Disney Developing ‘Physical Face Cloning’

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (CBS Tampa) – Scientists employed by the Walt Disney Company have developed technology that allows them to replicate, with near perfect accuracy, the very versatile human face.

Documents posted on the official Disney Research website details plans for what they refer to as physical face cloning.

“We propose a complete process for designing, simulating and fabricating synthetic skin for an animatronics character that mimics the face of a given subject and its expressions,” the document states.

Scientists and researchers based in a Zürich lab were motivated by the idea of translating the company’s ability to create realistic virtual worlds – seen, for example, in movies released by Disney-owned Pixar – into tangible actuality.

“We are naturally intrigued by the prospect of creating virtual humans in the likeness of ourselves – and it is not far-fetched to say that this is also a driving force for computer graphics research,” the document noted in its introduction. “While the latter strives to photorealistically [sic] create human characters on a computer screen, animatronics aims at creating physical robot characters that move and look like real humans.”

The multi-step process begins with a three-dimensional scan to assess the detailed topography of a human face. Measurements that catalog minute details such as facial hairs are taken and entered into a virtual rendering of the model’s visage.

Scientists then take the image from virtual to physical, using a carefully developed synthetic skin made of.....REST OF IT