Augmented reality and Star Wars – just these few words get out inner geek dribbling!
We have heard and seen a lot about how Apple is looking at the potential of augmented reality technology, and while this gets our nerd juices flowing, it doesn’t have us as excited as those words, augmented reality and Star Wars.
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney has dropped some hints on the potential use of augmented reality at the Disney Theme Park attractions.
The Disney CEO seems to favour AR over VR (which Mr Iger seemed skeptical about the idea of using VR at the parks, because the necessary headsets may take away the experience from the attractions of the park) as with augmented reality the computer generated images are superimposed on a real world view (although of course both AR and VR usually require some sort of headset).
The CEO has reportedly said “what we create is an experience that is real”
Last year it was alleged that Industrial Light and Magic (Disney’s Lucasfilm special effects division), is partnering with Magic Leap, an augmented reality start up, to work on Star Wars related projects.
Recently in the Los Angeles Times, it was reported that “Iger noted he spends each Tuesday afternoon at a Disney engineering lab sporting a head-worn device that enables him to hold a lightsaber and duel with a Stormtrooper”