College Football Hall of Fame: AI scores a win

College Football Hall of Fame drops guests into the game with a revolutionary new AI experience

by Keith Miller

Since it opened 10 years ago, the mission of the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta has always been about helping its guests become part of the passions and traditions of college football. Now, the technology of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought new levels of experience and guest personalization to the industry, and attractions like the Hall of Fame are leading the way.

“What we are doing here with AI is placing the guest directly into the college football story,” explains Creative Principals Founder and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Thatcher. “This is cutting-edge technology deployed in an innovative format that will change the way the museum and themed entertainment community looks at attraction and exhibit design.”

Thatcher is referring to the GAME ON! AI Experience, a renovation and refreshment of existing exhibits at the College Football Hall of Fame. Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2024, the Hall of Fame comprises three floors with five themed galleries featuring more than 50 interactive exhibits.

Founded by the National Football Foundation in 1951, the Hall of Fame moved to several sites before opening the current permanent facility in 2014. According to Hall of Fame CEO Kimberly Beaudin, half of the building is a fan experience and the other half is the actual Hall of Fame that honors inductees. “One of the things guests have loved is seeing our three-story wall made up of 750 helmets representing every four-year institution with a college football program,” she says.

With its proximity to tourist icons like World of Coca-Cola and The Georgia Aquarium, Beaudin wanted the Hall of Fame to supplement highlights like the wall of helmets with more immersive features to help better engage guests. “We are an institution that celebrates the achievements of the past and present,” says Beaudin. “I knew we needed to look to the future to help bring our guests into the stories we are telling.”

That future is the GAME ON! AI Experience, which captures guest information at the start of their visit and integrates AI-generated images of the guests into artifacts and exhibits throughout the museum. Guests are drawn into the museum as they see themselves depicted as football players, coaches, cheerleaders, marching band members, fans, and more.

The Hall of Fame contracted Thatcher and Creative Principals in September 2023 to help reimagine the experience inside the Hall of Fame. “While we developed a lot of amazing ideas, the turning point for us was when we went to New Zealand to speak at an experience design conference in December 2023. While there, we met the team from HyperCinema who had opened a temporary AI pop-up experience in downtown Auckland,” says Thatcher. “When we experienced what they were doing with their proprietary HyperEngine and AI, we knew we had to bring it to the College Football Hall of Fame.”

Thatcher and his team then recruited Bob Chambers and The Producers Group, AV integrators 3Stage Design and Forward Thinking Designs, and fabricator Project Workshop to round out the team for GAME ON! Creative Principals served as executive creative directors through production and opening day.

The GAME ON! AI Experience

As they have since its opening 10 years ago in Atlanta, guests first receive an all-access lanyard pass embedded with an RFID chip. They then move to a registration kiosk, where they have their face scanned from several angles. Next, they answer important questions about their favorite team, their favorite football position, the food they love most, and even how their friends would describe their personality. This Q&A portion can also be completed on a guest’s phone on busy days. Guest proceed to the third floor where inductees are honored and then walk down stairs to the second floor theater where they view a short film while the system processes their information (typically about 12 minutes).

At that point, they can move into the rest of the exhibits and enjoy their personalized GAME ON! AI Experience by scanning their RFID tag at various touchpoints. “Using this data, the AI tech and the cloud generate personalized images, video and captions for each guest that are displayed on screens at 16 of the Hall of Fame’s exhibits,” says Thatcher. “I think most people who visit museums like the Hall of Fame try to imagine what it would be like to have experienced what they are looking at, but now we show them exactly what it could have looked like for them to be in those college football moments.” Exhibits show guests eating with teammates at the training table, pumping iron in the weight room, as cheerleaders rooting for their favorite team and as fans posing with the famous Heisman Trophy.

Guests see themselves in player uniforms, as coaches, as flyover pilots, and in superfan garb as they learn about each exhibit. For instance, at the Mascots exhibit guests see an existing case of mascot artifacts. “Our team generated 764 college mascots with AI that are then inserted into a generative AI-created poster featuring every guest, along with a personalized motto based on their answers at the registration kiosk,” explains Thatcher. At the 1980s Historic Fans exhibit the AI video screen transforms guests into either a heavy metal- or preppy-styled ‘80s fan at a college football game.

