Gizmo Guy: Chip makes Swift's fans even more of the event

Taylor Swift is all about community building. And on her "1989 World Tour," which landed Friday at the Linc (and repeated Saturday), she illuminated the message brilliantly, by giving each visitor (50,000 per night) a spiffy PixMob LED wristband with integrated RFID chip that makes everyone feel a part of the show.

It's a technology that rouses all to wave their wrists in the air, as if they really care. And to literally get a glow on.

Pulling a little plastic tab on the soft silicon band unleashes its battery. Then the second the show begins, light-emitting diodes inside the translucent band start throbbing in time to the music and your wrist comes alive with color - and turns white, red, green, or blue, sometimes even artful combinations.

RFID radio frequency identification and triggering technology was originally designed for the manufacturing and shipping industries, as a tool to track inventory. Each RFID chip carries its own identification code, both receives and feeds back ID, location, and control information. It's a micro two-way radio, with added smarts.

At Lincoln Financial Field, folks higher up in the stands actually enjoy the best view (other than Taylor's own) and sense of how this very well programmed tech is being applied in community building.

There were times when the entire field seemed painted in one color of PixMob light (green) while the stands were all blue.

A couple times, half the wristlets blinked in beat on "one" and "three" while others on "two" and "four."

And wow does the place heat up when all devices glow red.

Better still, the bracelets continue to shake it off with light after wearers exit the concert. Do a Google search of "Taylor Swift light bands" and you'll find an oft-repeated account of a recent postshow car accident victim, thrown from her vehicle into a darkened field, who was found and saved by tapping on her band.

Swift is not the first artist to deploy PixMob. The technology debuted in 2014. Lesser versions of the band have been applied at a few major sporting events and the occasional one-off concert - a Coldplay gig in Las Vegas, an EDM festival in Puerto Rico with Tiesto.

At a recent Oprah Winfrey touring event, "The Life You Want Weekend," which played eight arenas, each guest got a PixMob band after signing in and associating the device to their name/particulars. Not only could they get a glow on when Winfrey rallied the crowd with good tidings, but participants could also visit booths and express interest in a product or service just by tapping on the band, and the Winfrey team would then have the knowledge to track and follow up.

Does that mean Taylor Swift now knows where you live, fan girl, if your PixMob band battery is still functioning?

Could be. But as a fan of Swift, the queen of all social media, you probably gave up vitals about where and who you are a long time ago.

215-854-5960@JTakiff