Technical Information
Pal Mickey's electronics and batteries are encased in plastic housings (the original version's housing is black or white, the second version's is yellow, and the third version's is white) which can be accessed by unzipping the back of the toy. Beneath the zipper is an on/off switch which enables or disables the toy's squeeze and infrared sensors to prolong battery life.
The toys are shipped with batteries installed, and they are set to "demo mode" while they are on store shelves: they ignore infrared signals, and squeezing them will make them recite a sample of tips as if they were near park attractions.
It has been reported that the infrared transmitters in the parks are able to identify individual Pal Mickey toys and roughly track their locations as they are carried around, thereby letting Disney collect information about guests' progress through the parks. If this is true, the information collected would be anonymous, since nothing identifies a specific Pal Mickey as belonging to a specific person or family. However this is very useful as it shows a general pattern for families, who are Disney's main target audience. Most guest with a Pal Mickey are likely to have children, therefore this shows what attractions are and aren't popular with younger visitors. Nothing has been said about whether they will expand this idea to the other Disney Resorts.
Read more about this topic: Pal Mickey
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