Disney World is about to get much more interesting.
Disney Research recently released a video of a new "humanoid robot" that can play catch and even juggle with people. As you'll see in the video below, the new, nameless robot is pretty cool.
The developers write that they use an external camera system to obtain the positions of colored balls and track a user's head. That helps the robot orient itself with the human. The robot then uses a filter to predict destination and timing, and it can catch the ball in its cupped hand.
Just for fun, the scientists gave the robot a few human-like expressions (shaking its head or shrugging, for example) to display when it misses the ball.
The scientists can even speed up the throwing/catching cycle so that the robot can "juggle" balls with a human.
Unfortunately for baseball fans, these robots cannot yet play left field, although knowing Disney, that idea might not be too distant.
