Event 3: Disneyland, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

When I was at Disneyland last weekend, I was surprised to find a great deal of situations in which I felt the intersection of the arts and sciences was perfectly exemplified. From "imagineers" to "audio-animatronics," great artistic creativity combined with the fields of engineering and robotics culminates in a visual, tactile, auditory and kinetic experience for viewers.

My Disneyland tickets

 Disney Imagineers are the people behind every ride and attraction one encounters while at a Disneyland theme park. Imagineers are the group of engineers, artists, designers, writers, and architects who work together to create sensory experience of all sorts. Imagineers work with what Disney has termed Audio-Animatronics, a form of robotic engineering that is present in many of Disneyland's rides, shows and other attractions. 

A talking robot on the Star Trek ride

A (blurry) picture of audio-animatronics in the Winnie the Poo ride

One of the oldest Disneyland attractions is "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln," in which Abraham Lincoln comes to life through Audio-Animatronics. Outside of this attraction, a video clip explained a bit about what Audio-Animatronics really is. 

Before robot Lincoln was on stage, a video told the story of Lincoln's history

As described in the video clip, Audio-Animatronics allows robots to move and make sounds. They are able to stand up and sit down, but are unable to walk around. The robot's movements and vocalizations are pre-recorded, so it does not respond to external stimuli like many of the robots we discussed during previous lectures. 

The beginning of the show

In "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln," viewers watch and listen as a robot Mr. Lincoln says excerpts from some of his most famous speeches. He sits and stands, looks left and right, opens, closes and moves his mouth as appropriate, and even gestures with his hands, all very fluidly.  

Audio-animatronic Lincoln sitting down before the speech began

As was discussed in lecture, scientists and artists are continuously trying to create robots that "seem" human. Through this fluidity of movement, Disney's Audio-Animatronic Abraham Lincoln did in fact "seem" human for the brief few moments that he was standing and speaking in front of the audience. 

Lincoln stood up very fluidly, for the remainder of the speech

This ability to convince the audience of human-like characteristics may have also come from the robot's impeccable visual comparison to the real President. The animatronics team and artists used Lincoln's real face mask as a model for the face of the robot. The robot Lincoln's voice, the pre-recorded voice of an actor, was full of emotion and character.  While this attraction did skip over some important concepts of modern day robotics, including the ability to attend to external stimuli, it was incredible to see robotics in real life. This was my first experience seeing any robot like this, and after learning about robotics and art during this course, it was incredible to have this kind of first hand experience.  

Here is a short video clip during Lincoln's speech:

If you ever happen to be at Disneyland, I highly recommend checking out this attraction, as it perfectly exemplifies so many of the concepts of arts and science that have been discussed in lecture. 

Also, here's proof of me at Disneyland!