:00All right, I'm ready.

10:01So I just walk in a circle.

10:02It's like I'm drifting back toward the center a little bit.

10:06Ooh.

10:08Up close, you can see that the floor I'm walking on is made of these rotating circular tiles, like this.

10:13One gear on the bottom controls overall spin, and another on the top controls the angle of the head.

10:18What that means is that your shoe is only ever hitting the top of that angled disc.

10:23So I'm standing on the surface that's created by the edge, and that edge might also be moving.

10:30And that creates motion back toward the center that I feel is just the ground sort of moving me back.

10:37So as you're walking in one direction, the spin of the top of the angled discs pushes you together in the opposite direction.

10:44So I can walk backward.

10:46I can walk forward.

10:47Woohoo!

10:48And what's interesting is it feels like...

10:51I don't know how to describe this exactly.

10:53It doesn't quite feel exactly like a treadmill in every direction.

10:57It takes a little bit of learning, but it very clearly wants me...

11:01If I walk in a circle, it's sort of pushing.

11:03You can see my foot every step is drifting back toward the center.

11:07But wait, how does it know which way I'm going?

11:10Well, this entire surface is surrounded by LiDAR cameras that are constantly scanning your feet.

11:15One camera at floor level identifies where your foot is on the tiles.

11:19So it's tracking each step in real time.

11:21And then there's a second camera that's looking at the direction of your foot.

11:24It does that by identifying not only where your foot is, but also where your shin bone is.

11:29So if your shin is at the back of your foot, then you're facing this way and vice versa.

11:34This demo had six different LiDAR angles.

11:36So at least one of them always had a good view of my feet.

11:38Each of these has a different view.

11:40That one may be a little confused there, right?

11:43This one has a very clear view that your ankle is in the back of your foot here.

11:48Interesting.

11:49Or you don't need to walk at all.

11:51You can move the floor with a video game controller.

11:58Yeah, this was really fun.

12:00And above all, that is the point of the holotile.

12:03It's fun.

12:04They're not really sure how they're going to use it in the future.

12:07Right now, Imagineers are testing designs on it and playing games.

12:11While we were there, they implied that they might end up using it in a park.

12:14Or maybe in a movie, like in the volume where they filmed Star Wars.

12:19But right now, fun is enough.

12:22And speaking of fun, I have one more thing to show you.

12:32These are stuntronics, meaning they're robot stunt doubles.

12:36This is how Spider-Man launches over Disneyland.

12:39We wanted a larger-than-life Spider-Man performance.

12:42But some of these flips that you see done in the movie, that's just CGI.

12:45We have to do it in real life.

12:47And those would not be safe for a stunt performer to be doing once,

12:51much less several times a day.

12:52Wouldn't be safe or wouldn't be possible?

12:54Both.

12:55At certain points, when Spider-Man first launches in the parks,

12:58he's pulling like 10 Gs.

13:00So this is something that we absolutely think a robot is very well suited for.

13:04To build a robot that can do that,

13:06they basically flung a metal stick with some motors and actuators

13:10over and over and over,

13:12and then gradually over time learned and made it more human.

13:16This is Miniman.

13:17Can I hold Miniman?

13:19Okay, my dude.

13:21So you take this, after learning from those,

13:25and you fling him through the air.

13:27Fling him through the air a couple hundred times,

13:29track the results and get better and better at controlling that motion through thin air.

13:33Until eventually...

13:38Could you see stuntronics being used in movies?

13:41That's a really good question.

13:42We're open to using them for all sorts of uses.

13:44They haven't asked yet, but we're just down the street,

13:46and we'd be happy to use them in a movie.

13:48So if you have all of this incredible technology to tell stories,

13:51what stories do you tell?

13:53Maybe the craziest part of my day was meeting two of the most important people at Disney,

13:57who make those decisions.

13:59That is Josh DiMauro, who runs all of Disney parks and cruises and products, and yeah.

14:05How do you think about the purpose of all of this incredible tech?

14:09The purpose at the end of the day is to create a connection with our guests,

14:14to make them feel something.

14:16And ultimately what we want...

14:17Hold on a second.

14:18I'm going to stop you while I walk past.

14:19All right.

14:20Kevin Feige was just walking behind you.

14:22You should have invited him in.

14:24Was he there?

14:25We'll call him in.

14:26Oh my God.

14:28Hey, nice shirt.

14:29Pleasure to meet you.

14:30Nice to meet you.

14:31How are you?

14:32And that is Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios,

14:36who I did not know that I was going to be meeting.

14:39I'm literally heading back to an X-Men meeting right now.

14:41Unbelievable.

14:42Well, I'm so glad that we caught you.

14:43Yes.

14:44The question that I was asking is what is the purpose of all of this technology?

14:48What is the mission here?

14:49I think it's continuing the storytelling.

14:51It's immersing the audience and the guests in the world,

14:53which nobody does better than Imagineering.

14:55When Disney bought Marvel, I was like sheepish about it.

14:59So does that mean we can go to Imagineering now?

15:02And the answer was yes, come on by.

15:04And now with Josh leaving it, it's feeling very exciting.

15:07And the great thing is, as these stories are coming out of his head and his team's head,

15:12we're automatically thinking, how are we going to bring this to life in real form?

15:16Wow.

15:17For years, we'd spend time on our sets and go, you know what's so sad?

15:20Is after we film them, we tear them down and they go away forever.

15:22That's it.

15:23We said, if only Imagineering gets their hands on it.

15:25And actually, a film, we brought a bunch of Josh's team down there to see it

15:30and to see how they can then extend that into the parts.

15:34It's great.

15:35It's so nice meeting you.

15:36It's so great to meet you.

15:37Thank you so much for your time.

15:38I really appreciate it.

15:40There you go.

15:41Unbelievable.

15:42Oh my God.

15:43Kevin Feige.

15:44Cool.

15:45But ultimately what's important for us is to tell a story,

15:49but you have to feel something.

15:51And I think it's very different from what's going on,

15:53generally speaking, in the robotics space.

15:55And that's why we're so different.

15:57It felt different.

15:58The point of all of the tech that I saw today is not to be useful.

16:02It's not to make your life more convenient or to help you stay alive longer.

16:07It's to help make sure that while you are alive,

16:10you get the chance sometimes to just be a kid.

16:14It's a reminder of how important it is to find ways to just feel joy.

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