Researchers whose work is labeled “Mickey Mouse science” may take great offense, but not so for a group from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). Disney announced a major R&D initiative with the two institutions to create collaborative labs and develop new entertainment technologies. CMU and ETH Zurich are both renowned for their leading-edge work in computer science, including entertainment applications. The new labs will connect Disney with these top-tier academic partners in developing computer animation, computational cinematography, autonomous interactive characters, robotics, and user interfaces, among other initiatives. Each lab — one in Pittsburgh and one in Zurich — gets a five-year commitment from Disney to fund a director and seven to eight principal investigators. Jessica Hodgins, CMU professor of computer science and robotics and director of Disney Research, Pittsburgh, said one of the lab’s first projects will be developing methods for people to interact with autonomous characters, either virtual or robotic. “We’ll be looking for ways to sense what a person is doing or thinking so that the character can respond appropriately,” she said. “Whether the character is a robot or a virtual creation, the interaction issues are the same. We need to figure out what sensors to build and how to interpret and respond to human behavior.” Professor Markus Gross, Head of ETH Zurich’s Computer Graphics Laboratory, called the collaboration with Disney “on the cusp of the cutting-edge.” He said the institute’s focus will be on “novel algorithms to bring both traditional animation and 3D computer animation to the next level of perfection.” Go to: BusinessWire

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