Disney's Latest Innovation Is a HoloTile Floor That Seems to Have a Mind of Its Own Disney demoed the floor this weekend.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- Disney demoed a HoloTile floor, or a floor made up of rotating tiles, at its D23 fan event.
- The tiles move together to make the person or object on the floor appear to move on their own.
- The floor could have applications in virtual reality, special effects, and theater.
An object appears to be moving completely on its own. But it isn't telekinesis or some kind of magic pushing it across the room, it's Disney's new HoloTile floor.
Disney demoed the new technology, which features small rotating tiles that work together to move a person or object, at its D23 fan event last week and viewers were impressed.
Anyone could walk on the HoloTile floor in any direction, and the floor would automatically move to keep them within the tiles, opening up use cases in areas like virtual reality.
The HoloTile floor may be what I'm most excited for from Disney Imagineering. It's bringing us closer to the dream of a Star Trek Holodeck and helping create virtual worlds we can run around despite being in a small room. Oh, and make our dreams come true of using the Force! #D23 pic.twitter.com/eJSYO8FTGW
— Adam Bankhurst @ D23 (@AdamBankhurst) August 10, 2024
The HoloTile floor can also "support any number of people being on that same floor… and being able to be in virtual reality," said Disney Research Fellow Lanny Smoot at the event. "What we have then is a sort of holodeck, if you will, a place where people can walk in imaginary places, walk to help us design new attractions, and it can also move anything on its surface."
Smoot was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in January and gave a sneak peek into the HoloTile floor, at that time. Disney doesn't yet know where the floor will be used, but there are "just so many applications" of it, including embedding it in theater stages, Smoot had said.
Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee became the first person outside of Disney to walk on the HoloTile floor in April, and he said he envisioned a future version with smaller and more numerous tiles.
Disney's D23 event also featured other demos, including one going deeper into the engineering behind its BD-X droids.
