Additional Baggage Tracking Trials to Begin
22 October, 2003
category: Government, RFID
ZDNet UK – News – Luggage tracked via radio
“Singapore’s Changi Airport, Amsterdam’s Schiphol, and New York’s John F. Kennedy International will later this year take part in an experiment testing radio-tagged luggage.
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Radio-tagging of luggage would not only revolutionise the sorting and routing of luggage; if it was fully integrated into existing disparate systems, it would also mean bags could be picked up from travellers’ homes by couriers, then automatically processed and loaded into aircraft, said the report.”
Narita Airport in Japan will lead the ambitious “E-Airport” project. From the Matrics website:
“[RFID] can be used for entry and exit to baggage screening EDS systems, for conveyor sortation, and for in-line transfer procedures when baggage goes from tail to tail.”
Both Delta and British Airways have tested RFID systems, the latter sending 150,000 luggage tags over Europe. Similar programs exist at Boston’s Logan International Airport, the San Francisco International Airport and the Jacksonville, Florida airport. [pdf file]
“The benefits of the RFID portion of the system are two-fold: it allows for swift, precise tracking of selectee bags in its current iteration, while laying the groundwork for more extensive baggage tracking and identification operations in the future.
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When the next phase is implemented, RF-enabled bag tag printers and the RFID scanning array will record complete travel histories for each passenger bag, including where, when, and what types of EDS testing have occurred, departure and destination information, and any stops made along the travel route. With the tag’s rewritable and encryption technology, information can be added securely during the bag’s journey, giving security personnel a clear snapshot of the route it has traveled.”