Alice is a director and looks after blooloop’s clients, new business and events. She studied English Literature and French at the University of Leeds. A Disney and Harry Potter geek, you can usually find her reading, baking or at a museum.
Universal has filed a patent for AR sensors that detects the rider and generates an augmented reality animation within a ride.
The patent is composed of a facial recognition sensor to detect the guest's face, a skeletal recognition sensor to detect the body, a presence sensor which detects the guest's presence, and a controller which includes a processor and a memory.
The rider controls the AR animation
The controller generates the augmented reality animation once the presence sensor indicates there is a guest present. Then the facial and skeletal recognition sensors provide information to the controller that modifies the animation based on the guest's face and body.
Whilst the patent allows for four different AR sensors, not all of these sensors may be in use on the ride.
Using the skeletal and facial recognition sensor together would provide a realistic AR animated figure based on the guest's movements. The guest would simply have to move their head or arm to "interact with and/or control the augmented reality animation."
Different ride systems
The patent allows for many different configurations of the ride system. For example, guests could be restrained by a lap bar or overhead restraint. The ride vehicle can be changed to accommodate different numbers of guests. These guests may face sideways, forwards, or move throughout the ride.
An AR system like this could negate the need for controllers or shooters within a ride. Guests could instead use their own body control an animated figure playing a shooting-style game, as in the Men in Black ride. Furthermore, it could reduce the need for AR goggles which can be costly.
In a post-COVID-19 world, reducing the need to touch controllers or items is more hygienic and is likely to be more appealing to visitors.
Universal recently filed a patent for an in-ride sanitisation method that would clean glasses, goggles and handles within the ride.
The immersive nature of this AR technology could be used in the new rides at Super Nintendo World in either Japan, California or at Universal's new Epic Universe park.
Alice is a director and looks after blooloop’s clients, new business and events. She studied English Literature and French at the University of Leeds. A Disney and Harry Potter geek, you can usually find her reading, baking or at a museum.
Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando are offering limited-time experiences to celebrate the premiere of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The new experiences are launching today (10 March, or MAR10 Day) and are running through 13 April to coincide with the release of Nintendo and Illumination’s film, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
On offer at the Super Nintendo World lands and CityWalk destinations, highlights include a Yoshi meet-and-greet and themed F&B.
Yoshi will participate in the character interaction at Universal Studios Hollywood and Epic Universe's Super Nintendo World.
Universal Studios Hollywood and Epic Universe will also offer movie-inspired food, including the Rosalina Cupcake – a blue velvet cupcake filled with blueberry cheesecake, lemon buttercream and topped with a chocolate crown and star, and Galaxy Popcorn – a multicoloured berry flavoured popcorn with edible glitter.
At both parks, fans can purchase limited-time merchandise inspired by the film, including exclusive and interactive shoulder pals themed to the Luma.
Themed retail and F&B
And at Universal CityWalk in Orlando and Hollywood, guests can pose in a galactic tunnel-like experience for a photo opportunity inspired by The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Additionally, fans can watch the film at Universal Cinema at Universal CityWalk Hollywood and Universal Cinemark at Universal CityWalk Orlando, beginning 1 April.
The first Super Nintendo World in the Universal park portfolio debuted at Universal Studios Japan in 2021. It was followed in 2023 by the first Nintendo land in the US at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Universal Orlando's new Super Nintendo World opened as part of Epic Universe in May 2025.
The interactive land is home to exhilarating entertainment and innovative technology based on Nintendo’s video games and characters. It features groundbreaking rides, interactive areas, and themed retail and dining.
In Florida and Japan, Super Nintendo World features the Donkey Kong Country expansion.
Technology-enabled soccer experience company Toca Football has opened its first Toca Socialentertainment destination in the US.
Located in Dallas at the Grandscape shopping centre, Toca Social's new US flagship location opened on 6 March.
The venue is a hub for soccer entertainment that combines immersive technology, interactive play, elevated F&B, and vibrant fandom.
Games in the 20,000-square-foot attraction feature Toca's proprietary ball-delivery and tracking technology, while entertainment experiences include match viewings on enormous 4K screens.
“By launching our US flagship at Grandscape now, we are providing a world-class destination where fans can play, dine, and celebrate the global game," said Yoshi Maruyama, CEO of Toca.
"We’ve built a unique space that welcomes everyone – from soccer enthusiasts to casual social seekers."
Toca Social US expansion plans
Toca Social's US expansion is part of a partnership with Major League Soccer.
Backed by Abby Wambach and Brandon Aubrey, the Dallas venue will be joined by new locations in other major US cities.
