Disney has already produced a CDV [Compact Disc Video] system that has been in operation since September 1985, when the EPCOT Center facility opened its doors for the first time at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Throughout the new park, guests may use the World Key system to find information about the park. The system uses a microcomputer, Sony LDP 2000 laser disc player, and a Sony Trinitron monitor with a special "touch-screen" interface.
World Key users first see a map of the entire park. If the user touches the screen over one of the park's pavilions, a prerecorded one minute overview of the pavilion is shown. The show can include animation, special effects, sound effects and other interesting video animation to show the user the detailed points of interest in the pavilion.
"When the World Key screen is pressed, the computer compares where the user's finger is to the graphic being displayed from the laser disc player," said John Kemp, general manager of Automation/Computer for Walt Disney World. "The laser disc player is then instructed to play a recorded video message, then wait for another screen press."
Originally, Disney used two Sony LDP 1000 laser disc players, because the access speed to play a video message took too long between messages.
Disney used the World Key system to pioneer some of the technology needed to develop interactive video disc systems. In 1985 the technology was very new, but in 1988 it has become commonplace. Arriving at Atlanta airport for the COMDEX '88 trade show, we found a kiosk of touch-screen information terminals describing all the available hotels, car rentals and restaurants in and around Atlanta. By touching the screen a picture of the hotel appears; the system can also place a free call to the hotel for reservations or check-in information.
Disney is now working on advancing this technology into areas of EPCOT that were previously based on hard disks and audiotape for information retrieval. Within EPCOT at any point in time, a dozen or more live shows will be taking place using hydraulics, light shows, servo controllers and other special effects.
"The EPCOT system currently uses an audiotape of the pavilion show to drive a VAX 1150 main frame computer. The VAX looks up the event on one of its 100-megabyte hard disks and sends the event information through a simple network to the pavilion," explains Kemp. "In the pavilion is a show controller which translates the event into a digital or analog signal which can control one of the thousands of devices that go into one of our shows.
"We've been looking into changing the system to use microcomputers, instead of the VAX main-frames. We went with the VAX systems because the research and development time before EPCOT opened was very short," Kemp said. Microcomputers are perfectly suited for the day-to-day task of looking up data and transmitting it over a small network. The technology of laser discs could easily be used at EPCOT center. Laser discs with the audio portion of a show could be recorded. A CDV would also hold the event information for each show, then a micro would be used to coordinate the show information and the network. This application would be both reliable and inexpensive.
Kemp told us Disney estimates the new microcomputer-based system to be installed within the next 18 months. Although many systems are currently being evaluated, Kemp didn't rule out a 68000-based machine to do the job.
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