It seems like Disney wants to take its evening musical fireworks and lights show up a notch with drones that can display images and animations in the sky. The company has filed a patent for a drone-based movie projection system, which will be used at Disney theme parks.
In addition to a patent, Disney has also filed for an exemption from the FAA, which currently does not allow drones to fly over densely populated areas such as amusement parks. According to documents filed with the FAA, they plan to fly up to 50 drones at the same time for large aerial displays for night-time entertainment at their Florida and California parks.
It is still unclear how exactly the drones will display still and moving images, however, the paperwork filed for the patent offers clues. Unlike dancing drone displays already being used for LED night light shows, Disney's drones will apparently project images much like flying movie projectors.
Illustrations in the patent filing show that the drones designed by Disney will have rear projection screens and a wide angle reflector which will direct the light from the projector in order to generate the image to be displayed. Reportedly, the screen will be made of a porous material, such as polypropylene so that the air can still pass through and not affect the drone's flight.
In addition to the obvious entertainment and advertising purposes, Disney also notes that the system can also be used for the “rapid dissemination of emergency information to large numbers of people.”
The FAA has only begun to officially allow the commercial use of unmanned drone aircraft and it is not yet clear if exemptions will be granted to Disney to use so many drones over large crowds to act as high-tech buzzing movie projectors.
