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Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

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Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#71

Post by gknoy »

bentcorner wrote: post #69
smoyer wrote: post #33

I always wanted my kids to have a wristband that's tied to my credit card - good thing there's nothing they'd want at Disney World! Sarcasm aside, we always get a big wad of cash when we go on vacation (and especially to Disney World). It's almost impossible to track your spending if you follow the normal pattern of pulling out your credit card ... this wrist band (in my mind) is to make sure you don't realize what y…

My first response to this is to eschew the technology, but in retrospect, maybe getting pre-paid cc's for the kids and linking their cards to those may be a good option. "Here's $200 for the week, don't blow it all on the first day".

I can only imagine that, the first time you do this, the entire rest of the week will be Not Fun for the parents.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#72

Post by wnissen »

bradfa wrote: post #17
bradfa wrote: post #12

Inside the magic band are 3 radios: 13.56 MHz near field RFID (what's in your credit card's swipe to pay), 915 MHz passive UHF RFID (what's in your timing bib if you run a 5k race or what Walmart uses for inventory tracking), and a 2.4 GHz active radio. The following are my conjectures on how it works. I do not work for Disney or any contractor, but I do work in the field of RFID. The 13.56 MHz near field RFID is use…

Also, if you care to read the FCC documentation, take a look at FCC ID: Q3E-MB-R1G1 You can search for any FCC transmitter on the FCC website: https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm This is very useful if you want to see how things with radios inside them work. Most companies do not restrict the internal photos and user manuals from being posted publicly by the FCC (although you can do so).

How is the grantee code and product name split up? I tried both Q3EMB R1G1 and Q3E MB-R1G1 without success. Thanks.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#73

Post by ssully »

evan_ wrote: post #66
woodchuck64 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm... there's a real need for a credit or debit card app that tracks real time charges. I know authorization holds go through immediately (while actual transfers may take a day) and aren't always the same as spending (i.e. car rentals typically issue an authorization hold at time of rental for more than cost), but, in principle, that should be enough to keep track of likely cash flow in realtime. I'd like to see a b…

Simple is kinda this.

Yup. My phone usually notifies be of a transaction before a teller even hands back my card.

This actually came in handy about a year ago when my number got stolen. I was sitting at my desk and heard my phone vibrate twice in quick succession. It showed 2 charges at a grocery store in Florida (I am in Chicago). I immediately put a block on my card through Simples app and notified Simple about the fraudulent charges. It made a very scary situation easy to handle.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#74

Post by tidon12 »

Love this quote:

"It took one engineer six months to get the tear-away channel just right: It had to be easy to tear, but it couldn’t inadvertently come apart. Meanwhile, the readers had to be intuitive enough for people to instantly know how to use them"

It's amazing the kind of effort true product excellence really takes.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#75

Post by joezydeco »

joeriel wrote: post #58
mcphilip wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a side note to add about scanning the wristband for a ride's fastpass line or entry into a park: it's a two step process where you put a finger on a finger print scanner and then move on to scanning the wristband. If both are successful, you're let in. Oddly enough, the fidelity of the fingerprint scans wasn't high enough to read 2 of our party's members, so it was an slightly annoying process having to wait for…

IIRC, the finger print scan was only for entry into the park, not for Fastpass lines. I was just there at the end of December, but it is all kind of hazy now.

Disney has been putting biometrics on park tickets for a while now to prevent people from selling their unused admission days on the open market and stop the sharing of annual passes.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#76

Post by bnycum »

I recently got back from my second trip to Disney World in which I had a Magic Band, the first time it was still test phase and had lots of kinks. This time around it worked flawlessly. To get into the park it requires you to scan your fingerprint as well, to buy anything with a credit card linked to your account or use your dining plan requires your pin number. Other than that it's pretty much tap and go.

The crazy part about the band that scares me is how much you are tracked because of it. After getting back we noticed we had Photo Pass photos, you know the photos after you get off the ride you used to buy. Now these photos are all digital and online, normally requiring you to tap your band at the end of the ride. Well they were just loaded onto our account, we never even scanned our bands for these rides or anything.

At the resorts you can buy a refillable mug, or you are given one on the dining plan. This refillable mug has an RFID chip in them, same with the paper cups. You must place your mug/cup on the sensor below your drink option in order for it to be read and dispense your drink. You can only get so much dispensed in a certain amount of time, or it will just stop dispensing. I also believe they had or used to have a limit per day on refills, I never hit it.

Not to mention their "free" Wi-Fi that they highly promote. I'm curious what all is going on behind the scene and how much is being used. Because they obviously now are tracking what I drink, where I stay, how much money I spend, where I am in the park, what rides I go on, etc.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#78

Post by bradfa »

wnissen wrote: post #72
bradfa wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, if you care to read the FCC documentation, take a look at FCC ID: Q3E-MB-R1G1 You can search for any FCC transmitter on the FCC website: https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm This is very useful if you want to see how things with radios inside them work. Most companies do not restrict the internal photos and user manuals from being posted publicly by the FCC (although you can do so).

How is the grantee code and product name split up? I tried both Q3EMB R1G1 and Q3E MB-R1G1 without success. Thanks.

Usually the first 3-5 characters are the grantee code and the rest is the product code. For this product, Q3E is the grantee code for Disney.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#80

Post by bradfa »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #46
bradfa wrote: post #12

Inside the magic band are 3 radios: 13.56 MHz near field RFID (what's in your credit card's swipe to pay), 915 MHz passive UHF RFID (what's in your timing bib if you run a 5k race or what Walmart uses for inventory tracking), and a 2.4 GHz active radio. The following are my conjectures on how it works. I do not work for Disney or any contractor, but I do work in the field of RFID. The 13.56 MHz near field RFID is use…

>I believe they only use it for detecting rough location of all visitors which is perfect to determine the lengths of lines at rides or to find where a lost kid is in the parks. Also, I imagine to determine if the guest is still in the park and if so which park, what part, or which restaurant, etc even if the guest is not swiping any RFID readers. I also think they probably have issues with people hiding in the park…

From talking with a friend who recently visited and had a magic band, they still do require the finger print in addition to the magic band in order to gain entrance to the park.

I have no idea what kind of fingerprinting system is used.

My friend also said that the near field RFID is used to unlock your hotel room, at least in some of the hotels. Which is neat since you don't need anything other than the band to enjoy everything at Disney, but probably would be a fun target to reverse engineer :)

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