The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Disney Enterprises, Inc. and ETH Zürich a patent on August 25 for a system that gives virtual characters a ranked pool of memories before an AI model generates a response.
U.S. Patent 12,718,481 is titled Memories for Virtual Characters. The issued cover lists Disney Enterprises and ETH Zürich as assignees and names Erika Varis Doggett, Fabian Jonas Landwehr and Romann Matthew Weber as inventors.
The System Ranks Memories Before an AI Response
The patent describes matching a user's message to memories associated with a virtual character, ranking the matches and selecting a portion of them for a prompt. The ranking can consider similarity, recency, importance, source, user preferences, emotional state and how long a memory is retained.
The approach adapts retrieval-augmented generation, a method that supplies an AI model with relevant reference material, to a character's personality, experiences and fictional world. The selected memories then accompany character instructions and the user's message when the model generates a response.
Source Material Can Include Scripts, Graphic Novels and Past Chats
The filing describes building memories from articles, books, scripts, character descriptions, storyboards, graphic novels, websites, conversations and other media. A retrieval engine can break those sources into smaller pieces, extract discrete facts and use embeddings to find memories related to a new message.
It also describes short-term and long-term memories for an ongoing interaction. The patent presents those mechanisms as possible implementations, not as evidence that a Disney character currently uses them.
The Grant Does Not Announce a Disney Park Rollout
The patent lists chatbots, games, virtual reality and interactive robots as possible settings, including theme parks, stores and homes. It does not name a character, attraction, guest-facing product, launch date or test location.
A patent grant protects the invention described in the record. It does not establish when, or whether, Disney will put this virtual-character memory system into a public experience.
Source: U.S. Patent 12,718,481, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Image: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cover drawing.