Heathrow launches RFID trial to track luggage
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The U.K.&#39;s busiest airport is starting to affix radio chips to the luggage of passengers as part of an experiment aimed at reducing lost bags.The six-month trial will involve tagging around 50,000 bags a month with RFID (radio frequency identification tags) for passengers traveling or transferring on Emirates Airline between Dubai and Heathrow, said BAA, the company that runs the airport.Barcode tags are currently used, but the barcodes can be misread by scanners, especially if the tags are wet or creased. Those problems increase costs for BAA and the airlines, as well aggravating passengers with slower baggage handling.The RFID tags, which will be attached by staff at nine specially-equipped Emirates check-in desks, will be encoded the passenger&#39;s name and route. Higher-capacity chips could contain more data but won&#39;t be used for this trial, BAA said. Barcodes will still be used with the RFID tags.The RFID chips can be read by scanning equipment from a short distance away as the luggage passes through Heathrow&#39;s baggage system. Once at their destination, some passengers will receive a text message on their mobile phone informing of the baggage reclaim belt, BAA said.
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Teams up with Visa and Barclaycard Transport for London has launched a version of its smart card that can be used to pay for items other than travel.â¦
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Tracking with a soupcon of fast... The Telegraph reveals that the UK government is plotting fingerprinting of air passengers as a matter of routine, to check the identity of departing passengers and to tighten up border controls for incoming. Which, given the firmness of the regime's plans for ID cards, is scarcely news in the long term - but in the interim, turkeys are apparently being asked to volunteer for Christmas, now.â¦
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Passengers travelling through 19 British airports will be allowed to carry two pieces of cabin luggage through security checks starting on Monday, the government said. via Hindustan Times
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Radio frequency identification tags contain more information than standard bar codes and several hundred can be scanned at once.
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An RFID-based trial involving Philips, Nokia and a Frankfurt-based public transport authority hints of a future where ticketing is merely a matter of swiping ones handset.
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The Department of Homeland Security is looking for some live data to feed its new Secure Flight watch-list system, so it will order airlines to fork over a months' worth of passenger itineraries. By Ryan Singel.
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A Singaporean IT products distributor is introducing radio tags to track inventory and delivery.
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Tracking inventory using inexpensive radio tags is one of the hottest technologies in supply chain management, with promising applications in retail and many other sectors.
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Ziff Davis - FedEx's Ground division already uses wireless RFID for asset tracking, but officials are taking a wait-and-see approach to other RFID possibilities.
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The roots of radio-frequency identification technology stretch at least as far back as World War II, when transponders helped distinguish between Axis and Allied aircraft. Over the years the concept has been greatly miniaturized, landing RFID technology in such settings as animal tags, toll-collection devices, passports, keyless entry systems for cars and wireless credit cards.
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A high-tech system is being tested in London to help families of dementia sufferers trace their loved-ones if they happen to wander off.
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NEW YORK - You&#39;ve arrived at your travel destination only to find that your luggage has not. Certain actions can make a big difference in how quickly your bag is recovered or in what kind of reimbursement you&#39;ll receive if it&#39;s lost.
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Yahoo began testing a new travel search engine Tuesday night that can be used to book flights, hotels and cars from more than 50 travel sites.
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Electronic signs and a voice recording are part of a new system being tested to give subway riders accurate information about the arrival time of trains.
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Researchers are developing an RFID-enabled watch system to help the memory-challenged find their stuff. But making sure it doesn't track too much is a big privacy concern. By Michael Bradbury.
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Visitors could face digital fingerprinting at airports under plans to beef up border security