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Producing this animatronic character involved the hard work of many students in the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), a masters program at Carnegie Mellon University. The character also required the integration of a number of disparate technologies. ETC graduate student Tim Eck first envisioned the idea of creating technology to allow a guest to talk interactively (conversationally) with an animatronic character. His collaboration with field robotics project engineer Todd Camill led to the founding of the Interactive Animatronic Initiative (IAI). Once their vision was pitched to the Entertainment Technology Center, co-directors Don Marinelli and Randy Pausch took the chance on supporting the project and populating the team with a group of ETC students. Thus the Interactive Animatronics Initiative began their work and "Doc" Beardsley was born. After seven weeks, the project's status was reviewed and granted another seven week ETC project cycle to continue development. Here is a list of the individuals contributing to "Doc" Beardsley:
Cycle 4 (Sept/Oct/Nov/Dec, 2001) - Tim Eck - mechanism design / fabrication / implementation, animatronic programming, sound production, room design, interaction design Todd Camill - team advisor, ISPS coding Jason Lentz - room design / construction, interaction design Billy Mitas - Doc skin consrtuction, room design / construction, interaction design Randy Hsiao - ShowSmith software design/implementation Ron Weaver - script writing, interaction design Amanda Kraemer - prop design / construction Jessica M Liberatore - prop design / construction
Cycle 3 (Mar/April/May, 2001) - Tim Eck - eyelid mechanism design / fabrication / implementation, animatronic programming, sound production, interaction design Todd Camill - team advisor, sculpting, skin production Ron Weaver - discussion engine enhancements, synthetic interview code, script writing, creating Sphinx language models, sound recording, user testing
Cycle 2 (Jan/Feb/Mar, 2001) - Tim Eck - ETC project lead, neck mechanism design / fabrication / implementation, animatronic programming, skin molding, sound production Todd Camill - team advisor, sculpting, mechanical implementation, skin molding Ron Weaver - discussion engine design/implementation, synthetic interview code, script writing, Sphinx language model improvement, sound recording Randy Hsiao - motion blending software design/implementation, vision perception design/implemenation Bryan Jacobs - audio perception design/implementation, vision perception design/implementation, sound editing Brian Shoaf - talented voice of "Doc" Beardsley, improvisational skills Cycle 1 (Nov/Dec, 2000) - Tim Eck - initial vision, mechanical design/implementation, animatronic programming, sound production, and Gilderfluke software integration Todd Camill - IAI founder, team advisor, mechanical implementation, robotics ingenuity, sculpting Ron Weaver - virtual models, character development, script writing, sound recording/editing, character state programming, and synthetic interview code Jeremy Richardson - web-based user testing, database design, Sphinx software integration, animatronic integration, and preliminary research Dave Hirshfield - synthetic interview integration, animatronic software, hardware communication, and Gilderfluke integration Brian Shoaf - talented voice of "Doc" Beardsley, improvisational skills Kevin Auyoung - virtual model assistance, Sphinx research
Outside Contributions - But it wasn't just the work of Entertainment Technology students which allowed "Doc" Beardsley to exist. A number of separate technologies were incorporated including : Synthetic Interview Software - Scott Stevens, Don Marinelli, Mike Cristel Sphinx Language Models - Kevin Lenzo, Arthur Toth, Alex Haughtman Purchased Hardware/Software - Gilderfluke Animatronic Hardware and Software Open Source Software -
Special Thanks - The IAI team would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their support, advice, and assistance along the way:
Don Marinelli and Randy Pausch, ETC co-directors for their support of the project The Entertainment Technology Center faculty and students as they continually encourage the team and offer constructive criticism Brenda Harger for character consultation Reid Simmons and his assistance with the IPC system Dan Schoedel for his assistance in lighting design
Jared Bishop as the voice of the Interminator
Jon Parise, Wil
Paredes, Russ Schaaf, David
Hirschfield, and Nate Jones
for code assistance. CMU
College of Fine Arts
recording studio for sound recording equipment CMU
Drama, Natalie Baker's voice talent class, Producing for Television and Film (Jeramy Byford, Kassity Fojt, Scott Nestel).
The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Billy Mitas's "Doc Beardsley Presents..." Workshop Thanks
to the support of these individuals, the technologies invovled, and the
work of the Interactive Animatronics Initiative team, "Doc" Beardsley
now lives happily at the Entertainment Technology Center. In the future
he may consent to participate in live chats with his adoring fans. Until
then keep your eyes open for upcoming lectures, speeches, and appearances
by this astounding inventor. |
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The Interactive Animatronics Initiative (IAI) is a joint initiative between the Field Robotics Center (FRC) and the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center (c) 2001 |