Hasta La Gadget!

When we talk about Disney, most of us would think of the company as one that operates the world’s happiest place, in addition to churning out plenty of cute cartoons along the way which have endeared themselves to the masses for many decades already. Well, they do have a stake in the world of technology, too, as we have seen in the middle of last month with the touch-powered sound transmitter, and this time around we are treated to the wonders of electricity generation using printable paper instead of regular batteries, now how about that?

The researchers who discovered a way to do this claim that the generator developed is able to create pieces of paper, that when manipulated in the right direction, is capable of generating enough juice so much so that it is capable of lighting up an LED and even to be able to turn on an eBook display. Researcher Ivan Poupyrev shared, “This simplicity leads to countless applications enabling interactivity everywhere and anytime. My overall goal is to make the whole world interactive, and creating ubiquitous power supplies is a key step in that direction.”

Just how does this paper work? It must use a material that is able to hold a “semi-permanent” electric charge, and one of the charge holding electrets happens to be Teflon. Whenever one rubs Teflon against an ordinary sheet of paper, it will create the opposite charge, so in this new material, both are manually rubbed together in order to generate and harness such energy.

Disney Uses Printable Paper To Generate Electricity original content from Ubergizmo.

The geniuses at Disney Research are obsessed with touch-based input. One of their latest breakthroughs is an algorithm that can “simulate rich 3D geometric features (such as bumps, ridges, edges, protrusions, texture etc.) on touch screen surfaces.” In other words, it provides the feeling of touching a 3D object even though the user is only touching a flat surface. Someday we’ll know what an Angry Bird feels like.

To prove that their algorithm works, Seung-Chan Kim, Ali Israr and Ivan Poupyrev of Disney Research Pittsburgh used an “electro-vibration based friction display.” The display emits a voltage that simulates the friction that our hands would feel if we were actually touching the object shown in the image or video. The researchers say that they can get depth maps from 3D models or from a depth sensor such as Kinect.

Combine this with the Oculus Rift and adult films – er videogames will attain a higher level of realism.

[via Disney Research via Reddit]

Disney has developed a new technology that allows you to generate energy by simply rubbing or touching a piece of paper. This is something the world needs because, you know, everything will require a level of interactivity in the future—even old-fashioned paper books.

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Remember that time back in the 1990s when Walt Disney was awakened from his cryogenic sleep, started building artificial islands off the coast of Massachusetts, and then privatized the U.S. military to protect his new capitalist paradise from an evil, one-world government?

Read more…

There seems to be a lot of Disney-themed art these days featuring everyone’s favorite subjects: the princesses. One that’s currently making the rounds is a gallery of them twerking, but I figured I’d skip that to avoid ruining everyone’s childhood.

Instead, we’ve got a gallery by Beatrice Lorén, in which the princesses keep their dignity and show off their sense of style at the same time.

What makes Beatrice’s artwork different is that the characters have been dressed up in what was considered fashionable when their respective movies were released.

I like Cinderella and Aurora’s outfits best, but maybe that’s because they’re sporting such classic looks. Ariel looks particularly hip in her eighties wear, and Mulan’s get-up looks like something she would really wear, if she stayed in character.

Looks like Beatrice (aka bealor on deviantArt) did a great job. What do you think?

[via Neatorama]