Disney Enterprises has filed three patent applications to use drones for entertainment purposes at their theme parks.
According to one of the patents filed on Feb. 15, 2013, the plans called for an "aerial display system armed with marionettes articulated and supported by airborne devices." The system needs multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to work properly, and a ground control system with enough memory to store the flight patterns for each UAV. One of the example figures presented was an image of Jack Skellington from "The Nightmare Before Christmas," as if he wasn't scary enough on a television screen.
The applications were submitted by three different members of Disney's "imagineering" team: Robert Scott Trowbridge, Clifford Wong, and James Alexander Stark. The second application requests permission for an "aerial display system with floating pixels" by utilizing UAVs that shine two or more lights simultaneously. This sounds something akin to a glorified light show that could replace traditional fireworks one day.
The last and most ambitious patent seeks to create an "aerial display system with floating projector screens" with four UAVs working to created a mesh screen that would function as a flying movie screen.
Although the patents only mention specific uses for Disney theme parks, there's no reason that Disney would not want to use this technology during TV broadcasts for their television division or other owned assets such as ABC and ESPN. Drones are no longer just something to read about in science fiction novels and spy thrillers. The question is no longer if we can engineer drones, but instead, how we will use them.
