Disney’s research and development arm is developing augmented reality technology that could let visitors don AR costumes of their favorite superheroes and princesses in the parks for souvenir snapshots. The findings were part of a recently-published paper by Disney Research.
The new method of AR capture overlays a “watertight” costume on a digital image of a person in 10 seconds. The process uses a combination of techniques to estimate the proportions of a body, approximate the 3D pose and match the costume to the position of the body’s joints. Imaging programs mask the body leaving the head and hands visible, paint on the costume and fill in the background image.
The next step? Tackling the even wider variety of heights and shapes of children, one of Disney’s key demographics. Then