“Placing guests directly and personally in the stories at each exhibit brings more meaning to the artifacts,” explains Thatcher. “They might be drawn into their photo initially, but guests tend to linger longer and read more about the other items and legends on display.”

With a feature that allows guests to finish their registration on their mobile phones, GAME ON! has capacity for 480 guests per hour, and with 20 registration kiosks, the Hall of Fame believes it will be able to handle guest flow efficiently. But the museum does have the ability to turn on timed ticketing if it anticipates a very heavy attendance day.

The tech driving the experience is flexible and robust. “With the help of the team from HyperCinema, we essentially created a new technological overlay for the museum’s existing collection,” says Thatcher. “We even incorporated the museum’s existing RFID infrastructure, which they’d been utilizing at exhibits since opening to show guests photos and videos associated with their chosen favorite college teams, plus their teams’ history, rivals, Hall of Famers, etc.” Additionally, when new exhibits open in the museum, they can be incorporated into GAME ON! “There’s a new Military and Football exhibit we created to open at the same time as GAME ON!, and within that exhibit, there’s an AI touchpoint,” says Beaudin.

AI concerns addressed

Most technology experts have heralded the advent of AI, but they also understand the potential pitfalls surrounding its use. Towards that end, the Creative Principals team and the Hall of Fame carefully considered issues of appropriateness and privacy.

AI is infamous for generating results that can be inaccurate or inappropriate, but Thatcher explains that the system’s guardrails have been set up to avoid that. “During our early testing phase sometimes – just like in early rehearsals of a show – we’d get a result that we didn’t like,” he explains. “Unlike an unrestricted AI system, we have extensive parameters we established with HyperCinema’s HyperEngine to ensure every image generated is appropriate for a family audience.” Thatcher points to the exhibit where guests appear in cheerleader outfits, which might not be proper for young children. “Our solution was to show guests in a cheerleading uniform popular in the 1950s, which aside from being very modest, is completely in line with the museum’s historical mission.”

Guardrails also govern captions and text, such as the personal motto displayed at the Mascots touchpoint: “That 15-character tagline is based on the question in the registration kiosk where we ask guests to tell us how their friends describe them in one word,” says Thatcher.

“If a guest answers something like ‘fartface,’ then the 15-character tagline the AI would generate, based on our prompt engineering, would be ‘CLEAR THE FIELD.’”

Many guests also have concerns about the collection and retention of their personal information, including their image. Both Thatcher and Beaudin stress that the Hall of Fame takes the privacy of its guests very seriously. All of a guest’s imagery and data captured for their GAME ON! experience, including their responses to the personalized questions, is encrypted. Within 48 hours of guests departing the museum, all their data is purged from the system. If guests opt to purchase their photo package, their image data is transferred to third party vendors for 30 days, where guests can order t-shirts, mugs, etc.

(AI)dea generation

Beaudin contacted Creative Principals with the goal of expanding the Hall of Fame’s audience by appealing more to cheerleaders, musicians, and other participants who make college football a beloved institution with a rich legacy. “We first went through the usual process of research, charrette, story, and developing concepts – resulting in some incredible creative ideas,” says Thatcher.

One common theme emerged: capturing the “spirit of game day” inside the Hall, blending where the college football community connects and where traditions are celebrated. But the actual genesis of GAME ON! took place thousands of miles away. “It was really our experience in Auckland when we explored HyperCinema and met its Co-Founder and Creative Director Dr. Miles Gregory that changed everything,” explains Thatcher.

“After having our photos taken and answering questions on a kiosk, we immediately saw ourselves transformed into strange characters, like adolescent astronauts and cyberpunks, while a voiceover summoned us to be ‘heroes in the metaverse,’” says Thatcher. Subsequent galleries showed team members at Burning Man, among crowds in Times Square, in a boxing ring, or sailing on a pirate ship. Finally, they walked into a cinema experience where they saw themselves in three videos, including a mockumentary about each of them becoming a failed technology CEO.

