During his early career, Lanny held leadership positions in communications research at Telcordia and Bell Labs. He later moved on to Walt Disney Imagineering's research and development group, where for nine years he led technical teams that focused their efforts on innovative projection systems and effects. At Disney Research, he is responsible for work on next-generation, interactive visual and robotic systems. Lanny holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering, has earned several patents for his work, and has appeared numerous times in both scholarly and mainstream publications and media.