WO2015060707A1

WO2015060707A1 - Wireless tracking system for trolleys and electronic boarding pass

Info

Publication number: WO2015060707A1
Application number: PCT/MY2013/000185
Authority: WO
Inventors: Choon Lian LIEW; Hon Wai SIM; Hsien-Chi LIU; Wei Loong YAP; Chee Yoong LAM
Original assignee: MDT Innovations SdN Bhd
Priority date: 2013-10-21
Filing date: 2013-10-22
Publication date: 2015-04-30
Also published as: NZ617084A; MY198157A; AU2013248226A1; AU2020202950B2; AU2020202950A1

Abstract

The present invention provides a systems and methods of an intelligent wireless tracker system for tracking position of both passenger and trolley in an airport, the system consisting of a passenger unit associated with the passenger comprises a display indicating the boarding information of the passenger, a monitoring device mounted thereto, capable of transmitting a unique ID and a passenger ID data associated therewith. Plurality of transporting units comprises a monitoring unit associated therewith, capable of transmitting the unique ID data associated therewith. A plurality of wireless sensors deployed in the airport, capable of receiving the data from the monitoring devices. A base station equipped with monitoring software operatively connected to the wireless sensors, processing the data received at the wireless sensors and hence transmitting the controls to the units.

Description

Wireless Tracking System for Trolleys and Electronic

Boarding Pass

Field of Invention

The present invention pertains to electronic monitoring system, and more particularly to a real-time monitoring systems and methods, at a commercial establishment suchl as airports, for monitoring boarding pass, baggage, trolleys, transporting units and likes over wireless network.

Background of the Invention

Certain establishments such as airports, railway stations, shopping malls etc. need to monitor the movements of their public service equipment such as trolleys or transporting units in a shopping establishment, baggage, trolleys and boarding passes at a commercial airport etc. For every kind of commercial establishment the need for real time monitoring of their services differs, which is based on the same set of services that they have to offer to their customers/clients .

Traditionally, there exist -such methods, which have been attempted to address needs of real-time monitoring of articles like transporting units at an establishment like a shopping mall or vehicles owned by a private car rental company. Global Positioning System (GPS) and methods thereof have significantly assisted in attempts at real-time monitoring of such articles. Since with help of GPS geographic location can be discovered within a span of a few meters, thus allowing position information of these to be determined with great precision.

There exists attempt at installing a centralized tracking and management systems wherein GPS-based tracking system for discovering a current location for an article provide the tracking and management at establishments owning large numbers of such articles. The systems are also implemented for monitoring vehicles. There are a number of systems available based on GPS or satellites for tracking vehicles. These systems include the "OmniTracs" system from Qualcomm, Inc., and the Orbcomm data messaging system from Orbcomm, Inc. Such systems generally have a GPS system and a satellite-based data messaging system. Messages containing information regarding the vehicle are communicated between the vehicle and a central managing entity through the satellite based system.

Satellite based systems as described above, require considerable amount of power since there is two way communication with satellites orbiting in earth's orbit. Such systems have been developed by Qualcomm, such as Omnitracs system. These systems are suited for vehicles which are powered by battery or engine and therefore not suited for monitoring of articles such as baggage, trolleys or boarding pass etc. in variety of commercial establishments .

Cellular based monitoring systems have been reported in _j the prior art too. However, these systems do not work in areas with low network coverage such a rural area or outskirts of a town. Shopping centres, supermarkets, malls, airports, railway stations and other such commercial establishments, provides their customers or clients with a number of articles and services for different purposes such as transporting units at airports and shopping establishments for carrying luggage or shopping items respectively, boarding pass for boarding a craft at an airport, baggage handling services to handle baggage at airports etc. One of the many problems faced by such commercial establishments is that customers/clients use it often for various other purposes and do not leave it at a centralized position. For example, some customers use the trolleys to take purchased goods home, whilst others including youths and children will remove shopping trolleys for joyrides and other purposes. While some take it to car park and leave the trolleys there. In airports, trolleys are often found spread across the check-in counters, and before security check and also in the car park or some other public transport establishment near-by airport.

