With more than 100 patents under his belt, Lanny Smoot has never been afraid to take his imagination to the next level.
As a Disney Research Fellow, Smoot is in a position where he has access to a different type of freedom — one that helps him explore different concepts and bring them to life.
As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Smoot was inducted into the 2024 National Inventors Hall of Fame. He’s also the first Disney Imagineer to receive the honor and the second in the company, aside from Walt Disney himself.
“To be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame means that you’ve made inventions that have changed the world in some sense, right? And it’s a great honor,” he told AFROTECH™ from his Walt Disney office in Los Angeles during an event to unveil the latest Disney Imagineer contributions, including the all-new Princess Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Animatronics.
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“I didn’t know when the induction announcement was made, that I was the only person in the company to be inducted except for Walt Disney and it really was an emotional thing for me, because everyone at the company, of course, admires Walt. I mean we’re all here because of him,” Smoot continued.
Smoot told AFROTECH™ his love for science and inventing started at an early age, growing up in an environment where his imagination and creativity were always encouraged.
Moreover, his father was an inventor himself. Smoot, who referred to his father as a jack-of-all-trades, says his father even taught himself how to make mechanical gadgets, including some of Smoot’s first toys.
“He just was a creative guy,” Smoot recalled. “As early as I can remember, probably five years old or so, he brought home a battery bell light bulb, connected these things up, got the bell to ring and the light to light and it lit up my entire career. It became the thing that I wanted to learn more about — electricity, electronics, and just science in general. I was always that person with my hand up in class saying, ‘I know everything about science. I know electricity, and electronics, let me tell you about these things.’”
Smoot added, “It led me to basically apply for every single science fair that I could, to do anything that was to prototype, to build something that was in my mind that I wanted to bring into the world. I think that’s the foundation of invention. It’s an idea that becomes a physical reality because we want to see it so much. The curiosity to be able to see something new can be satisfied by making something new.”
During Smoot’s 45-year career, he has amassed a collection of over 100 patents, 74 of them created during his 25-year stint at the Walt Disney Company, AFROTECH™ previously shared.
He’s played an integral part in Disney theme parks and experiences like Madame Leota’s floating in the Séance Room at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, Disney Live Entertainment’s extendable lightsaber, the Magic Playfloor interactive game experience on the Disney Cruise Line, and the Fortress Explorations adventure at Tokyo DisneySea.
Smoot’s also to thank for the first high-quality, large-screen video teleconferencing system, the VideoWindow.
His inquisitive nature makes him what AFROTECH™ calls the ultimate Future Maker as he continues to demonstrate revolutionary innovation and historical firsts in technology.
When asked about what the future means to him, Smoot’s answer was simple.
“The future, to me, is bright, especially for African American folks who are moving into the technical and science fields because there are opportunities now to do things that might have been a little bit prohibited by society in the past,” he explained to AFROTECH™. “Right now, there is no reason why folks can’t become engineers, scientists, chemists and doing all of the sciences.”
If you or someone you know is reshaping the future like Smoot, submit to be considered for the 2024 AFROTECH™ Future 50 List here.
