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Resorts World Sentosa Unveils World’s Largest Animatronics
Back in 1964, Walt Disney introduced the audio-animatronic Abraham Lincoln character in “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” at the New York World’s Fair. One might wonder if he had any idea where his creation would take the world of theme parks.
Fast-forward 46 years to Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore (home of IAAPA’s Asian Attractions Expo 2011). On Christmas Day 2010, the theme park resort debuted a dazzling attraction that demonstrates, on a massive scale, just how far animatronics have progressed.
Called “Crane Dance,” the 10- minute show features two 90-foot-tall animatronic birds that weigh 500 tons, the largest animatronic figures in the world. At the start of the show, which takes place at the resort’s canal waterfront, the cranes rise up from the ground on a manmade island in the canal. They then perform a synchronized ballet as they engage in a courtship dance.
The cranes were created by four-time Emmy Award-winning designer Jeremy Railton and his partners at Entertainment Design Corporation in Venice, California. “It’s just amazing to see these wonderful birds come to life with the lighting, music, water effects, and digital imaging,” he says. “It’s really thrilling.”
Railton tells FUNWORLD the project started three years ago when Sentosa came to him wanting an animatronic feature out in the water. “I drew up some things, and then I was looking at a table lamp, and that turned into a bird in my mind,” he says. “I thought a crane was nice because they’re an endangered species and they’re elegant.”
As the design progressed, Railton’s team added huge LED displays to the breast area of the cranes to present some of their fast-moving and more intricate motions. But even the motions of the cranes’ animatronic heads are surprisingly fast and fluid considering their massive size, and each of their five-foot eyes blinks and squints. The cranes’ movements are powered by four huge diesel engines that generate almost 5,000 horsepower. Giant water jets attached to the backs of the cranes spray thousands of gallons of seawater in either direction to mimic the birds flapping their huge wings.
As beautiful and seamless as the final production is, Railton says it didn’t come without its challenges: “First of all, they’re 90 feet tall and sitting in the middle of an active water channel, with ships going through all the time. Also, they’re in saltwater, and I think that was the biggest challenge because seawater destroys things. So the whole crane has to be washed down with fresh water every night.” Initially Railton thought the cranes could be made out of lightweight aluminum, but he discovered aluminum is broken down by seawater, so they had to be constructed out of stainless steel.
Railton declined to give a project cost of “Crane Dance,” but he was quick to note the endeavor was made possible by the “really good technical people” he had working with him. “None of this had ever been done before,” he says. “For me, it was a once in- a-lifetime opportunity.”
The entire “Crane Dance” show can be seen by entering “Sentosa Crane Dance” in YouTube’s search field. www.rwsentosa.com http://entertainment designer.com.
Where Will Augmented Reality Go in 2011?
 Recently “augmented reality” (AR) has become a buzz term in the entertainment industry. The technology integrates computer-generated images with persons in the “real world,” allowing users to interact with the images and, in turn, the images to respond in real time.
Now, Bruno Uzzan, cofounder and CEO of Paris-based Total Immersion, Says AR is poised for a market explosion in 2011 as video-capable consumer devices like iPhones and iPads become more advanced. Just in the past two years, Total Immersion has worked on more than 800 AR projects worldwide with some 90 partners. This year the company’s patented software, D’Fusion, will be in PCs and smartphones, and in operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac.
The possible applications for attractions are intriguing, as are the uses for retail (imagine being able to see how a jacket or a hat will look on you without having to physically put it on). As it becomes more widespread, Uzzan says the technology will become much more accessible and less expensive. Also, he notes 3-D video’s recent resurgence offers a perfect opportunity for AR to allow users to get “up close and personal” with content.
Uzzan responds to a few questions from FUNWORLD about where AR is going in 2011:
Augmented reality (AR) seems to have simply burst onto the scene the past year or two, but it’s actually been developing for more than a decade?
We started Total Immersion more than 10 years ago for industrial AR applications not accessible [to] consumers. Over the past two years, more and more devices have offered some video functionalities and, by essence, have unlocked a lot of AR uses.
Where will we see AR go in retail in 2011?
Retail is going to play a big role for AR. More consumers are buying online, and they need new tools to try apparel, furniture, etc. We are already launching AR retail apps on the iPhone, and some of our partners are focusing on such vertical AR solutions.
How will AR applications become more readily available and less expensive for smaller amusement and entertainment facilities?
New devices are facilitating access to AR, like the iPhone and hopefully the next iPad. This AR mobility function will be used in amusement, museum, and entertainment facilities. Also expect some interesting AR games in [the near] future.
How will the market resurgence of 3-D the past couple of years impact AR and vice versa?
Digital images are part of AR. The quality of 3-D rendering is pushing the barrier of a mixed real/virtual world. Both markets of AR and 3-D are connected and will stay connected.
Since audiences still have to wear 3-D glasses, just like 60 years ago when 3-D first became popular for moviegoers, what’s changed that should have audiences excited?
3-D glasses have become more common and accessible, and you have more content that’s 3-D-ready. This is a new way to consume a product—a movie, book, etc.—and it’s easy to use, works-well, and doesn’t get people sick anymore.
