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Sydney Airport to Instate RFID Baggage Tags
AcidAUS writes "Australia's Sydney Airport is investigating high-tech tagging methods for baggage handling, which could greatly reduce the number of bags that go missing each year. Industry experts say that baggage mishandling costs the industry globally $US1.7 billion each year, and that much of this cost is due to failures in the barcode-based tagging system."
Unfortunatly, better tagging is not a guarantee that things will go better with baggage. Growing passenger numbers and improved security procedures are the main factors fuelling estimated annual losses of one billion US dollars for the world's airlines in missing and mishandled baggage.
In almost all cases, baggage IS correcty tagged, but it's as always the human factor which fails to function correctly. Because all security restrictions, the baggage is now in many cases manually examined and the volume of the baggage traffic and personal stress are still the main causes for missing or damaged baggage.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
Industry experts say that baggage mishandling costs the industry globally $US1.7 billion each year, and that much of this cost is due to failures in the barcode-based tagging system. ...and RFID, which is much like barcode except for the (far more insecure) scanning method is supposed to correct the "problem"? I smell an ulterior motive.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
does that figure include the aggravation suffered when you wait at the baggage claim for a half hour after everyone has left and your bad hasn't shown up yet?
It happened to me once. I then filed a claim for missing luggage, and they called me 2 hours later saying it went on the wrong flight and to come pick it up (or they could deliver it the next day).
Grumpy
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
Better put on your RFID enabled tinfoil hat, then.
KLM and Air France are already running a pilot project (pun not intended) on their service between Paris and Amsterdam. (See for example http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/260 0/1/1/ or go google yourself)
-- Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
There ARE good uses of technology.
Stop invalid scientific research. Ask your local scientists to feed their lab rats with a phytoestrogen-free chow.
The next step will be RFID in passports, after that RFID tag at birth, under the skin. And while they're at it they might as well take a DNA sample.
That's not a futuristic scenario anymore... Sweden, a leader in this field, now has RFID tags in passports and has been collecting and storing DNA samples of everyone born since 1980. It's true, check it out.
Tell your friends about xenu.net
Looks to me like they have not investigated properly what is causing the problem. Only if missing or unreadable bar codes are the cause this can be of any help, and even then it surely is not the only solution. My guess is that they are simply throwing technology (and thus money) to the problem. This is OK if you're sure it will work, but in this case I think the chances of making it worse (read, more money lost) are big.
On the other hand, what I would like to see is a system that allows *me* to track my baggage, and thus knowing that it's in Chicago instead of Barcelona, and not having to wait for hours just in case it shows up somewhere.
The Government has announced the implementation of new barcoding technology that reduce the amount of missing persons in Australia, unless of course they are meant to "disappear". Take that extremists!
Ninjas use italics.
...What if a Terrorist manages to snag or clone an RFID tag and throws it into the system?... Compared to the current problem - terrorists snagging or cloning a printed targ - nothing has changed. I would argue snagging or cloning a printed tag is no harder or easier than an RFID one.
> Better put on your RFID enabled tinfoil hat, then.
Yeah, doesn't anyone care about the right of baggage not to be monitored all the time, and treated like a criminal. It's important. First they monitor baggage, and then they'll put tattoos on your head and kill you.
How about using RFID tags on fucking FedEx, UPS and DHL deliveries? The current system is so illogical and antiquated, it's ludicrous. God knows how many times I've checked in on an item only to find the page hasn't been updated for four days. Sure, sometimes it works (I had updates about three times a day when tracking an item from Manhattan to Osaka using FedEx, that was nice) but most of the time it fails horribly and you come to know the tracking number as merely a "Reference Number For When The Package Goes Missing Or Gets Delayed"...
Airports have been experimenting with this since at least 2001, and many are using it in production.
Contrary to what some posters assumed, rfid DOES in fact help quite a bit the baggage handling system:
- rfid reader can read tags which sit on the bottom / opposite end of the suitcase, while barcode readers cannot do it. The overall positive-read ratio is much increased. The tags are smaller and less prone to tear-off/smearing of the barcode print
- rfid card readers can read many tags at a time, hence the conveyor line can be sped up a lot (as in: put all baggages on the truck to the runaway, and the rfid reader is put on top of the gate below which the truck passes)
- if the complete baggage info, such as final destination, status of x-ray-check, etc is stored on the tag (there are quite a few bytes in there), any tag reader can decode it and sort the baggage even in the absence of network connection , ie . without interrogating a central db. Smaller devices, not even wifi-connected, can be used to recover info from baggages that are found stray in any airside area (and a working 802.11 inside a bhs system or covering a complete runaway is radio nightmare,trust me).
