Polk County theme park rides growth wave

The newest ride at Legoland Florida Resort lets kids “become the ninja,” with the help of technology that's not found anywhere besides a Legoland park.

The recent opening of the Lego Ninjago World and its Ninjago the Ride introduces Polk County to a hand-recognition technology developed for Legoland parks by Montreal-based Triotech, which specializes in interactive attractions. The ride recognizes kids' karate chops and other ninja-inspired hand motions and translates them into 3-D action on large projection screens. The more targets riders “hit,” the higher their score.

It took months of market research and technical testing to perfect the technology, also used at Legoland parks in Billund, Denmark; Carlsbad, Calif.; and Malaysia. More than 100 linked computers work behind the scenes to allow the action to unfold in real time.