Ultrawideband wireless offers easy e-tickets

Cambridge Consultants has demonstrated a novel wireless tagging technology based on new-generation "ultrawideband" communications.

Cambridge Consultants has demonstrated a wireless tagging technology based on new-generation "ultrawideband" communications, providing a step-change in capability compared with today's paperless transport ticketing.

Offering a very large sensing zone - with the option of 3D-positional information on tags - the technology has the potential to give commuters an invisible licence to travel.

It could be used to eliminate barriers in railway systems and allow revenue-checking staff to target only ticketless passengers.

Unlike today's proximity smart card tickets that need to touch or pass within a few centimetres of a reader, Cambridge Consultants' ultrawideband (UWB) technology has a range of 25m and can be sensed easily within a pocket or bag, eliminating queue-forming bottlenecks at railway entries or exits.

The technology additionally supports two-way communications and embedded intelligence.

This provides the basis to design tags capable of implementing functions such as links to location-based services such as taxis, and sophisticated ticketing mechanisms such as support for multi-modal/multi-operator travel, and variable charging from an e-purse.

Despite offering this capability, a UWB tag can currently be implemented on a small module similar in size to a credit card, and has the potential to be integrated further - to a single low-cost chip and simple antenna.

The highly efficient communications system that underpins UWB means that power consumption is minimal - even for advanced schemes involving two-way communications - necessitating only a tiny button cell.

Consequently, Cambridge Consultants anticipates that the price of UWB-based paperless tickets could be as low as Eur 2 for national-scale schemes - providing a cost-effective basis for multiple-journey and season-ticket passes.

Combined with a tag's reprogrammability, such a system could also provide travellers with a flexible token that could be charged with value or tickets to handle low-cost fares.

The reader for such a UWB tagging system comes in the form of a simple basestation, similar to that for a cordless phone, which could easily be carried by an inspector.

The precision location sensing capability of the system comes from the use of two basestations fitted with very low power UWB radar capability - a technology that Cambridge Consultants has already pioneered for people sensing at road crossings, and anticollision radar for automobiles.

With this capability, two basestations can sense the location of tags - or even people without tags - in a 3D zone covering an area of 25 x 25m.

This is enough to cover a train carriage for instance - providing the basis for intelligent paperless ticketing that allows inspectors to focus their time purely on ticketless passengers.

Equally, basestations could be set up to precisely monitor a platform area.

The components required for these short-range transceivers/location sensors are also simple, and could cost between Eur 200 and 400 depending on the features implemented.

"Mainline railways pose their own set of problems for automated revenue checking because of the large numbers of entries and exits, and the large payloads of trains", says Peter Bell, Head of Cambridge Consultants' Automotive and Transport business unit.

"Ultrawideband wireless is a very powerful technology that offers a fresh perspective for implementing paperless ticketing schemes".

"It provides a much more flexible way of sensing ticketing that eliminates the cost and restrictions of conventional barriers and terminals, and liberates passengers".

"Our technology demonstration illustrates its potential, and we are seeking to work with a national operator or consortium to develop the technology for commercial operations".

Cambridge Consultants' UWB tag technology is already undergoing trials in people-sensing applications in Europe and the USA.

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