“It was immediately clear to all of us that HyperCinema’s experience was perfect for telling the story of the College Football Hall of Fame,” says Thatcher. “The HyperEngine technology could transport guests into every part of the spirit of game day. It was exactly the tool we needed to have friends and families connect and celebrate. We laughed, giggled, smiled, and absolutely loved seeing each other as heroes in the metaverse.”

From his perspective HyperCinema’s Gregory agrees the technology is perfect for the experience Thatcher wanted to create. “We are seeing the same types of enthusiastic reactions here at the College Football Hall of Fame,” says Gregory. “This is a new art form that is bringing people together to laugh and connect in new ways.”

A perfect match for AI

According to Beaudin, “The museum’s experience has always been about personalization and storytelling, and the beauty of this AI technology is that it’s literally embedded throughout the museum. I loved the concept from the start because it’s taking what we already do to an extreme level that will have a significant impact on the guest experience.”

Like many industry projects, she says her main concerns were timing, cost, and potential IP challenges. GAME ON! needed to be designed, built, and operating within just a few months, and the cost was outside the planned budget. Plus, the museum could not endure an extended closure during installation. Impressively, the exhibit enhancements and AI integration for GAME ON! took place while the Hall of Fame remained open.

Regarding IPs, she reveals, “In our existing interactives, we’re already using a significant amount of IP including logos, fight songs, and player images. We relied on our great relationships with the schools to secure the permissions needed from teams, as well as the College Football Playoff and the Heisman Trust to use their trophies in the experience.”

The GAME ON! experience is part of the general admission price into the museum, but Beaudin points out that the AI integration only takes place in selected exhibits. “We are utilizing AI as part of the fan experience. Once you get to the actual Hall of Fame, that is hallowed ground dedicated to our inductees; there will be no AI in there,” she says.

Significance of GAME ON! for other attractions

Until now, Thatcher says AI has mostly been used to assist in attraction design, idea generation and feasibility modeling. Although a few museum exhibits use large language models to allow guests to talk to holocaust survivors or artists like Salvador Dalí, AI has not been used to put guests in the attraction. With GAME ON! now clearly using AI to transform guests into story characters in the attractions they visit, what exactly does this mean for attractions of all types?

“HyperCinema’s AI integration is going to be completely transformational for the industry,” says Thatcher. “It will work on any attraction that incorporates a storyline, or in the case of an art museum, exhibits that reflect stories.” This means zoos could use the technology to transform guests into curators, safari-goers, field scientists, or veterinarians. Theme parks could incorporate it into dark rides, visually turning guests into aliens, pirates, or ghosts.

For other museums, personalizing art and history will connect visitors much more effectively to the items on display and increase overall interest. The only infrastructure requirements for facilities are that they have power, bandwidth, and a connection to the cloud. Someday, they might not even need the registration kiosks. “We believe that eventually guests will be able to scan their faces on their phones and upload them to an attraction even before visiting,” Thatcher says.

For brand new attractions, they will be designed and built with the necessary infrastructure to accommodate AI. “I think AI experiences like GAME ON! will become as prevalent as the carousel, dark ride, and 4D theater at theme parks and museums around the world, and guests will come to expect that attractions are enabled with AI so they can see themselves in stories,” Thatcher contends. “Because of the guest demand, attractions will be clamoring to adopt AI. Even art museums will move in this direction because guests will want to see themselves in the art.”

As for the College Football Hall of Fame, Thatcher says the feedback from guests has been amazing. “One journalist from Fox 5 Atlanta said the Hall of Fame has ‘raised the bar so high’ and another woman admitted she didn’t even like football but had a great time,” he says.