In many instances trolleys that are removed from airports or shopping centres and their associated car parks puts a large cost on management as trolleys may be commonly abandoned in the street, car park and therefore must be searched fdr, collected and returned to the storage.

Various attempts have been made to minimise the removal of trolleys commercial environments. For example, some establishments lock the trolleys together, and employ a coin release mechanism, which requires a trolley to be returned to a trolley bay in order to have the coin refunded. Generally, customers/clients are hard-pressed for times that the value of coin may be neglected and therefore the method or strategy employed does not work well, especially in busy urban areas or when someone is boarding a flight.

Further, at establishments such as airports, there may be associated benefits of tracking passengers for security and on-time boarding purposes. Ability to count passengers in real-time may enable airports to reduce or increase security levels accordingly depending on the time of the day. The tracking methods may also be used for passenger authentication, boundary detection, electronic information etc. Similarly, baggage or luggage of the airline passengers could be monitored during check-in and also during baggage reclaim. All such applications have to be low power consuming .

Further, there are electronic systems which utilize an ί electronic locking wheel fitted to each of the trolleys. A RFID high frequency transmitter with a thin wire is placed around the perimeter boundary of the premises of the establishment and the wheel locks when the trolley leaves the designated area. The required personnel must then deactivate the lock with a hand-held remote to return the trolley to stock. However, these systems are very expensive to install and maintain and not practical in some larger establishments with large perimeter and multiple entry points .

There is a need for an ecological system and method _: of reducing the use of paper.

Further there is a need for a system and method need for an electronic boarding pass which can display the related information to passenger and alert before the predetermined time within the airport and may extended upto the parking lot, or passing the coverage area of wireless network. The system and methods may further extended to the reusable boarding pass that allotted to successive passenger.

Further there is need for a systems and methods for intelligent real-time wireless tracking of the electronic boarding passes associated with each passenger to alert before the predetermined time within the airport or extended upto the parking lot.

Further, at establishments such as airports, there may be associated benefits of tracking passengers for security and on-time boarding purposes. Ability to count passengers in real-time may enable airports to reduce or increase security levels accordingly depending on the time of the day. The tracking methods may also be used for passenger authentication, boundary detection, electronic information etc .

Also, for different establishments, different architectures and centralized systems is currently needed to employed, which leads to unnecessary costs in development.

Accordingly, there is a need to develop a universal, low power consuming, cost effect - centralized tracking and monitoring system that may be deployed for wide ranging applications .

Summary of the Invention

In an aspect of the invention systems and methods of an intelligent wireless tracker system for tracking position of both passenger and trolley in an airport, the system consisting of a passenger unit associated with the passenger comprises a display indicating the boarding information of the passenger, a monitoring device mounted thereto, capable of transmitting a unique ID and a passenger ID data associated therewith. Plurality of transporting units comprises a monitoring unit associated therewith, capable of transmitting the unique ID data associated therewith. A plurality of wireless sensors deployed in the airport, capable of receiving the data from the monitoring devices. A base station equipped with monitoring software operatively connected to the wireless sensors, processing the data received at the wireless sensors and hence transmitting the controls to the units.

In another aspect of the invention, an electronic boarding pass for a passenger comprising a user interface for displaying the boarding information of the passenger in an airport comprising a display indicates the boarding information of the passenger, a sensor network, wirelessly communicating with the boarding pass, and hence determining the status of the passenger, wherein the sensor network equipped with a monitoring software and alerting the passenger when one of the condition is achieved (i) failed

i to turn up at boarding gate (ii) failed to be within boarding gate vicinity (iii) passing the boundary line and (iv) predetermined due time to board the aircraft.

The boarding pass comprises a wireless interface for transmitting position data. A memory for storing flight data and its updates, further storing user data of the passenger, airline data, passport and biometric data.

The boarding pass user interface further indicates due time, a gate number, a terminal number, a flight number, a flight operator code, a boarding time, and a departure time.

The boarding pass consisting of a markdown response algorithm. The boarding pass indicating static (not moving or sitting) or dynamic (moving or walking) modes of the passenger.

The boarding pass comprises AES 128 bit cryptography functionality for secure communication.

