Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Interactive Wands - Universal Orlando - Hacks!

So went to WWOHP-UO with the grandkids last week & of course they had to have the $65 Interactive Wands...

Looked up the patent...

Did a little experimenting & it looks like the whole thing is based on an IR retroreflector in the wand tip tracking the wand tip movement to match to specified patterns for the spell at each location. You can see 4 dim red LEDs surrounding the sensor camera which look just like the IR hi-beams on my nightvision goggles.

So we tested the wands at home with the IR headlights on for my nightvision goggles & the wand tip lights up in IR.

So then I took a dowel, some 3M reflective tape & a hole punch & made my own Interactive wand. Looks just the same through the NVGs.

Haven't been back to the park to give it a field trial yet, but think it should work.

Anybody else tried this? Should be able to stick the tape on my fingertip & make the spells work without a wand too!

Interesting! Thanks for the info. Can't wait to hear how it goes when you make it back.

Does the park in California have interactive wand areas?

vader1974, yes it does.

Well tried out my home-made wands yesterday and....


Utter failure!

One end had 3m reflective tape the other end had a 3mm hemi-spherical motion tracker from B&L Engineering. Saw an old youtube video of some dudes who got it to work, Wonder if they tuned up the cameras? One of the young wizards there to help with the wands told me it's a really specific reflector in the park wands

So back to the drawing board!

Thanks for the update.