How Disney built and programmed an animatronic president (2014) | Hacker News Reader

How Disney built and programmed an animatronic president (2014)

arstechnica.com

75 pointsrbanffy21 comments

When it originally opened in Disneyland, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room required a massive bank of computers which filled the basement floor and required air conditioning, the only building that had it, making it an excellent way to cool off during the hot summers. Another fun fact, it was so expensive that Walt funded the project himself and it required a separate admission ticket to experience it. Finally, a minor correction to the article: The Tiki Room was originally envisioned as a restaurant but was changed to be an attraction before opening because the Imagineers realized people probably wouldn't respond well to birds defecating in their food (which they obviously couldn't since they were automated).

In 1963? No. The first minicomputer, the PDP-8, didn't launch until 1964. Those birds were driven by audio tones on magnetic tape driving a reed receiver.[1] Reed receivers were used in early radio controlled aircraft.[2] They probably needed a big machine room for all the control gear, and it might have looked like a computer because of all the magnetic tape gear, but it wasn't.

The Lincoln system used a multichannel analog instrumentation recorder. Those could record signals down to DC, because they had FM modulators and demodulators. (You can't record DC on magnetic tape directly.) I saw a copy of the original system running in an art gallery in SF in the late 1980s, set up by some retired Disney employee.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney%27s_Enchanted_Tiki... [2] http://www.rchalloffame.org/WhoFirst/First01/files/BIGrelayl...

You're entirely right, I misremembered the control gear as computers. As a disfan, I feel extreme shame.

The fantastic Walt Disney Family Museum [0] in the Presidio of San Francisco features a working animatronic programmer that you can use to see what the process was like for an Imagineer to program a figure. I highly recommend the museum, especially since it's run by the Disney family and not the Walt Disney Company.

0: https://www.waltdisney.org/

The rides since the 1990s with TV screens and shaky chairs are rather boring compared to earlier animatronics like Pirates. I generally never have done them a second time. You'd think with modern assembly line motion capture, robotics and computers that animatronics would be a cinch.

Doing the prototypes is one thing. Creating reliable machinery with the kind of duty cycle required by a Disneyland is still exceptionally hard with interesting animatronics.

Check out the new beauty and the beast animatronics. They are really next gen

Disney's still doing some incredible animatronics work-- go look for video of the Navi shaman animatronic from Navi River Journey (at Animal Kingdom in Disney World), or the Hondo Ohnaka animatronic in the preshow for Millenium Falcon: Smuggler's Run (in Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge). Both represent the cutting edge in modern animatronics work.

As a massive theme park fan, this has been especially pronounced lately (if you want an example about how bad it's gotten, check out Fast and the Furious Supercharged at Universal Studios Florida) but there have been rides since the 90s that mix physical sets and screens really well. If you want to check those out, my two favorites are The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, both at Islands of Adventure in Orlando.

Fast and Furious Supercharged is a terrible ride (and according to a friend of ours who works at Universal Orlando, the employees agree.) King Kong, also at Islands of Adventure, is the same ride type, and even uses the same vehicle, but is a vastly superior ride. I think a lot of it it comes down to the "story" the ride is trying to tell, and how well it tells it. Spiderman and Harry Potter Forbidden Journey are also excellent.

I know it's a different ride type than we're talking about, but I'm looking forward to heading down to Universal Orlando this fall and for the new Harry Potter ride. Hopefully we won't have to wait 10 hours in line, like the folks who rode it opening day. Just my opinion, but with the exception of the Avatar ride as DisneyWorld, I find the rides at Universal to be much more entertaining and engaging.

Firesign Theatre had fun with a routine about "breaking" an animatronic president. As the president crashes, he mutters stuff from PDP-10 jargon. "uh, Clem" is from earlier in the routine, where the park visitors were asked to say their names.

Firesign Theatre - The Breaking of the President (1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5x2xBa8p0A

The Lincoln Memorial in my hometown (Redlands, southern CA) hosted Disney’s animatronic Lincoln and had a running show for several months last year. It was really good. Though my (then) 3-year-old son still shivers with fear when he recalls the “talking statue” :-)

I can't count the number of times my wife and I have been to Disney properties (Anaheim, Orlando, France, Japan, Hong Kong so far), and even though she's seen everything Disney has to offer, the animatronic Abraham Lincoln is still the thing that most impresses her.

Every time we go to the Hall of Presidents, she eagerly sits through the entire show waiting for the magic moment when Mr. Lincoln stands up. It's the highlight of the trip.

She's as addicted to Facebook as the next person of her age, but this is still the apex of modern technology.

(Then she drops me off at "daycare," which is the little film gallery showing old cartoons, while she goes shopping. Though I hear that is being desecrated with a gift shop, too.)

Is that this one? https://youtu.be/dJg2Caz3TF0

Very much in the uncanny valley. I think it's because it's only the head and face moving, with the shoulders acting like Mr. Lincoln forgot to take the the coat hanger out of his jacket.

Point of trivia: Never hold Abraham Lincoln's hat. He was notorious for using it as a combination trashcan and briefcase.

Surface history books tell you that he carried legal documents in there. But contemporaries knew him also for putting apple cores in there, and other assorted things.

Don't miss Defunctland for more Disney attraction lore. [1]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defunctland

If they continuously upgrade the hardware, one day it may get elected.

edit - of course, by then we'll call it multivac - https://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

https://youtu.be/JVbliFdOuOM

Tiki room was a big family favorite of ours. Interesting to get the backstory on what inspired the experience.

I mean the last 3-4 presidents I could totally believe this.

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