The boarding pass continuously monitoring the boarding pass by sensor network at a predetermined interval of time.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description when read with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

Figure 1 illustrates an architecture of and electronic boarding pass, according to an embodiment herein.

Figure 2 illustrates a wireless sensor network architecture, according to an embodiment herein.

Figure 3 illustrates an intelligent wireless tracker monitoring software architecture, according to an embodiment herein .

Figure 4 illustrates schematic view of transporting unit made up of a vehicle and trolley, according to an embodiment herein . Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments herein describe a systems and methods for tracking and monitoring a plurality of an Electronic Boarding Pass (EBP) and a transporting unit that contains intelligent wireless tracker (IWT) means, as boarding pass to airline passengers which has universal application across broad range of commercial establishments and can be customized to suit various needs of these establishments.

The tracking system is enabled by deploying an Intelligent Wireless Tracker Monitoring Software (IWTMS) . This software infrastructure is deployed in commercial establishments for tracking and monitoring of airline passengers and transporting systems in accordance with the need of a particular establishment, which will be explained by giving various examples.

Figure 1 illustrates architecture of the electronic boarding pass (100), which is a card based device, associated with each air line passenger and may be issued by airport authority during check-in in place of a paper ticket. The Electronic Boarding Pass (100) , consisting an central control unit (101) is an on board chip module further consisting a 2.4 GHZ RF front end (112), a IEEE 802.15.4 MAC accelerator (113), a power management or power indicator

(114) , a video processor (115), a 32-bit RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) central processor (110) , a AES 128-bit cryptography accelerator (111), a video processor

(115) which often employs video filters and where the input and output signals are video files or video streams, a storage devices like 128KB RAM (109), a 128KB ROM (108) and interfacing device (107). The central control unit (101) interfaces with multiple peripherals like LCD display (102), acceleration or motion sensor (103), alarm (104), battery (105) and xtal (106) . An interface (107) gathers the information from the peripheral device like motion sensor (g-sensor and like) to determine if EBP (100) is stationary or how it is moving, an alarm (104) to detect theft or removal when out of range or alerting the passenger if they fail to turn up at boarding gate or failed to be within boarding gate vicinity and alerting the passenger about aircraft on specific time, a battery (105) for providing power to the on board chip module (101) with a level indicator feeding back to processor (110) about battery status. The xtal (106) is a crystal oscillator is for providing the timing requirements of the processor (110) via interfaces (107). The EBP (100) is incorporated with the LCD display (102) for displaying the boarding information, aircraft time ^ to passenger. The central control unit (101) consisting a radio transmitter (112) for transmitting and receiving a unique ID, associated with each EBP (100) and passenger ID, is a unique identification issued by airline authority to passenger. The on board chip module (101) consisting an I/O mechanism to optionally output signal to an alarm (104) to alert the passenger when (i) passenger failed to turn up at boarding gate (ii) passenger failed to be within boarding gate vicinity (iii) the units (100, 400) passing the boundary line and (iv) predetermined due time to board the aircraft . The EBP (100) has its own unique ID and passenger ID and other related data transmitted through the radio transmitter. The communication between the EBP (100) and PWSN (200) is based on IEEE 802.15.4 link. In the present embodiment, IEEE 802.15.4 for example can be used. IEEE 802.15.4 is a standard which specifies the physical layer and media access control for low-rate wireless local area networks. The mode of communication between EBP' s (100) and PWSN (202) shall not be restricted with IEEE 802.15.4 only. Standards such as ZigBee, ISAlOO.lla, WirelessHART, and MiWi specification (each of which further extends the standard by developing the upper layers which are not defined by 802.15.4) may be used for this purpose. The communication between EBP (100) and PWSN (200) is AES 128 bit encrypted, so as to ward-off any possibility of an intruder or a hacker gaining access to the information. The communication uses AES 128bit encryption for both EBP (100) and PWSN (200) .

Figure 4 represents the schematic diagram of a transporting unit (400) made up of a powered vehicle and a towed trolley (403) in combination. The present invention will help in monitoring and managing such a transporting unit (401) . The monitoring device can be mounted on any suitable position on vehicle (401) or trolley (403) . In the present embodiment the monitoring device is installed to the steering wheel of vehicle (201) . The monitoring unit associated with [the transporting unit (400) where advanced functions like wheel locking mechanism and advanced monitoring mechanisms like thermometer for monitoring temperature, accelerometer or motion sensor, and speedometer.

