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NYT: Smartphones Will Become the New Boarding Pass

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 1:55 PM - by

Paper is on the way out, and mobile phones with a graphics display will soon be the new airport boarding pass, according to the New York Times on Tuesday. A 2-D encrypted barcode and an ID is all that will be required to board. Keeping the mobile phone charged will be crucial.

Continental Airlines is currently undergoing testing, and eventually the Transportation Security Administration is expected to grant approval. The 2-D bar code, unlike the 1-D bar code on food items, is a rectangular grid of encrypted data that looks like TV "snow."

"We definitely see this as the wave of the future," said Andrea McCauley, a spokeswoman for TSA. “It’s something we are very enthusiastic about pursuing."

The airlines, which have already saved millions of dollars by eliminating paper tickets see even more savings in eliminating the paper boarding pass. Passengers will be able to avoid the kiosks if they have no baggage to check. Airlines will be able to communicate with passengers directly for any aspect of their travel. "We kind of like the idea long term of having a kiosk in your pocket," said Mark Bergsrud, Continental senior VP for marketing programs.

Passengers will still have to show an ID when they pass through security and the information must match the bar code on the phone. Airline research has shown that passengers want this kind of convenience.

With the mobile phone transitioning from a mere communication device to a smartphone, Web browser and electronic boarding pass (perhaps even electronic credit card), phone security can be expected to become even more important for iPhone customers.

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1922 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:49 pm

And if you don't have a cell with a graphical display then what? The airline will, I'm sure, charge you more for using "old" technology.

Many may disagree but I think this is just another way for the airlines to offload costs of doing business onto the customer.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:07 pm

"The 2-D bar code, unlike the 1-D bar code on food items, is a rectangular grid of encrypted data that looks like TV "snow."

Now that's funny. I know this is a quote and not IPO's fault, but a little lesson: 2D = objects with Width and Height as in anything displayed on a flat surface (paper, digital display, etc.). 1D has ONLY width or height, so it would essentially be invisible to the human eye. I don't think current bar codes are 1D. In fact they are apparently already the futuristic 2D.

FYI that means that 3D = objects with width, height AND depth.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 279 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:16 pm

As soon as the tipping point is reached, they will begin charging for the hassle of the dead-tree hard copy. Much as they already do for delivering non-electronic tickets today. There are no real obstacles for implementing this today. For those who don't have mobile devices with a large-enough display, they can print the same data on their home or office printer. This barcode will be scanned by a barcode scanner at an airport checkpoint anyway; if the scanner can scan information from an LCD display, I'm sure it will be able to scan it from a hard copy.

At this point, the biggest investment is equipping and training security personnel at hand luggage check points with a mobile scanner. They don't necessarily need to connected to a central data centre. All they need to do is scan that 2D barcode and decode and display passenger information to the security guard. If it matches a picture document (National ID card, passport, etc.), all is good. The boarding gate scanners would of course connect o the airline database and check against the passenger manifest.

If airlines can see savings in this, they should make a deal with the TSA and fund the acquisition and training for these mobile devices. This should work very well.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 279 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:25 pm

Guest wrote:
... 2D = objects with Width and Height as in anything displayed on a flat surface (paper, digital display, etc.). 1D has ONLY width or height, so it would essentially be invisible to the human eye. I don't think current bar codes are 1D. In fact they are apparently already the futuristic 2D.

FYI that means that 3D = objects with width, height AND depth.

While technically true, the above comment doesn't quite apply here. The 1D barcode (such as UPC/EAN, or the ever-popular 3of9) is a single-dimension barcode. It is still visible by the human eye, but the scanner "eye" reads it along one single dimension. This is why hand held barcode readers project red straight line that should be lined up across the barcode bars in order to achieve a proper read. The scanning software measures the length of black areas vs. the length of bright ones and decodes them into proper characters. There is no information encoded in the other dimension.

The 2D, or Martix barcodes (such as MaxiCode, used by UPS) encode information in two dimensions, which is why these scanners project two intersecting red lines, for easy alignment. The intersection is lined up with the 'bulls-eye' on the barcode and the entire surface of the barcode is read and decoded. They provide much greater density of information storage and redundancy, along with encryption, with greater resilience to physical damage.

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mahuti said:

member since 09 Jan 2003 with 377 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:30 pm

I believe 1D vs 2D relates to the data storage, not necessarily the visual manifestation of it. 1D is a simple array, a string of numbers, while 2D is a multi-dimensional array, a matrix... an array full of 1D array strings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:00 am

geoduck wrote:
Many may disagree but I think this is just another way for the airlines to offload costs of doing business onto the customer.

Don't all businesses "offload costs of doing business onto the customer"--at least, all businesses which are not losing money?

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