Audio Animatronics Puns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4p78iN6MYM

here is a video of the interactive audio animatronic for Ford at the Chicago Auto show.

i believe its either made by a company called Mannetron or Sarcos robotics. and its kind of like the autonimatronics technology that walt disney imagineering developed in 2009.

Hello audio gurus. I made a little robot that’s going to sit in the living room window, singing thank you songs to folks with lighting fun after donating to my homeless shelter via QR code site/link. Think light-up house display limited to a window. It’s a fun tech training thing that will double as a holiday eCard to family. I’m not expecting many donations, with the few donors that do to be highly entertained as thanks. :)

It’s ready to install!… with exception of an audio challenge. I decided to use an Amazon Tap (2016 hmm) connected to PC 4.0 Bluetooth USB dongle for outside audio (PC inside). It works great, over 50% of the time. There’s a pretty consistent 600ms delay that I can work with, delaying the trigger of mouth and arm movements to match that.

However, after a while the delay goes up another notch, making lip sync very annoying. My neighbor says he’ll ask for his dollar back after donation if that happens. ;) It does this if the speaker is right next to the dongle or outside with obstructions (still sounds great outside). I can logout of a Windows user account and login to resolve. After reading too many Bluetooth Windows 10 blogs that didn’t help (restarting services, disconnecting, etc), I need creative ideas.

Do I ditch Bluetooth and strap my studio monitors (and practically my attached PC) to the living room window? Is there a way to make the lag more consistent when using Bluetooth, understanding that there will be lag?

Thanks in advance for taking a look! I understand this request may sound a bit silly, perfect for very knowledgeable folks at Reddit. ❤️

I am a huge Splash Mountain fan. I have gone on the ride many times since reopening and have studied videos from many years prior and even to the present day. I know just about everything that should be working, so I've compiled a list of everything that currently isn't! I saw somebody do this with Indiana Jones once so I figured I'd do the same with Splash Mountain. Despite the news about this ride's retheme, they continue to do little touch ups and repairs, so there is still hope for these things to be fixed before they change it. But anyway, here's what's not working!

How do you do room

• The light that shines on the two geese next to the watermelon frog is broken
• The light that shines on the goose sitting in the hollow tree is broken
• The light that shines on Brer Fox and the mule across from him is broken
• Brer Bear does not tip his hat
• The light that shines on Brer Turtle's home and the Rainbow Hollow sign is broken
• One the possums hanging from the tree branch above Brer Turtle's home has malfunctioning arms
• The Brer Rabbit handcart does not move it's full length and Brer Rabbit's head does not turn
• The light that shines on the hummingbird is broken
• The light that shines on Brer Bear before the second drop is broken, leaving him in darkness *Brer Bear does not move and his tail does not wiggle
• Brer Bear's line, "There's nothin in here but bees" is very quiet and out of sync with the drop

The Laughing Place

• 2/6 beehives are broken
• Brer Bear stung by bees has much more limited and tame movement compared to before (Side note: if you want an idea of how much he is supposed to move, check out this video showcasing the ride from 1989, at the 10:28 mark: https://youtu.be/EK78pBhYbmw?t=628)
• There is a water spout to the right of the gilded cage bird that has no water coming out of it
• The boat with the dog in it does not spin
• One of the storks is missing
• The goose has a static beak
• The light that shines on the chicken playing the spiderweb is broken
• Saddlesore Swanson (turkey with banjo) is static

Burrow's Lament

• Mama Mole has a ripped mouth/the material is deteriorating
• Brer Fox's line "Well I'm glad I thought of that, cuz that's just where you're going, heehee! Here you go!" does not play

Finale/Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah

• The lights on the Zip a Dee Lady's waterwheel aren't working
• One of the Swamp Boys is missing
• One of the cats in the mule cart has limited move

I was riding the popeye’s 3 days ago and noticed most of the animatronics was missing.

I keep dying in night 6 and i'm just tired

I work at another amusement park, and was just talking to my grandma about how one of the attractions, a 3-D show, has designated showtimes because it relies on a live actor. She asked why they don’t just use an Animatronic instead, and I pointed out that they absolutely do not have the budget for one. I’m actually convinced that a single animatronic costs about the same amount of money as an entire ride at this park, half of which are the kind that can be found at any amusement park. Is that an accurate comparison?

Take for instance a ride at Disney, when you are going through a ride, how can you hear the audio at the perfect time? How come the people in front or behind you are hearing a different thing but are located around the same spot as you?

I’ve always had a deep love for Disney, like many people around the globe. I’m interested in making a career out of Audio Animatronics. I think it would be out of this world to collaborate on a project like Shaman from Disney World’s Pandora river ride.

I’m beginning my first year of college in the fall, but I’m majoring Comp Sci which isn’t exactly Engineering. I was wondering if a degree in CS could lead me to work on Audio Animatronics, as I’m sure there’s a programming aspect of building these works of art.

BTW: I’m new to this sub, but I scrolled through and many of the projects on here are amazing! I’m astounded!

I'm an experienced software engineer who's just getting into building animatronics, and I read something in Steve Koci's excellent book in the chapter about working with audio. He describes how he was able to get an animatronic head to articulate "speech" for a recording:

>We replace the audio of the right channel with a tone track which is what actually drives the jaw circuit. Using this method, the jaw will only respond to the desired talking portions of the audio clip. Plus, it allows us to also have background music or sound effects that the jaw ignores. The entire clip remains on the left channel and goes to your speakers.

This is awesome, because I'd previously read the Wikipedia article about how the first-generation Teddy Ruxpin dictated actuation:

>Cassettes used the right track for audio and the left track for a control data stream. The data stream controlled servomotors that moved the eyes and mouth.

I'm going to naively assume this is a design pattern, which is thoroughly rad. But the detail I found missing was how to read-in the tone track in code - programmatically accessing only that single special channel in the audio clip.

Is this language-dependent (i.e., a feature in the Arduino API allowing you to isolate channels within a clip), or is there some further technique to only reading the tone track, separate from other audio? Do most off-the-shelf controller boards separate audio by channels out-of-the-box, and all you have to do is tap the desired isolated stream? Is this a standard feature of digital signal processing?

I'm thinking this is a huge reveal into pulling-off the immersive experience of a character's performance by making them talk. We now know the secret sauce - I'd just like to know the ingredients.

Thanks for the help! :)

Hey everyone, I was wondering if any of you have recommendations for books about the history of audio animatronics.

I’m interested in learning about some of the individual stories for the development of various audio animatronics in theme parks - both the successes and the failures. I’d love to know more about the process that went into creating each of the animatronics at parks across the world, as well as the struggles that the engineers had to overcome to make them. Any suggestions would be appreciated!