How To Use Pixmob Bracelet After Concert

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How Do the Light-Up Bracelets on Taylor Swift's 1989 Tour Really Piece of work?

Taylor Swift'southward 1989 tour has thus far featured quite a few surprises, including appearances from members of the U.S. Women'southward World Loving cup soccer team, a Lorde cameo, and an unexpected duet with The Weeknd. But perhaps the well-nigh magical touch: upon entering the concert, every fan gets an LED wristband—a translucent silicone bracelet that lights upward and changes color perfectly in time to the music. Their integration into the show was and then striking that New York mag's Lindsay Zoladz fifty-fifty wondered if perhaps Swift was decision-making the wristbands with her mind.

Non quite. They're really designed by a visitor called PixMob, which uses infrared transmitters to allow the bracelets, which tin also be fitted with an RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) flake, to be synced to each show'due south music, lighting, and even the movement of people in the crowd (the bracelets are too motility-sensitive).* Slate spoke to PixMob's commercial director, Jean-Olivier Dalphond—who is strictly forbidden from divulging whatsoever specifics of his contract with Taylor Swift—merely was able to break downwards how the wristbands work.

And so how do these bracelets magically flash in time to the beat of Taylor Swift's music?

We use infra-ruby-red low-cal, which is essentially the technology that's in your remote control. Information technology's very simple simply very powerful—recall of information technology as installing a very powerful fix of remote controls effectually the stadium, and then sending a betoken that triggers the lighting. Nosotros use, essentially, invisible calorie-free to create visible light, and to synchronize people with each other.

We desire to make an object that feels like magic, and then there'southward no button, there's zip to actuate—information technology volition just turn on at some bespeak. We want to surprise y'all.

Who coordinates when the wristbands flash?

We are integrated into the production, so whoever uses PixMob decides what they want to practice with information technology. We leave it to the creativity of the client to work with.

The lite is controlled by the main lighting lath.

What was the first evidence y'all e'er worked on?

In 2010, Cirque du Soleil came to u.s.a. with this crazy thought: Could we paint on an audience and light people up? We had two months. And nosotros figured it out. We found a way to command individual objects.

And so you decided to try bracelets?

What we did with Cirque de Soleil was a poncho. We did the poncho, so we did the PixMob assurance for Arcade Burn down, then nosotros did little helicos that dropped from the sky, and eventually we went to the wristband. We went from the big form-factor to something that was possible to wearable easily and comfortably in public. With engineering science, it's a little fleck like how you start with the phone in the 1980s—it was giant. Now [a phone] can be very small and fit in your pocket. So nosotros started with bigger objects and then made information technology smaller and smaller and smaller.

Did you hear the news story about the three girls who got into a car blow afterward a Taylor Swift concert and used their PixMob wristbands to concenter aid?

Everybody in the office was similar, wow, that'due south a great story. We don't wish that on anyone, only we're glad that the situation ended well.

* Correction, July xx, 2015: This mail originally misstated that the wristbands used during Taylor Swift's 1989 tour were fitted with RFID chips. They were not.

Source: https://slate.com/culture/2015/07/pixmob-the-company-behind-the-led-bracelets-on-taylor-swift-s-1989-tour-explains-how-they-work.html