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Disney Invests $1B on RFID Wristbands for Guests

posted by LaminatorX on Monday March 23 2015, @01:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the Magic-Kingdom dept.

cmn32480 writes:

An article in this months Wired details how Disney spent $1 Billion developing, testing, and rolling out their Magicband system that started actually rolling out in 2013.

Disney's Magicband system is based on a wristband containing an RFID chip and a 2.4gHz wifi transmitter. To use the system, the guest simply aligns the Mickey head on the wristband with a Mickey head on the receiving antenna. These antenna are dispersed throughout the park; for example: rides, souvenir shops, restaurants, and on-property hotel rooms. Rather than having to pull out a wallet to pay for something, one simply uses the Magicband and, upon a good read of the RFID tag, your associated credit card gets charged accordingly. It is even used by their FastPass system which allows you to schedule getting on rides.

When everything works, the reader flashes green and emits a pleasing tone; if something goes wrong, it glows blue, never red. Red lights are forbidden at Disney, as they imply something bad happened. Nothing bad can happen at Disney World.

In early 2014, "atdisneyagain.com" did an actual dissection of a Magicband to get a look at the components, complete with FCC look ups to see exactly what was going on inside.

[Update: corrected grammar and phrasing.]

 
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  • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday March 23 2015, @02:12PM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Monday March 23 2015, @02:12PM (#161470) Journal

    > Nothing bad can happen at Disney World.

    Anyone else slightly creeped out by the above sentence? I'm not even sure why. However I can imagine the person quoted saying it with a slightly sweaty face, a mile-wide permagrin that looks like the result of electric shock conditioning and desperate, fanatical eyes that silently plead "kill me" with every glance.

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2015, @02:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2015, @02:29PM (#161476)

    > Anyone else slightly creeped out by the above sentence?

    That is the author's intent. The article is full of similar brave new world phrasing.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2015, @02:34PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2015, @02:34PM (#161479)

    You're in Ba Singh Se now, everyone is safe here...

  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday March 23 2015, @02:38PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Monday March 23 2015, @02:38PM (#161483)
    I was totally freaked out.

    Then I thought of Monty Python's Happy Valley [youtube.com] (Skip to 35 seconds)