Project Description
Kodak has the Imagination Center as a large piece of real estate within the Disney EPCOT theme park in Orlando, Florida. Kodak and Disney wanted to upgrade the post-show which follows the Figment ride within this exhibit to be more modern and engaging for guests.
This involved making a large fabricated camera with a functioning camera inside that would interface with the overall exhibits show control system and respond to certain cues to engage a live preview that would superimpose the images of children or other guests standing in front of the camera with the EPCOT Ball, the Imagination Center or other attractions inside of EPCOT and then allow the host of the show to snap a photo using a show control cue to take a photo and that photo would then interface with the Kodak Gallery so the guest could purchase coffee mugs, prints, t-shirts or other products with the image that was taken.
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible. ” – Walt Disney
Project Challenges
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Show Control Interoperability.
As the Kodak Exhibit has many moving parts that are outside the software it was necessary to integrate with the Show Control system to respond to cues at certain points in the live experience. -
Camera SDK Lacking.
At the time of production cameras with well documented fully extended API's were nearly zero and required extensive engineering to extend the SDK ourselves. -
100% Uptime.
The product could have no downtime.
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Limited Maintenance Windows.
Due to the nature of the exhibit maintenance could only be performed during hours when EPCOT was closed. -
Expectation of Perfection.
Disney drives a high quality standard and demands it from all vendors on all products. -
Live Audiences.
Having a live audience makes everything more difficult.
