BA testing luggage tags made of electronic paper

[PAXboy]

Whilst that this is an airline specific trial, I think it good news that someone in the UK is trying this out, hence posting here.

BBC News - BA testing luggage tags made of electronic paper (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23127991)
The tests are with staff luggage. Here is a quote "a British Airways representative told the BBC"
"The old security questions such as, 'Did you pack your bag yourself?' are no longer a legal requirement, but the idea of queuing to check in your bag has never gone away," he said."The e-tag still involves going to a desk, but you literally just drop your bag off and someone has a scanner." We can but hope as the problem is resolved as simply as that - because at bag drop off - the pax starts asking 1,000 questions causing delays. They are still going to want to ask those questions.

[Hartington]

Interesting idea. Do I understand it only works if you have your boarding pass on a smartphone?

[PAXboy]

As I read it = Yes. With the percentage of folks on Smartphones ever increasing it should help to make a phased start. Hopefully, the trials will find out the niggles. (Not the Nigels:p) [Sorry:8]

[Hartington]

Having done some more reading I think I now understand the principles. You get a boarding pass on your smartphone and it then uses near field communication, or bluetooth, to send those details to the bag tag. The bag tag uses "e-ink" (similar to Kindle?) and displays the required bar code.

So the bag sortation system continues to use bar code reading to route the bag to the correct aircraft. This means that while dropping the bag could be quicker than the present methods it won't change or improve the movement of the bag through the system.

Having realised that the tag still uses bar codes to sort the bags raises some issues. The paper tag used today ends up with the bar code on both sides of the tag once it's attached to the handle of the suitcase. Is the new tag double sided? I've also had additional, small, bar codes stuck on the top of the case which I've always assumed helps the reader systems should the main tag fail to read and there's no suggestion these extra tags will still be used.

I'd be interested to see some more technical data. I've found this Designworks (http://designworksgroup.net/blog/posts/116) which is from the Designworks people BA have partnered with but it's just a press release.

[PAXboy]

Good points Hartington. We are certainly going to have bar codes on baggage for years to come as any automated bag handling system uses them. The move to RFID tags (Radio Frequency Identification) as now entering service as 'near field communication' will be costly.

We might expect a point at which new terminals, or ones being refurbished, would have dual systems but it will take (guess) 25+ years for the changeover.

Another point to be confirmed is that the tag is the property of BA and they remove it? Regulars could buy their own tag?

[Hartington]

Assuming the staff travel trial works my guess would be that the next step would be a group of Executive Club members on a small selection (or even one route) of A-B routes (no transfers) where they can monitor and measure.

As for RFID, I was shown a prototype tag something like 7 years ago and we haven't seen any signs of adoption yet. That prototype could be printed as well so it could be used in airports without RFID and that made it expensive. They were talking about building the RFID tag into a case but the more I think about that the less I think it is the solution.

The Designworks piece talks about Bluetooth and I wonder if that might not be a better solution.