Disney's shipping an animatronic, stand-alone, walking dinosaur for its otherwise craptacular, moribund and soulless California Adventure park in Anaheim.
The character doesn't talk, but can respond with movements. Some of its potential antics are eating popcorn, "stealing" a guest's hat and sneezing.
Imagineers have long dreamed about walking Animatronics, but it took technology a while to catch up with their creative minds…
Always coy about its "magic," Disney declined to talk about how the dinosaur works. But a neuroscience professor with experience in robotics said Imagineers would have confronted issues with software to help the creature stay balanced as it walks. Robotics experts also have been searching for the right kind of spongy material to mimic muscle tissue and make movements less jerky.
(via /.)
