It’s been a few months since we first told you about the automated PhotoPass cameras that will be replacing Disney PhotoPass Cast Members at select meet and greets. Today, we visited Magic Kingdom to find that the automated PhotoPass cameras have been installed at the Tinkerbell meet and greet in Town Square. While the cameras weren’t functional today, testing has been ongoing for some time as Disney tries to adjust the experience to be as smooth as possible. We were able to talk with some Cast Members who explained how the process will work when implemented.

First, here’s an overview of the meet and greet and the photo box on the back (left) wall.

Above the box, there will be a video camera that uses artificial intelligence to know when to take photos. The example we were given was a hug. When Tinkerbell welcomes guests with a hug, the video camera will tell the high definition cameras in the box to fire off a series of photos to capture the experience. Here’s a look at where the artificial intelligence video camera will go.

As far as the box itself, it will contain two high definition, wide-angle cameras that will be able to capture photos as full height and at the height of your child. The wide-angle photos will then be cropped after the experience and before the photos hit your Disney PhotoPass account to reframe the photo as close as possible to what an actual PhotoPass Cast Member might capture.

After the meet and greet experience has finished, there will be a box at the exit to the meet and greet that will ask guests to tap their MagicBand or park entrance card to link their photos before they leave.

Cast Members that we spoke with said that test and adjust is still ongoing and didn’t know when the experience would debut. They did say that while the PhotoPass Cast Member would no longer be present, a character attendant Cast Member would be there and will be able to take photos with guests personal phones or cameras should the guest not have Memory Maker entitlements on their account.

As always, stick with BlogMickey.com for the latest on this and many more news stories from around Walt Disney World!

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