In case you missed it yesterday, Disney theme parks announced that its custom MagicBand bracelets will be made available to all visitors, enabling guests to make purchases electronically.
Replacing paper tickets, the bands -- which use Bluetooth and RFID technology -- communicate with electronic sensors around the parks and used for queuing for rides, as room keys at official Disney hotels, and for FastPass, the reservation system to jump a queue at select attractions.
The bands, similar in concept to wristbands tested at the Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel last year been in testing for two years. They'll appear en mass this summer at Walt Disney World in Orlando, and spread to the company's other theme parks soon after.
The expectation is that they'll cause vacationers to spend even more money inside the parks.
The bands can be linked to credit cards. Waiving an armband instead of using a credit card creates the illusion that purchases are free. Parents can put spending limits on the bands worn by their children.
The bands can be delivered to a ticket buyer's home in advance of their visit.
According to The Next Web:
Disney has been undergoing a project over the past year or so that involves them shooting images and associating those with people’s tickets as they enter the park.