Communications of the ACM
Are You Ready for Sentient Disney Robots?
Robots have been part of Disneys special theme park sauce since the 1960s, when Walt Disney introduced audio-animatronics, his word for mechanical figures with choreographed movements.
Credit: Walt Disney Imagineering
I was en route to meet Groot.
Not an imitation Groot conjured with video or those clunky virtual reality goggles. The Walt Disney Company's secretive research and development division, Imagineering, had promised a walking, talking, emoting Groot, as if the arboreal "Avengers" character had jumped off the screen and was living among us.
But first I had to find him. GPS had guided me to a warehouse on a dead-end street in Glendale, a Los Angeles suburb. The place seemed deserted. As soon as I parked, however, a man warily appeared from behind a jacaranda tree. Yes, I had an appointment. No, I was not hiding any recording devices. He made a phone call, and I was escorted into the warehouse through an unmarked door behind a dumpster.
In the back near a black curtain a little wrinkled hand waved hello.
It was Groot.
He was about three feet tall and ambled toward me with wide eyes, as if he had discovered a mysterious new life form. He looked me up and down and introduced himself.
From The New York Times
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