Once the data has been obtained by monitoring units of EBP (100) and transport unit (400), it sends the data to PWSN (200) via a TCP/IP link. The functionalities of control unit (101) of EBP (100) includes unique identifier that can be used to register the passenger ID number during check-in process are stored in on chip storage device like RAM and ROM, on board chip (101) can be securely used to authenticate passenger at immigration, customs, or at boarding gate.

Figure 2 illustrates the passenger wireless sensor network architecture (200), is an infrastructure deployed in airport to determine the location of passenger and or trolley/baggage in real time. The sensor network (202) is in communication with wireless repeater (201) to regenerate the incoming signals to extend the range of network. The sensor network is further communicating with TCP/IP (Power over Ethernet) (203) for providing power and data communications over a single cable along the ethernet. The radio transmission and control center (207) for transmitting and receiving control signals and communicated with central processor (212). The mode of communication between EBP' s (100) and PWSN (202) shall not be along with IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. The communication between EBP (100) and PWSN (202) is AES 128 bit encryption (211) , so as to ward-off any possibility of an intruder or a hacker gaining access to the information. The communication uses AES 128bit encryption (211) for both EBP (100) and PWSN (202) . The IWT RSSI filtration center (209) is an intelligent wireless tracker return signal filtration center for returned signal strength filtration. The position of the EBP (100) and transporting unit (400) can be estimated based on return signal strength interface. Based on strength of the signal an alarm (104) is activated for the EBP (100) and transporting unit (400). The IWT mode checker (210) communicates with the filtration center (209) for analyzing the behavior of the EBP (100) and transporting unit (400) . The PWSN (202) provides the paging functions to EBP (100), locking of transporting unit (400) and determining the passenger is in motion (moving / walking) or static (not moving / sitting / sleeping) . Figure 3 illustrates an intelligent wireless tracker monitoring software (300) architecture in data server at base station. The software (300) is designed using event driven architecture, which is important because of the state of EBP (100) and transporting unit (400) change every single second. The software primarily uses a central event handler (306) to create program threads dynamically to handle changes in EBP (100) and transporting unit (400) concurrently. The software (300) consisting a intelligent wireless tracker database for storing a list of record to keep track holders of EBP (100) associated with each passenger and transporting unit (400) and are exported to external airline systems (305) . I T MAC address list (307) is storing the MAC address of each EBP (100) , an error handler (308) for handling errors like handling communication errors, system errors by resetting or restarting the software, software errors by resetting the operation. The RDBMS I/O (310) is a structured database tables, fields and records. The software further comprising a markdown response algorithm (302) performs the functions of:

(i) meshing all RSSI parameters associated with each EBP (100) mapped on EBP location,

(ii) computing the boundary line occurrences to the nearest 1 cm,

(iii) time to board alert for alerting the passenger,

(iv) determining algorithm to search EBP (100) using portable computing device and page EBP (100) when found within 65 degrees radius in front. The software (300) can be used to update or change boarding information can be beamed to EBP (100) seamlessly, and instant location of passenger during "Annex 17" situation i.e., when passenger fails to turn up at boarding gate.

Advantages :

1. The system relies on wireless network to determine with no limited boundaries because of capability of extended wireless connection:

a. passengers count

b. passenger authentication

c. location based detection

d. boundary detection

e. electronic information via on board display to tell passenger boarding information

f . alarm to remind passenger to board the aircraft on specific time

g. paperless boarding pass and re-useable

2. Seamless boarding process

3. To speed up the final list of flight manifest and subsequently ready for departure.

Claims

1. An intelligent wireless tracking system for tracking position of both passenger and trolley in an airport, the system comprising:

a passenger unit (100) associated with the passenger comprises a display (102) indicating the boarding information of the passenger, a monitoring device mounted thereto, capable of transmitting a unique ID and a passenger ID data associated therewith;

a plurality of transporting units (400) comprises a monitoring unit associated therewith, capable , of transmitting the unique ID data associated therewith; a plurality of wireless sensors (202) deployed in the airport, capable of receiving the data from the monitoring devices;

a base station equipped with a monitoring software (300) operatively connected to the wireless sensors (202), processing the data received at the wireless sensors and hence transmitting the controls to the units (100, 400) .