You’ve said that what’s missing in the marketplace is “community engagement around a vision of both 3-D and AR as transformative platforms.” Please explain.
There is definitively a need for a “standard” for the AR community, which is growing every day. AR will be everywhere around us—this is just the beginning. www.t-immersion.com
Ripley’s Takes Archive Searches to a Whole New Level
 Have you ever tried to find a particular photograph in an album of hundreds of images on your personal computer? Well, expand that search field to a database of hundreds of thousands of exhibits, photographs, cartoons, videos, books, and press stories, and you get an idea of the challenge Ripley Entertainment faced when it tried to access something in the company’s archives database.
When Dave Ugan joined Ripley’s as vice president of information technology three years ago, he soon realized the scope of the problem. To make the situation even more challenging, he says Ripley’s database was rapidly expanding because of the company’s international growth and its forays into social media like blogging, Facebook, and Twitter.
Ugan gives one example: “The [Ripley’s] cartoon has been produced daily since the 1930s. Each one includes a fact and a drawing. But you couldn’t search the text of those cartoons because it was based on keywords someone had entered, not on the text itself.” Further, Ugan says Ripley’s employees need to know the digital rights status of every asset they pull up so they know what the use limitations are for that particular asset. “We don’t own all of our assets, so we need to have an accurate record of digital rights.”
So Ugan set out to find a powerful digital archive access system that would be not only comprehensive, but flexible. “We wanted to be able, by entering a name or keyword, to get everything— every exhibit, photo, cartoon, and news article related to that subject,” he explains. “The traditional database systems didn’t come close to what we were looking for.”
He selected a system called Virage Media Bin from Autonomy Corporation, headquartered in Cambridge, England. Ripley’s refers to the software as the content management system. The first task was to load all of its assets into the system and properly tag them for search access.
“When we first turned the system on, it loaded 300,000 assets right away. We’re now getting close to 500,000 assets, and we’ll probably get to 800,000 to 900,000,” Ugan says. “The real key is making sure everything is tagged correctly.” He says the system is good at bulk loading, but not perfect, so they ended up doing a lot of the tagging themselves. His staff worked on the system for about a year and then turned it “on” for all users at the end of January.
Ugan is impressed with its capabilities. “As an example of what it can do, it will take a photo and look for any other photos that contain that image in it,” he says. “It also finds duplicates in your system that can be eliminated. You can also filter searches on the quality of an image. But the real magic of this system is its ability to relate content across the multiple access types in the [archives].”
One other remarkable capability of the system is that it can catalog the spoken content of videos. “This thing actually plays the video and converts the speech to text, and then that text is available for searches,” Ugan reveals.
He notes the system can be expanded and enhanced, and that Autonomy releases two upgrades of the software each year. www.ripleys.com; www.autonomy.com
Kennedy Space Center Plans Future Without Shuttle Launches
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida announced a new 10-year master plan, starting in 2011, designed to take guests even farther toward an immersive space exploration experience, with interactive themed exhibits and live presentations by astronauts.
Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts at KSC Inc., operators of the attraction, selected PGAV Destinations, which specializes in the planning and design of entertainment and cultural attractions, to develop the 10- year plan.
With the end of the Space Shuttle Program looming this year, the visitor complex is facing the prospect of no longer having its biggest drawing card— the spectacular launches of the space shuttle orbiters. Of course, there will still be launches of various rockets at the Kennedy Space Center, but equaling the grandstand appeal of the shuttle launches will be a major challenge.
Delaware North says the visitor complex “will evolve into an expedition of a working space place.” The central element of the master plan is a $100 million exhibit displaying one of the real space shuttle orbiters. The complex has requested NASA select it to display one of the three remaining space shuttles. The design calls for a 64,000-square-foot orbiter venue to include viewing the space shuttle in flight, showing how it worked in space, and providing an up-close vantage point for guests. There will also be interactive features covering major accomplishments of the shuttle program, including the Hubble Space Telescope and construction of the International Space Station.
 Final planning for this venue will have to wait until the complex learns if it’s one of the sites chosen by NASA, and Bill Moore, the attraction’s COO, doesn’t know when that decision will be made. Regardless of the outcome, the visitor center will continue to move toward more interactivity, a transition in the works for the past few years. “‘Astronaut Encounter’ is an example. Two or three times a day, guests can meet an astronaut, ask questions, and get a photo with them,” he says. “‘Dine With an Astronaut’ is something special that visitors are able to do at lunch for an additional fee.”
In addition to the shuttle orbiter venue, the Astronaut Hall of Fame will be moved from its current location six miles away to the visitor complex, and expanded. The 10-year plan also calls for “new and enhanced visitor amenities,” which will complement the current array of attractions, including the 4-D “Shuttle Launch Experience” that opened in 2007, a 3-D Imax for showing space films, “Astronaut Encounter,” and numerous exhibits.
The 10-year master plan is funded through revenue generated by admission, food, and retail sales and will involve no expense to taxpayers. Delaware North doesn’t have a final budget yet on the 10-year plan, but that will be announced in the near future. www.kennedyspacecenter.com
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