Does the Magic band track your walking? Like a fitbit?

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

I thought i had read this but not sure. Does the Magic band track your steps, like a fit bit? Which would be great for my diet!

 

[KT0191]

No it doesn't. That'd be pretty cool though.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

LOL No it doesn't.
It "keeps track of your whereabouts" for Disney's purposes of wanting to know what guests are doing with their time in the parks.

 

[SgtTibbs]

For me at least, steps at Disney are never good for my diet.

 

[kay1864]

It "keeps track of your whereabouts" for Disney's purposes of wanting to know what guests are doing with their time in the parks.

AFAIK that tracking is limited to:
- entering the park
- entering a FP queue
- photos on some rides
- purchases (if guest is staying onsite)

Beyond that, I haven't read anything on Disney using long-range capabilities of MagicBands in the parks.

For large-scale tracking of guest movements, they use video cameras to see where crowds are, and sometimes dispatch CMs accordingly.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

AFAIK that tracking is limited to:
- entering the park
- entering a FP queue
- photos on some rides
- purchases (if guest is staying onsite)

Beyond that, I haven't read anything on Disney using long-range capabilities of MagicBands in the parks.

For large-scale tracking of guest movements, they use video cameras to see where crowds are, and sometimes dispatch CMs accordingly.

I realize it has limitations and what they are.
I personally don't care what they know about me.
In today's world you're watched 24/7 anyways.

 

[chartle]

AFAIK that tracking is limited to:
- entering the park
- entering a FP queue
- photos on some rides
- purchases (if guest is staying onsite)

Beyond that, I haven't read anything on Disney using long-range capabilities of MagicBands in the parks.

For large-scale tracking of guest movements, they use video cameras to see where crowds are, and sometimes dispatch CMs accordingly.

I thought they were to also track you going into and out of shops. But yes its very loose tracking. When they first came out people thought they could use it to track a lost child.

 

[KenHutch]

Well if you use your band to pay for stuff they are tracking that. I wish it would work like a fitbit because I wear mine everywhere and on vacation I will have a band on each arm. I walk 30,000 steps a day and I see no reason for vacation to interfere with that.

 

[kay1864]

I thought they were to also track you going into and out of shops.

I heard that a while back, but I think it was only one or two shops at DTD (now DS) that were so equipped. Even so, Disney would be far more interested in what you actually buy than what shops you go in.

 

[chris benton]

For me at least, steps at Disney are never good for my diet.

I do ok. As long as I don't walk by Aloha Isle too many times.
Or Flame Tree
Or Ample Hills.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

using your band to pay for stuff is like using a credit card. There will be a record of your transactions, as they are being sent to your resort room account.

 

[cobright]

I thought i had read this but not sure. Does the Magic band track your steps, like a fit bit? Which would be great for my diet!

It does not track your steps. But there are apps for your phone that will wake up and log a gps location every so often. It gives you a route you can plot on google maps and it calculates the distance you've walked. Runners use them.

AFAIK that tracking is limited to:
[...]
Beyond that, I haven't read anything on Disney using long-range capabilities of MagicBands in the parks.
For large-scale tracking of guest movements, they use video cameras to see where crowds are, and sometimes dispatch CMs accordingly.

At this website is all of the publicly accessible data on the magicband technology, including the XBRs (long range receiver) and the nature of the VHF transmitter inside the band.

When the magicband is active*, it will wake up every 20 seconds or so and broadcasts a unique hardware serial number. WDW database has your account information attached to that number behind a secure backend. Like a cell phone network in miniature, Disney has enough XBRs throughout the park to receive this broadcast no matter where you are inside the park. Where your broadcast can be picked up by 2 more XBRs, a more specific location can be determined.

When the technology was first announced, before it was fully implemented, there were some comments made about how the magic band means there will never be another lost child. I know for a fact that your geo-location is available to the MyMagic+ network within the park. Based on these comments, I believe that the system database is capable of storing that information for retrieval. But since I've not heard of any feature that uses this data, I doubt they bother, and even if they did it's unlikely they have any way to just pull up your location at will.

*Just an interesting aside - The VHF radio is a feature of a custom nrf24le1 chip inside the band. The chip goes into a deep sleep if unused for several days. But even in deep sleep there is an interupt pin that will recieve a signal whenever the HF RFID chip is activated (entering park or hotel room, paying for something, etc). Getting used this way takes the VHF radio out of deep sleep. It's still sleeps whenever it actually isn't broadcasting its signal. This is how the battery can last so long.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

According to my Fitbit I walked 32 miles this week...I mean that can’t be accurate right?

Granted I did walk ALOT

 

[Surgie2]

According to my Fitbit I walked 32 miles this week...I mean that can’t be accurate right?

Granted I did walk ALOT

We walked 11.6 miles during one day at Epcot so I'm sure yours is accurate. It's amazing how those miles add up pretty painlessly compared to walking a track!

 

[mountdew1]

According to my Fitbit I walked 32 miles this week...I mean that can’t be accurate right?

Granted I did walk ALOT

It's entirely possible. Assuming you are talking about a week at Disney. To ballpark it, walking from France (by the bridge) through World Showcase (towards Germany then out through Mexico) down the central spine, and going backstage over by Spaceship Earth (Gateway Gifts side) is about a mile. So even if you just walked in the front of Epcot, and did a loop around World Showcase and left it would probably be about 1.5 miles. Now add in back tracks, going to The Land, Test Track, etc, and you can hit 3 or 4 miles without even trying.

 

[Lorelai]

I do ok. As long as I don't walk by Aloha Isle too many times.
Or Flame Tree
Or Ample Hills.

I would walk over burning coals to get to Aloha Isle