Don’t panic if you see infrared cameras watching you when you go to the movies. It is an experiment, by Disney, to find out their reactions and improve their films to suit the tastes of the audience. And all this thanks to artificial intelligence techniques such as deep learning.
Can you imagine watching a movie and having cameras with software and artificial intelligence (AI) chips checking in real time if you laugh, cry, frown, fear, sleep or, for example? Do you do more than eat popcorn without paying attention to the images? Well, yes, this can already be done, and Walt Disney is testing it to find out if his films like the audience or not, among other things.
It was at a conference in July 2017 that Walt Disney introduced its movie-watching technology using artificial intelligence (AI) to track viewers’ facial reactions as they look at the footage. The technology, in the testing phase, could help the entertainment giant make even better movies.
How did Disney do it? It took advantage of a graphics processing unit (GPU) from the company NVIDIA, reinforced with deep learning or machine learning (ML) capabilities, and that aims to imitate human thought processes. The NVIDIA GPU is used by Disney to look at the faces of the audience in a dark movie theater and track their reactions, such as smiles, frowns and signs of fear, or what would be a desired reaction for horror scenes, for example.
To do this he worked with Caltech and Simon Fraser University, and sit four hundred people in front of four infrared cameras that detected their facial expressions throughout the film. And to gather more data, 150 screenings of nine films were held, which included Disney titles such as The Jungle Book and Big Hero 6 . Captured facial expressions were categorized numerically to represent variations in reaction.
This project concluded that facial reactions such as smiling and laughing are related to humorous scenes from the film. The applications of this research according to them can help Disney in its future projects that concern audience analysis, group behavior and predictive reactions. Specifically, they claim that the findings would help the company understand viewer emotions and possibly predict what emotion they would have in different parts of a movie.
According to experts, Disney could use this technology to test films before they are released, and make final edits based on the positive reactions of viewers who have seen the film before. Technology could also lead to “sensitive storytelling,” where the story changes depending on the reactions of the audience. Outside the scope of the film, Disney could also use its technology in its theme parks to measure visitor reactions to various attractions and use the results to make changes aimed at improving visitor enjoyment.
Disney’s new AI technology powered by NVIDIA chips could help you make movies that are more likely to succeed, even if it’s only used with test audiences. And even if this technology never saw the light of day, or the darkness of movie theaters, beyond the research stage, it could act as a stepping stone for the company to develop other AI technologies.
Disney Research also collaborated with Pixar Animation and the University of California, Santa Barbara in July 2017, using artificial intelligence technologies to remove image noise, or variations in brightness or color formation in movies.
