Drones continue to move into the entertainment business with Walt Disney Co. applying for three patents last week indicating that it will use drones for entertainment at its parks.
The move provides the mass media giant the opportunity to present new aerial entertainments shows with help from the unmanned aircraft, according to CNET. Floating projection screens, marionettes supported by drones, and a synchronized aerial light display with "floating pixels" are included in the patents.
The marionette patent describes a system in which the puppets are not controlled by puppeteers and people on the ground, and instead are controlled by synchronized drones, Discovery News reported.
Disney's inventors said a digital light show could feature the aircraft lighting up with their own display screens and acting as single pixels, imitating fireworks by flashing colors. The projection screens that the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) would carry would be less limited than current light shows, such as Hong Kong's "Symphony of Lights," that are beamed onto buildings and other fixed surfaces.
"There remains a need for new technologies for generating aerial displays such as a display involving projection of light and images into or out of the sky or an air space above an audience of spectators," an application for another patent reads.
Disney wrote in the applications that aerial displays could be used for entertaining visitors in different scenarios, such as in a lagoon or other open space at a park, CNET reported.
"In another example, massively large aerial displays may be presented at sport stadiums or other venues to celebrate holidays such as New Year's Day," the company wrote.
The patents were applied for by Clifford Wong, James Alexander Stark and Robert Scott Trowbridge, who are all members of Disney's Imagineering team, which is responsible for designing the attractions at the company's theme parks, Discovery News reported.
The use of drones has been expanding from military and surveillance purposes to other areas, such as filmmaking, delivering packages and conducting surveys at archeological sites. However, the Federal Aviation Administration has to finalize rules for commercial drone use before Disney or any other company can use the UAVs. The agency plans to make the aircraft available for commercial use by 2015.