The first Toca Social opened at The O2 in London in 2021. This was followed by a venue in Birmingham, and then another in London.
"Toca was born from my obsession with the technical side of the game and the belief that a soccer ball should be at everyone’s feet," said Eddie Lewis, Toca founder.
"After seeing the incredible reception in the UK, bringing our social flagship home to the US – and specifically to a soccer-rich market like Dallas – is a dream realized.
"We’ve created a place where the skill of the pros meets the energy of a world-class night out."
Inowize, a creative company delivering interactive experiences, presents QBIX Play, the latest version of the QBIX immersive gaming room platform, designed to appeal to younger audiences and serve as a compelling visual and experiential centrepiece in modern entertainment venues.
QBIX Play builds on QBIX's proven success to make group play more accessible, spontaneous, and flexible for operators. While QBIX has become a global leader as the high-performance Pro version for immersive group gaming, QBIX Play expands this concept.
Responding to operator demand
QBIX Play is the open-edition version of QBIX, created for younger audiences, family venues, and day-pass entertainment settings.
The attraction preserves the core gameplay of 6 players playing simultaneously, all within a compact 4 x 4 metre (13 × 13 feet) area. It features nine themed multiplayer titles.
The new edition has been developed in response to a clear operator demand: to increase session frequency, to seamlessly integrate into free-play models, and to reduce friction for younger demographics.
“QBIX Play was born from listening carefully to both operators and guests,” says Claudia Mihalache, co-founder of Inowize.
“The market doesn’t need more complexity. It needs immersive attractions that are easier to deploy, easier to access, and easier to monetize.”
QBIX Play eliminates structural obstacles and adopts an open, highly visible design to encourage spontaneous participation while ensuring high throughput per square meter.
Initially unveiled as a concept at IAAPA Expo in November 2025, it was introduced as a new edition of the immersive gaming room. Due to significant industry interest, the product has now been installed in two U.S. locations: FunVille and AR's Entertainment Hub.
The team also revealed its ninth game title for QBIX, Last Defense, at IAAPA Expo 2025.
Venues can now choose between QBIX, QBIX Play, or scale with QBIX Multi-units, allowing them to build layouts that fit their traffic, space, and business model.
SSA Group has been working on a transformative approach to operations. By weaving its signature 452 Hospitality ethos, rooted in a legacy of welcome and human connection, into Scout, a new AI-driven operating system, the company demonstrates how AI can enhance rather than replace the human side of hospitality.
For nearly 60 years, SSA Group has been a staple in the cultural attractions sector, collaborating with zoos, aquariums, and museums to provide comprehensive guest services. As a family-owned business, the company has continually adapted, but its core mission remains centred on a simple, powerful concept: hospitality.
We speak with CEO Sean McNicholas and vice president of people and culture, Jason Stover, to unpack Scout's mission and learn how it can open the door to both greater efficiency and more memorable moments.
SSA reimagines the industry
Starting by looking at the bigger picture, McNicholas says: “What I love about SSA and our family business is our curiosity for continuing to reimagine the industry.
"Those are pillars of our plan. We approach 60 years as a family business in 2030, and what’s exciting to us is continuing to innovate, not just our business, but the guest experience for our clients and partners.”
Sean McNicholas and Jason Stover
This culture of curiosity is what prompted McNicholas and Stover to investigate the potential of artificial intelligence long before it became the industry buzzword it is today.
"Five or six years ago, Jason came to me as one of the early adopters of AI. We started talking about it, and the more we looked at tools like AI, we asked a very simple question: what one, two, or three areas could AI positively impact our business?"
For SSA, the goal was not to replace staff or remove the human element from the museum or zoo experience through automation. Instead, the emphasis was on liberation.
"The thing that became clear was how tools like AI could help us become more efficient with data, back-end systems, and administrative work," adds McNicholas.
"If we can be more efficient there, we can spend more time meeting guests where they need us, which is on the front line.”
The outcome of this exploration is Scout, an AI-assisted tool and ‘unified intelligence layer’ designed specifically for cultural attractions.
Scout is positioned not as a replacement for human workers, but as a co-pilot. It is an operating system that gathers data from across the industry to provide real-time insights. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, Scout has been built for the sector's operational realities.
"AI is trending now, but it’s not new," says Stover.
"I’ve been with SSA for almost 30 years, and my journey with AI in this company has existed since day one. When I first became a manager, we were already experimenting with predictive analytics, trying to forecast attendance and staffing.
"That was AI at the time."
However, the leap to generative AI offered a new opportunity to support SSA's secret sauce: its people.