The system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless sensors (202) and the station are communicated along a TCP/IP connection.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless sensors (202) and units are communicated along IEEE 802.15.4.

4. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a motion sensor collecting a portion of data regarding its respective units.

5. The system according to claim 1, the units (100, 400) further comprises an alarm, and hence activated when (i) passenger failed to turn up at boarding gate (ii) passenger failed to be within boarding gate vicinity (iii) the units (100, 400) passing the boundary line and (iv) predetermined due time to board the aircraft.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the transporting unit has wheels, the monitoring unit locking the wheel after receiving the command from the station (300) .

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the passenger unit (100) comprises a memory (108, 109) for storing flight data and its updates.

8. The system according to claim 5, wherein the memory

(108, 109) further stores user data of the passenger, airline data, passport and biometric data.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display

(102) further indicates due time, a gate number, a terminal number, a flight number, a flight operator code, a boarding time, and a departure time.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring software (300) further comprising a markdown response algorithm (302).

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the passenger unit (101) comprises an AES 128 bit cryptography functionality for secure communication. 12. The system according to claim 1, wherein continuously monitoring the boarding pass (100) by sensors (202) at a predetermined interval of time.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the units (100,400) further comprises a battery for powering.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensors (202) further comprise wireless repeater functionality and a Power over Ethernet (PoE).

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensors (202) identifying the position of the units (100, 400) by monitoring return signal strength. 16. A method for tracking position of both passenger and trolleys in an airport using an intelligent wireless tracking system, the method comprising:

transmitting, an unique ID and a passenger ID data associated a passenger unit (100) comprises a monitoring device mounted thereto;

transmitting, the unique ID data associated with a transporting unit (400) comprises a monitoring unit associated therewith;

receiving, the data to the wireless sensors (202) deployed in the airport from the monitoring devices; processing, the data received at the wireless sensors (202) by a base station equipped with a monitoring software (300), wherein the station operatively connected to the wireless sensors (202), and hence transmitting the controls to the units (100, 400).

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the wireless sensors (202) and the station are communicated along a

TCP/IP connection.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the wireless sensors (202) and units (100, 400) are communicated along I EEE 802.15.4.

19. The method according to claim 15, further comprising a motion sensor collecting a portion of data regarding its respective units.

20. The method according to claim 15, the units (100, 400) further comprises an alarm, and hence activated, when (i) passenger failed to turn up at boarding gate (ii) passenger failed to be within boarding gate vicinity (iii) the units (100, 400) passing the boundary line and (iv) predetermined due time to board the aircraft.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein the transporting unit has wheels, the monitoring unit locking the wheel after receiving the command from the station (300) .

22. The method according to claim 15, wherein the monitoring software (300) further comprising a markdown response algorithm (302) .

23. The method according to claim 15, wherein the passenger unit (101) comprises an AES 128 bit cryptography functionality for secure communication.

24. The method according to claim 15, wherein continuously monitoring the boarding pass (100) by sensors (202) at a predetermined interval of time.

25. The method according to claim 15, wherein the units (100,400) further comprises a battery for powering.

The method according to claim 15, wherein the sensors (202) further comprise wireless repeater functionality and a Power over Ethernet (PoE) .

The method according to claim 15, wherein the sensors (202) identifying the position of the units (100, 400) by monitoring return signal strength.

A system for tracking and monitoring a plurality of monitoring units associated with passenger unit (100) and transporting unit (400) from a base station (300), the system comprising:

the wireless sensors (202) operatively connected to the base station (300), receiving data from the monitoring units;

a database (301, 307), storing a list of passenger ID, unique ID and MAC address; and

an interrupt handler (303) is in bidirectionally communicating the data with the wireless sensors (2(j⁾2) and a central event handler (306) . 29. The system according to claim 27, wherein the system further comprising RDBMS I/O.

