Disney Patent Grants

Data mining to determine online user responses to broadcast messages

Granted: April 2, 2019
Patent Number: 10248960
In a networked system, a method and apparatus for measuring advertising effectiveness involves broadcasting an advertisement at a broadcast time, monitoring at least one social network or other online forum following the broadcast time, filtering social network traffic to identify messages, search engine queries to identify queries, or other traffic entries, that appear to be responsive to the broadcast advertisement, determining a time of initiation for at least a plurality of entries…

Systems and methods for contextual video shot aggregation

Granted: April 2, 2019
Patent Number: 10248864
There is provided a method that includes receiving a video having video shots, and creating video shot groups based on similarities between the video shots, where each video shot group of the video shot groups includes one or more of the video shots and has different ones of the video shots than other video shot groups. The method further includes creating at least one video supergroup including at least one video shot group of the video shot groups based on interactions among the one or…

Computational design of robots from high-level task specifications

Granted: April 2, 2019
Patent Number: 10248085
A robot design system, and associated method, that is particularly well-suited for legged robots (e.g., monopods, bipeds, and quadrupeds). The system implements three stages or modules: (a) a motion optimization module; (b) a morphology optimization module; and (c) a link length optimization module. The motion optimization module outputs motion trajectories of the robot's center of mass (COM) and force effectors. The morphology optimization module uses as input the optimized motion…

Bottle lid

Granted: April 2, 2019
Patent Number: D844376

Algebraic multigrid method for cloth simulation

Granted: March 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10242134
A method and system for simulation of deformation of a thin-shelled member are disclosed herein. The method includes: receiving at one or more computer systems, information identifying a computer-generated object. The computer-generated object can be a thin-shelled member. The method includes: receiving information identifying a discretization of the computer-generated object, which discretization can be a plurality of nodes; receiving information identifying a set of material properties…

Structural frame for covered and animated segments of a robotic figure

Granted: March 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10239218
A robot with an animated segment including a generally cylindrical structural frame. The frame includes a plurality of spaced apart plastic ribs that each have a curved or arcuate body that is arranged to be convex relative to a central axis of the structural frame. A first end of each rib is pivotally coupled with a lower ring, and a second end of each rib is pivotally coupled with an upper ring. A flexible outer covering is positioned over the structural frame and is attached to one or…

Location-based experience with interactive merchandise

Granted: March 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10238976
A system for providing an interactive experience for multiple game-players. The experience is provided in a light-controlled setting where the game-players may wear or hold one or more of various toys (e.g., gloves). The system detects and recognizes the toy along with gestures and pointing efforts performed by the game-player and the system generates an effect based on the type of toy and the type of gesture. The system also generates one or more visual targets that are visible to the…

System and method for determining the current parameters of a zoomable camera

Granted: March 19, 2019
Patent Number: 10235747
An accurate camera pose is determined by pairing a first camera with a second camera in proximity to one another, and by developing a known spatial relationship between them. An image from the first camera and an image from the second camera are analyzed to determine corresponding features in both images, and a relative homography is calculated from these corresponding features. A relative parameter, such as a focal length or an extrinsic parameter is used to calculate a first camera's…

Display system for transforming sunlit surfaces

Granted: March 19, 2019
Patent Number: 10232282
A display system for transforming sunlit and other brightly lit surfaces while being observed by viewers or an audience. The display system includes an optical element switchable between first and second operating states, and the optical element includes a pane that is opaque in the first operating state and transparent in the second operating state. The display system includes a controller operable to switch the optical element between the first and second operating states. Further, the…

Electromagnetic time reversal focusing of near field waves in metamaterials

Granted: March 12, 2019
Patent Number: 10230167
Selective focusing of electromagnetic energy via the electromagnetic time reversal in the near field of a metamaterial. The disclosure begins with fundamental mathematics, and then is extended to the experimental realm where focusing in space and time of the magnetic fields in the near field of a 1-Dimensional metamaterial is shown. Under time reversal focusing, peak instantaneous fields at receiver locations are at minimum 200% greater than other receivers. The strongly-selective…

Visualisation and navigation of transmedia content data

Granted: March 12, 2019
Patent Number: 10229215
A method of rendering content items on a display via an electronic device involves mapping linked content items to a three-dimensional object defined by layout data. The layout data is then transmitted to an electronic device for display.