Stover employs a cinematic analogy to describe Scout’s role within the workforce:
"I compare it to Tony Stark," he says. "He’s brilliant, but he doesn’t become Iron Man until he has Jarvis. That’s what Scout is. It’s a co-pilot that takes away routine, monotonous work so our people can focus on what matters."
Real-time, useful insights
Designed to support guest-journey walkthroughs, the platform collects real-time observations and converts them into actionable insights tailored to each attraction.
The tool was created in accordance with SSA’s core belief that technology should never replace connection; it should enhance it. The idea is that data and design can collaborate to create memorable guest experiences.
This supports SSA’s wider focus on innovation, which aims to turn curiosity into meaningful change that advances partners' missions. By automating data analysis, Scout helps operators make more informed decisions about designs, platforms, and revenue strategies.
"Guest expectations are evolving faster than ever," says Stover. "Scout was built to meet this moment as a tech-forward AI tool that allows us to keep experiences deeply personal.”
The heart of the system: 452 Hospitality
Although the technology is impressive, the engine driving Scout remains entirely human. At the centre of Scout’s design is 452 Hospitality, the cultural ethos that defines SSA Group’s purpose and character.
Named after 452 Leyden Street, the Denver home where SSA’s founders first lived and practised hospitality, 452 has since become both a numeric and philosophical code for what the company stands for: a spirit of welcome, belonging, and genuine human connection.
At 452 Leyden Street, anyone could come in for a meal, a chat, or a place to rest. And that sense of genuine warmth now lives on in every SSA service encounter.
Today, 452 Hospitality reflects SSA’s ongoing dedication to creating authentic, memorable moments that uplift guests, partners, and colleagues alike.
That same spirit guides Scout’s purpose: rather than replacing people, the AI system aims to enable staff to embody 452 Hospitality more fully, freeing them from administrative burdens so they can provide the personal engagement that makes guests feel welcome and valued.
In practice, this involves a particular method for engaging with guests and monitoring operations. Scout develops a digital framework for this using the SOQ model: Observation, Opinion, and Question.
"Scout is being trained by the entire zoo, aquarium, and cultural attraction industry," Stover says. "Every conversation, every audit, every partner insight gets ingested and shapes how Scout operates.”
Within the Scout ecosystem, there are various ‘agents’ dedicated to different tasks, such as labour optimisation and inventory management. However, the ‘452 agent’ is unique.
"It has vision and voice capabilities. As you walk through operations, it analyses images and observations in real time and evaluates them against our hospitality standards. It acts as a co-pilot for auditors and operators, making observations, offering insights, and matching them with best practices and solutions.
“You might miss something as a human, but Scout won’t.”
Scout in action
The deployment of Scout is already producing tangible outcomes, progressing from theoretical ideas to solving complex on-site issues. This highlights SSA’s focus on turning insights into action by combining data, technology, and human connection.
McNicholas emphasises that the team is "continually evolving Scout by testing it across multiple attractions," noting that "every new site adds more data and sharper insights.”
Stover offers an example of Scout’s operational intelligence in action from a working session with the Detroit Zoo. The team was exploring a complex “what-if” scenario: opening a new entrance near a new exhibit while navigating compliance considerations, budget constraints, and a nearby rail track.
“Using Scout as a sandbox alongside their team, we pressure-tested the constraints, surfaced relevant regulatory considerations, explored alternative approaches like repurposed shipping containers, and generated rough-order cost ranges. It was less about committing to a final plan and more about accelerating discovery.”
“What’s exciting is that every audit surfaces a new real-world question, and we ask: Should this become a new sub-agent? That’s how Scout keeps evolving.”
Another success story comes from the Dallas Zoo, where Scout was instrumental in helping the zoo team explore their own AI journey while SSA conducted an inter-department relationship audit.
Scout is tailored to each user’s psychology
What makes Scout different from typical business AI tools is its incorporation of behavioural psychology. Acknowledging that strong operations don't happen by accident, SSA has combined leadership development with its technological roadmap.
Stover, whose background is in people and culture, insisted that if they were to create co-pilots, they had to understand the humans who would use them. So, instead of providing generic recommendations, Scout adapts its guidance to each leader's thinking and communication style.
"One of the first things we decided was that if we were going to build AI co-pilots, they needed to integrate Behavioural Essentials," Stover says. "We already use behavioural assessments that give leaders a 21-point profile, with strengths, tendencies, and blind spots. We’ve now incorporated that into Scout.”
This means that when a manager logs into Scout, the system is tailored to their specific personality profile.
"It understands how I communicate, where I might need softer language, or where I might need more structure," Stover says.