30. The system according to claim 27, wherein the system further comprising an airline procedure module for communicating change or update of an airline status like boarding information communicating with the passenger unit (100) . 31. The system according to claim 27, wherein the database further comprising a priority list.

32. The system according to claim 27, wherein central event handler further communicating with an external airline system (305) .

33. The system according to claim 27, wherein the system further comprising an error handler, handling communication errors, system errors by resetting or restarting the base station.

34. An electronic boarding pass (100) for a passenger comprising a user interface for displaying the boarding information of the passenger in an airport, the boarding pass (100) comprising:

the user interface comprises a display (102), the display (102) indicates the boarding information of the passenger;

a sensor network (202), wirelessly communicating with the boarding pass (100) , and hence determining the status and location of the passenger;

wherein the sensor network (202) equipped with a monitoring software (300) and alerting the passenger when one of the condition is achieved (i) failed to turn up at boarding gate (ii) failed to be within boarding gate vicinity (iii) passing the boundary line and (iv) predetermined due time to board the aircraft.

35. The boarding pass (100) according to claim 33, wherein the boarding pass comprises a wireless interface (112) for transmitting location data. 36. The boarding pass (100) according to claim 33, wherein the boarding pass (100) comprises a memory (108, 109) for storing flight data and its updates.

37. The boarding pass (100) according to claim 35, wherein the memory (108, 109) further stores user data of the passenger, airline data, passport and biometric data^

38. The boarding pass (100) according to claim 33, wherein the user interface further indicates due time, a gate number, a terminal number, a flight number, a flight operator code, a boarding time, and a departure time.

39. The boarding pass (100) according to claim 33, wherein the monitoring software (300) further comprising a markdown response algorithm (302) .

40. The boarding pass (100) according to claim 33, wherein the passenger status indicating static (not moving or sitting) or dynamic (moving or walking) modes.

41. The boarding pass (100) according to claim 33, wherein boarding pass (101) comprise AES 128 bit cryptography functionality for secure communication. 42. The boarding pass (100) according to claim 33, wherein continuously monitoring the boarding pass (100) by sensor network (201) at a predetermined interval of time .

i A method of real-time tracking and monitoring an electronic boarding pass (100) for a passenger by: a wireless sensor network (202) using a wireless communication, the method comprising steps of: ' activating the boarding pass (100) by overwriting existing passenger ID;

operatively connecting for bi-directional communication between the boarding pass (100) and the sensor network (202);

continuously monitoring the boarding pass (100) by receiving an unique ID and a position data associated with the boarding pass (100), along with passenger ID; alerting the passenger when one of the condition is achieved: (i) failed to turn up at boarding gate (ii) failed to be within boarding gate vicinity (iii) passing the boundary line and (iv) predetermined due time to board the aircraft.

The method of claim 42, wherein the wireless communication is by using a TCP/IP protocol.

The method of claim 42, wherein the boarding pass

(100) further comprises an on board chip control unit

(101) and on board peripherals (102-106); wherein the peripherals (102-106) are interfacing with the control unit (101) .

The method of claim 44, wherein the peripherals (10,2- 106) includes a display module (102) for displaying, an accelerometer or motion sensor (103) flor determining the passenger is in motion or static and position data, an alarm (104) for alerting the passenger, a battery (105) for powering the boarding pass (100) and a crystal oscillator (106) for providing the timing control signals to a CPU (110) of control unit (101).

The method of claim 42, wherein boarding pass (101) comprise AES 128 bit cryptography functionality for secure communication.

The method of claim 42, wherein continuously monitoring the boarding pass (100) by sensor netwdrk (201) at a predetermined interval of time.

49. The method of claim 42, wherein the boarding pass (100) further comprises storage means (108,109) for storing passenger ID and other related data.

50. The method of claim 42, wherein the boarding pass (100) further comprises a video processor (115) for processing video data. 51. The method of claim 42, wherein the sensor network

(202) further communicating with a Power over Ethernet (208), providing power and data communications ovjer Ethernet over an interface (204) . 52. The method of claim 42, wherein the sensor network

(202) further communicating with a wireless network repeater (202) .