TechnoTHRILLS.

Local theme parks are rolling out some gee-whiz gizmos to astound and amaze fun-seekers

Personality Test

Mean or nice, which are you? You can find out at the Disney Animation exhibit in the new California Adventure in Anaheim. Inside one of the rooms, which has been recreated to look like the Beast's library from "Beauty and the Beast," you step up to an open oversized "book" placed atop a desk. An optimal sensor makes the book come alive. Lumiere (a character from "Beauty and the Beast") appears on the left-hand side of the book and invites you to explore your personality, which will be matched with a Disney character, be it heroine or villain.

But first you must have a photo taken by gazing into a video screen made to look like a mirror. Behind the mirror is a digital camera. A sensor starts a software program that has the camera take your picture and transfer it to the right-hand side of the book.

Questions based on the Myers-Briggs personality test appear and you touch the screen to answer. After answering several questions, your personality type comes up. Technologies such as touch-screen activation, sensing and computer software programs make this exhibit happen.

Techie World

Step into the Innoventions building at Disneyland and peek into the high-tech future. On the ground floor are scores of computers that visitors can use to play games and surf the Net. The second floor has pods devoted to various subjects. In the medical area, for example, you can walk through a large model of a human heart. In the transportation area, you put on a visor and go where the computer animation takes you.

"Sparky," an animated robot, utilizes numerous characters and voices to take participants through various zones that highlight aspects of a futuristic vehicle designed by Delco Electronics. The interactive tour shows how the car can give advance warnings of traffic conditions and of potential collision hazards. Space satellites connect with an on-board computer so drivers don't get lost and infrared night vision improves drivers' visibility in the dark.

Larger Than Life 

Universal Studios Hollywood uses one of the world's largest three-dimensional screens in its attraction "Terminator2: 3D." While a 12-minute film runs, live stunt people perform. Interlocking 3-D images and digital composite computer graphics are projected onto three, 23-by-50-foot screens. At one point, a 1,500-pound Harley Davidson motorcycle comes to life off screen, roaring onto the theater's stage. The attraction, produced by Digital Domain Inc. of Venice, uses a sophisticated digital imaging technology to make the attraction's real-life components blend seamlessly with its computer-generated ones.