Downside: if that info is not crypted, it could be eavesdropped...
Of course, the point is still valid that all the new anti-terrorism measures are quite a nightmare for airports and airline handlers, and have a great impact on operative efficiency.
If you have ever been through immigration and customs at Kingsford Smith, you will know it is pretty thorough (xray, an entire army of baggage troops to go through your luggage on random searches let alone the sniffer dogs). I am guessing people smuggle things back in, then panic, remove the barcode tag and claim they lost their luggage. I bet this is a security messure to catch the people who bring the luggage into the country.
Just a thought.
I have had a lot to do with the baggage handling system at Sydney Airport (SACL T1 & T2) having worked at both these terminals as a control systems engineer in the last few years.
I can confidently say this will have bugger all effect. The scanning rates on the primary infeed scanners are already over 96%, we have secondary scanner that achieve 80+% (they are dealing with the bags that could not be read first time through) and manual enconding stations at the third level. So the chances of miss-reading a bag are very close to zero.....
The hard part about a baggage handling system is tracking the bags along the conveyors until they get tot he right sortation device. This is the hard problem and involves writing very complex PLC code to and RFID tags will not help this problem one iota unless they are prepared to put an RFID reader next to every sortation device, which if RFID readers are 100th the price of scanner gantries then this might work....
you fill your suitcase with RFID tags?
having to wear an RFID necklace or bracelet once inside an airport if it mean that I never had to hear this announcement for my flight again:
Paging Mr. and Mrs. Idiot who are still shopping or sitting at a bar, your flight is now fully boarded with the exception of you. You are holding up the plane, and we are about to have to remove your luggage. This will cause considerable delay to the other passengers who know how to GET TO THE FUCKING GATE ON TIME !
In the UK, they already have your DNA if you've ever been arrested for anything of late (even if the charges were dropped).
I've never understood this hate of RFID on slashdot. We've used RFID in our organization where once we had to manually scan individual items. We save A LOT of time, it's just as accurate, and the system was fairly inexpensive to implement. We're not talking about putting these things in people here... we're talking about solving real world issues with a technology that was designed for that purpose.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
I got a lesson about the baggage bar-code system a few years ago. I was flying from Calgary to Washington DC via Toronto -- you have to retrieve your bags in Toronto so you can clear US customs in Canada, plus there's extra security for Washington-bound flights (special secure gate, mandatory hand-search of carryons, baggage matching), so if the bags don't show, you miss your connection.
Well, my bag didn't show. I asked the clerks to check the computer and find out where it was, and they said they couldn't. I eventually pressed them as to why, suggesting that the bar codes might be useful, and they said the bar codes were not actually ever scanned. Now, that may have been true, or they may have been trying to get rid of a pestering customer, but it was clear in any case that the computer did not know where my bag was. They could not even confirm that it had been loaded on the flight out of Calgary. They had no idea at all.
As it turned out, it had been mistakenly directed to the domestic arrivals carousel instead of the US connections carousel, and I was able to retrieve it and go on my way.
I would love it if some kind of actually-useful, actually-used baggage tracking system were implemented.
2*3*3*3*3*11*251
Well one of the editors would need to read the article.
Good God man, the whole fabric of spacetime would be put at risk.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Use an alternative method to get your luggage to your destination. A guaranteed method. I use a company called Sports Express http://www.sportsexpress.com/. I avoid all lines at baggage check and claim since my stuff is waiting for me at my hotel.
"failures in the barcode-based tagging system."
It's called "stealing the baggage". It's been going on for decades. Organized crime has had a hand in it for as long. I once saw my zip up bag coming down the carosel opened wide and spilling clothes down the conveyor. That was a looonnng zipper; took some doing to get that open. The asshats unloading the plane were looking for a quick uptick in their personal monetary portfolio.
The Wired article says the 10-15% of printed tags cant be read by scanners or become too smudged or torn for humans. RFID read errors are 3-5%.
I just hope whatever gets introduced WORKS.
I once flew from Cairns to Sydney, and my luggage flew from Cairns to Alice Springs. Took over 24 hours for QANTAS to locate and return my luggage, and when the guy did deliver it to me, he abused me, as though my luggage loss was my fault. I personally don't want to go through the experience again, as my medication was with my luggage.
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)