Epic MIx

Oh what a little technology can bring. By putting a little RFID tag in the ski pass, you don’t have to find it in the lift line (they can easily detect it through clothing). It can also hold currency for purchases. But the coolest feature is the passive tracking of everywhere you go.

Each day, you get a recap of your path across the mountain, and the total vertical feet — I just crossed 100K for ski week.

And the photographers on the mountain don’t have to follow up with anyone since each person in the shot gets the photo automatically.

14 responses to “Epic MIx”

jurvetson

Feb 23, 2013 at 4:25 am

and it generates collages of photos and special accomplishment pins (it seems well turned to a certain age group that might be really into Scouting Merit Badges)…

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scleroplex

Feb 23, 2013 at 6:05 am

super 🙂

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js.brain

Feb 23, 2013 at 3:09 pm

That is really cool..
The tracking sounds awesome while skiing.
It looks Feb 17 and Feb 22 you did amazing!!!

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Duncan Rawlinson – Duncan.co

Feb 23, 2013 at 6:57 pm

Awesome. This is a brilliant concept. Why don’t they do this in theme parks? Or maybe they do already.

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jurvetson

Feb 23, 2013 at 7:30 pm

Not sure… perhaps because they have one main gate and can enforce payment there, they have not have had to think about checking tags at each lift. But the Epic Mix social overlay may change their thinking.

I know Disney is using one of our company’s fingerprint reading technology at their gateways (for identity verification for multiple entries). It is a very cool technology that uses multispectral light to look at the blood vessels in the finger. It turns out that the capillaries follow the exact pattern of the finger print itself. They are easier to see than subtle ridges of skin and they can’t be spoofed with fake texture or even a detached finger (if the kids ever got that desperate =)

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rwoodworkr

Feb 23, 2013 at 9:08 pm

What the heck is a Lindsey point?

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emperley3

Feb 24, 2013 at 12:06 pm

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/34828153@N07]

A Lindsey point is a metric to track races through the season.

http://www.epicmix.com/How-It-Works.aspx#race

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posamentier

Feb 24, 2013 at 4:20 pm

My favorite feature is finding your kids and spouse when cell coverage is off – you can see exactly which lift they last got on how many minutes ago.

Depending on how you purchase your lift tickets, they also connect your previous years’ passes and statistics so you can see how you compare to last year.

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JJ San

Mar 5, 2013 at 8:06 am

Interesting! I hope they have this for the downhill biking season there.

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jgury

Dec 23, 2013 at 2:06 pm

Why they still have human cattle queueing in theme parks is getting harder and harder to understand. That should not be a big deal. Like a 60 second napkin solution. They still get scams with disabled passes etc. You would need to accomodate people without a comm device, who can’t follow directions etc. so give them some beepers left over from the 80s.
blog.wdwinfo.com/2013/11/06/disneys-magicbands-the-hype-t…

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reid.neureiter

Jan 22, 2014 at 12:49 am

Steve, Was just looking over the collection of ski photos and who should I come across? A St. Mark’s alum — commenting on electronic information innovations that Vail is using to monitor its guests and "improve" the ski resort experience. I have to say, that while I enjoy the skiing, the "Big Brother" aspect of Vail knowing where I have been every minute of the day gives me pause. In addition, because Vail decided to implement (and monetize) its own EPIC Mix racing series, the resort (and its sister resorts of Keystone and Breckenridge) decided to jettison their affiliation with a decades-old program of NASTAR skiing that exists in almost every other resort across the country and allowed for cross-resort comparisons. In any event, it looks like you had a very excellent ski week last year. Give me a hollar if you come to Colorado again this February if you want some company on the slopes. Many regards, Reid Neureiter

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jurvetson

Jan 22, 2014 at 4:09 pm

Reid – good to hear from you. Does Colorado have snow this year? I have been in California ever since St. Mark’s and I don’t recall a winter without rain… Bummer on NASTAR; if EPIC takes over, can the same comparisons be made? If they have a sensor on each run, I wonder if they could add some more to time the race runs.

And yeah, this is just one corner of the transparent society… Big Brother is the ghost in the machine learning overlay on our big data…

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reid.neureiter

Jan 22, 2014 at 4:43 pm

Great to hear from you as well, Steve. Lots of snow in Colorado. A great year. I got to spend a short time in San Diego (my first visit) earlier this year and I can certainly see the attraction of California. I have been in Colorado since 1996. It’s a very nice place to raise a family, although no navigable water to speak of, so the beach outings are few and far between. My kids don’t surf, but they can ski up a storm. I’ve been following your acomplishments and you certainly have done your Texas alma mater proud. Many regards.

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jgury

Jan 22, 2014 at 5:50 pm

Lets not be mixing those literary metaphors too much. Unless of course you feel Big Brother will go all atavistic and savagely destructive, with our bigger badder data just being part of that. I guess that is going to override all those Steven Pinker better angels when push comes to shove since ghosts tend to get the upper hand. Spectres haunting Europe and all that.
Of course it is all about the safety of you, your children and extended family. It is starting to get a bit too personal and entangling eg: dispatcher "The boys are uuuhhhhh uhh, fighting. Should I call mom?" "No, mom is cool with it but dad needs to know" "Got it…."

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Epic MIx

14 responses to “Epic MIx”

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