These are the types of connections between guests and the subject matter that Thatcher is most proud of and excited about. “Everything we’ve done with GAME ON! is about human connection and generating human emotion, and we’re seeing that now with guests,” says Thatcher. “As an experience designer and storyteller, I’ll use any technology at my disposal to get these very human reactions. We’re using AI to generate smiles, to generate fun!” •

Keith Miller (shown here in AI form!) has been mesmerized by theme parks and other attractions ever since his first visit to Walt Disney World as a child when he was afforded a visit to the utilidors beneath the Magic Kingdom. A communications major, he served as a freelance writer for Amusement Business weekly magazine for three years before writing for IAAPA’s Funworld Magazine and News Hub for 21 years, 17 of which as news editor. He’s been thrilled to have had the opportunity to travel across North America, Europe, and Asia visiting attractions and plans to spend the next few years traveling more than ever.

Multiple avenues for increased ROI

Geoff Thatcher, Founder & Chief Creative Officer of Creative Principals, sees AI providing ROI to his company’s clients in four different ways:

• Raises the ceiling for ticket prices since it increases the value of the experience
• Boosts attendance an estimated 5% to 20%
• Drives repeat visitation because every time a guest returns their AI experience is different
• Unlocks additional retail revenue opportunity through guests purchasing their AI images and video

What kind of AI is this?

The system driving GAME ON! is the HyperEngine created by HyperCinema, a tech startup founded by its Creative Director Dr. Miles Gregory, Gladeye CEO Tarver Graham, and HyperCinema CTO Gareth Hordyk. Gregory describes the HyperEngine software as “an enterprise-grade orchestration platform marshaling thousands of AI prompts and services utilizing guest inputs, then outputs unique and personalized multimedia entertainment experiences.”

He says it elevates the role of storytelling in attractions by moving from passive observation to active participation, where guests literally see their likenesses and personalities in attraction stories. “This personalization goes beyond simple adjustments, involving nuanced integration of AI to craft narratives and interactions that reflect the preferences, behaviors, and even the historical or cultural interests of each guest,” he says. “This creates a uniquely engaging and memorable experience that can adapt in real time to the visitor’s responses each time they visit the attraction.”

He stresses that another key difference between the AI HyperEngine and other technologies that immerse guests in stories, such as VR, is that they usually do so at the expense of group interaction. However, the HyperEngine doesn’t isolate guests from their family and friends but allows groups of guests to see themselves and their companions within each experience.

The HyperEngine can also scale to meet demand, capable of creating tens of thousands of visitor experiences simultaneously. It utilizes robust GPU (graphics processing unit) computing power to deliver, in the case of the Hall of Fame, some 500,000 prompt variations, most of which deliver unique outputs for every guest, and does so differently each time they visit.

But the team emphasizes that GAME ON! responds only to instructions it is given: GAME ON! uses AI every step of the way, but it is not an independent learning and evolving entity. Over time, changes will be made to improve the system, but the system itself is not independently artificially intelligent. In other words, the HyperEngine driving GAME ON! is not sentient. It’s a powerful and complex orchestration platform that is programmed and controlled fully by humans.

Through the decades

Mia Thatcher’s (Designer at Creative Principals) AI generated images from GAME ON! show her supporting the team in the ‘20s, cheerleading in the ‘50s and tailgating in the ‘80s. Thatcher’s creative contributions to the project included generating 764 mascots using AI and designing football uniforms that are key parts of the GAME ON! experience

The business of AI attractions

by Martin Palicki

In talking with Creative Principal’s Geoff Thatcher about this article, I couldn’t help but have some of his enthusiasm rub off on me for the potential of AI in themed entertainment attractions.

While I’ve been somewhat reluctant to dive too deeply into AI tools personally, it’s clear that this is the future, and The College Football Hall of Fame might just be showing us the path forward, or at least – in football parlance – which plays to consider executing.

On the business end, things are even more interesting. There are the ROI benefits mentioned in the previous sidebar, and the ones who control or execute the technology stand to make significant money powering the experiences.

In this environment of IP-focused attraction design, AI essentially turns guests into the IP, and guests willingly pay to create or “license” that experience.

Beyond museums, there are opportunities to include AI in all sorts of attractions – dark rides, theatrical productions, immersive experiences, and more. I’m looking forward to seeing what the creative minds in our industry are able to do with this transformative technology.