System for providing multi-directional and multi-person walking in virtual reality environments

Granted: March 12, 2019
Patent Number: 10228758
A motion system for moving objects in a space, e.g., for moving virtual reality (VR) participants about space used to provide a VR environment. The system includes a controller and a position monitoring assembly. The system has a modular floor including a plurality of tile assemblies defining a support surface for a first and a second object. Each of the tile assemblies includes: (a) a planar tile with an upper surface for supporting the first and second objects; and (b) a drive system.…

Increasing returned light in a compact augmented reality/virtual reality display

Granted: March 12, 2019
Patent Number: 10228564
Implementations of an augmented reality (AR)-capable display device for displaying polarized light generated by a display onto a predefined field of view are disclosed herein. The display device comprises an optical arrangement having a predefined arrangement relative to a predefined position of the display and defining the field of view. The optical arrangement comprises a mirror element disposed within the field of view and at least partially transmissive of ambient light incident on a…

High-Q and over-coupled near-field RFID reader antenna for improved tag read range

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10223850
An RFID system in which at least one of the RFID tag antenna and the RFID reader antenna has an impedance matching network associated therewith in order to better match the impedances of the two antennas. This impedance matching places the antennas into an over-coupled regime once they are within a reasonable distance of each other (e.g., 2 to 50 mm). It also increases the Q-factor of the improved antenna, which can greatly increase the range at which the RFID reader can read the RFID…

Systems and methods for augmenting an appearance of a hilt to simulate a bladed weapon

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10223836
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for augmenting an appearance of a hilt to simulate a bladed weapon. A hilt may be augmented with a blade of a bladed weapon by detecting a landmark associated with the hilt, determining a position and/or an orientation of the hilt, determining an overlay image comprising the blade of the bladed weapon, wherein the blade is placed within the overlay image according to the determined position and/or the determined orientation of the hilt, and…

Methods and systems for action recognition using poselet keyframes

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10223580
Methods and systems for video action recognition using poselet keyframes are disclosed. An action recognition model may be implemented to spatially and temporally model discriminative action components as a set of discriminative keyframes. One method of action recognition may include the operations of selecting a plurality of poselets that are components of an action, encoding each of a plurality of video frames as a summary of the detection confidence of each of the plurality of…

Systems and methods for editing virtual content of a virtual space

Granted: March 5, 2019
Patent Number: 10222953
A system for editing virtual content of a virtual space. The system may include a host server comprising one or more physical processors configured to effectuate presentation of an editing interface on a client computing platform associated with an administrator user. The files may store property values for the properties of the virtual content of the virtual space. The property value for a property of virtual content may be determined based on a selection of a file that stores the…

Passenger restraint for upright, straddle-type seating in an amusement park ride vehicle

Granted: February 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10213701
A ride vehicle with upright, straddle-type passenger seating that includes a passenger restraint system. This restraint system includes a lap bar assembly and a lap bar pivotal mount element pivotally supporting the lap bar assembly within the vehicle body to pivot about a rotation axis passing through the vehicle body between the seat pan and the front end of the vehicle body. The lap bar assembly may include a lap bar along with side and front leg shields that contain a passenger's…

Methods and systems of performing eye reconstruction using a parametric model

Granted: February 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10217275
Systems and techniques for reconstructing one or more eyes using a parametric eye model are provided. The systems and techniques may include obtaining one or more input images that include at least one eye. The systems and techniques may further include obtaining a parametric eye model including an eyeball model and an iris model. The systems and techniques may further include determining parameters of the parametric eye model from the one or more input images. The parameters can be…

Methods and systems of generating a parametric eye model

Granted: February 26, 2019
Patent Number: 10217265
Systems and techniques for generating a parametric eye model of one or more eyes are provided. The systems and techniques may include obtaining eye data from an eye model database. The eye data includes eyeball data and iris data corresponding to a plurality of eyes. The systems and techniques may further include generating an eyeball model using the eyeball data. Generating the eyeball model includes establishing correspondences among the plurality of eyes. The systems and techniques…