He adds that McNicholas served as the ‘guinea pig’ for this feature:
"We merged his traits and blind spots into Scout as he was working through our future roadmap. Scout isn’t just an AI tool; it understands your psychological makeup and helps cover your blind spots as you operate in your role.”
The future of the workforce
A common concern about AI is the risk of job displacement. However, SSA’s leadership firmly states that their investment in technology aims to safeguard, not eliminate, their workforce.
"As CEO, culture is my responsibility, and culture starts with values," McNicholas says. "Hospitality, human-to-human interaction, has always been our foundation. I don’t want a world of all robots and automation. I love people too much.
“That’s why Scout exists. It helps us live what we love to do: creating special moments for people.”
Stover shares this view, considering AI as a safeguard against the decline of interpersonal skills observed in other industries:
"We have to be proactive in shaping the future. Many companies will use AI purely to impact the bottom line. That’s their choice. But SSA has always been people-focused. We’re adopting AI safely and intentionally to better our people. As interpersonal skills decline elsewhere, we’re protecting them by freeing people up to reconnect.”
The efficiency gains are clear. Stover notes that tasks like scheduling, which previously took hours to analyse against weather and sales history, now happen in seconds. "That frees managers up to spend time with their team. That’s the point.
“We’re hospitality people. We want to be in front of guests, not behind a screen.”
A vision for 2030
Looking ahead, SSA has set bold goals for the next five years. As the company approaches its 60th anniversary in 2030, the vision is for a fully enabled workforce where each employee has a digital partner.
"By 2030, every person in our company will have a co-pilot that helps them be more efficient," predicts McNicholas. "We’ll also bring a unified revenue strategy to attractions, something the industry lacks.”
He also believes the metrics of success are shifting. It is no longer enough to simply count heads at the gate:
"The future metrics won’t just be attendance. They’ll be revenue, guest experience, and fulfilment," he says.
"There’s more competition than ever, and we have to be the place where guests leave thinking, 'That felt right.' To do that, our people need tools like Scout so they can spend more time creating those moments.
“That’s how we reimagine the industry.”
The future of hospitality
Summing up the benefits, COO Travis Kight says:
"AI is the future of hospitality, but not in the way most imagine. We see AI as a co-pilot, not a replacement, designed to protect the human connection that defines our industry.
“Tools like Scout allow us to turn data into real-time insights, freeing our teams from repetitive tasks so they can focus on creating unforgettable guest experiences.
"As Sean mentioned, by 2030, our vision is for every team member to have a digital partner that amplifies their strengths, covers blind spots, and helps us deliver hospitality at a level the industry has never seen.
“AI isn’t about automation. It’s about empowerment.”
As SSA Group looks towards the attractions of tomorrow, its message is clear: the path to the future is built on data, but the goal remains human connection.
By anchoring Scout in 452 Hospitality's philosophy of creating meaningful, human-centred moments, SSA isn’t just adopting AI for efficiency. It’s enhancing its ability to deliver heartfelt experiences that define its brand and shape the future of the guest experience.
"That’s the foundation of Scout," Stover says. "If a tool doesn’t protect hospitality or make us better people-facing operators, it doesn’t get built.”
Announcing the news on social media, Universal shared images of the new cars onX and released a teaser video of the ride on Instagram.
Per the announcement, ride vehicles will feature four iconic designs, including the Mazda RX-7, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Toyota Supra, and the previously announced Dodge Charger
Universal captioned the post: "Four iconic designs, one fast ride. The Mazda RX-7, Nissan Skyline GT-R, and Toyota Supra join the iconic Dodge Charger to complete the lineup for Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift."
Opening at the California theme park this summer,Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will be the fastest coaster in Universal's lineup, reaching speeds of up to 72 mph.
As the park’s first-ever high-speed outdoor coaster, guests will race along 4,100 feet of aerial track in 360-degree rotating vehicles, designed to resemble iconic cars from Fast & Furious.
Located on the Upper Lot of Universal Studios Hollywood, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will include a queue experience situated within a garage-like structure.
Speaking last year, Scott Strobl, executive vice president and general manager of Universal Studios Hollywood, said: "Watching the progress of this incredible roller coaster come to life is truly spectacular."
Four iconic designs
He continued: "Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will be a powerful game changer for Universal Studios Hollywood that will not only transform the topography of our destination but will infuse an entirely new level of adrenaline to our already dynamic theme park."
Teasing what to expect from the new coaster, Universal said in a press release: "Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will put guests in the driver seat of the high-speed thrills of Universal Pictures’ Fast & Furious universe like never before."
