LEGOLAND New York Will Turn Guests into LEGO Minifigures in a Groundbreaking New Ride

When LEGOLAND New York opens an hour outside New York City next July 4, it won’t just be the biggest LEGOLAND theme park in the world. It’ll also be the home of a one-of-a-kind ride called the LEGO Factory Adventure. LEGOLAND revealed the ride and its new technology at last week’s IAAPA Expo, the annual trade show for the amusement and theme park industry.

For the first time, you’ll be able to “become” a LEGO Minifig when you ride the LEGO Factory Adventure. The story-based dark ride uses the new HoloTrac technology from Holovis, one of the top designers of ride tech, to create an on-screen Minifig version of each guest. Between that and a trackless ride system designed by EFT Ride Systems, the LEGO Factory Adventure will make it look and feel like you’re experiencing the madcap, machine-driven action of a LEGO factory at full power.

This will represent the first time tracking technology has been used during a ride before, and it’ll even let your on-screen Minifig follow your own movements as you travel through the ride. If you’re wondering how it works, well, we’ll just say “computers.” And if you need more info than that, here’s how the official press release explains it: the “HoloTrac platform leverages advanced computer vision and tracking technologies underpinned by deep neural-network-based facial detection and recognition algorithms—all in less than 0.5 seconds.” In other words: Computers!

As Holovis’s Creative Director Peter Cliff says in that same press release, “The LEGO Minifigure transformation is the textbook use for our HoloTrac technology, and since it’s completely invisible to the guest, the experience feels like real magic when the moment occurs.” And what better sums up the goals of a theme park than making technology feel like real magic?

The LEGO Factory Adventure is scheduled to open at LEGOLAND New York in the Hudson Valley 60 miles outside of New York City on July 4, 2020. The park will feature over 50 attractions when it opens, spread out across 150 acres. For more info, check out the official LEGOLAND New York website.