Cell phone Boarding Pass

Pretty soon you'll be able to board Continental Airlines flights with a boarding pass stored on your phone. As part of a new pilot program, Continental will be testing the using of electronic passes that could signal the end of the paper passes we know and love. The three month trial will be available for passengers flying out of Houston for now. A unique barcode is sent to a user's phone by the system. It is encrypted and tied directly to the user's handset, so the chances for fraud are low. When you get to the gate all you have to do is open up the message on your screen, the gate attendant will scan it using the Psion Teklogix Workabout Pro Gen2 handheld with barcode reader, and you can proceed to your uncomfortable seat. Though this makes perfect sense, and I could see it being rolled out quickly across a number of airlines. Make sure you don't forget to bring your cell phone...

RFID Malaysia: Passport to new beginning

Raja Azahar said that the Ministry has taken steps to tighten up security measures regarding the movement of both local and foreign citizens, particularly between the northern states of Perlis, Kedah, Perak and Kelantan that border Thailand.
The main concern of the Ministry was border crossings without passports – just a border pass as the only travel document.
“This was the loophole in our system. The minister said that we had to tighten procedures for foreigners because undesired elements could enter the country without any record.
“The border pass was just a piece of paper without any security features – not even a photograph,” he said.
This has changed effective Jan 1,2008 this year.

Raja Azahar explained that those who apply for a border pass have to pre-register themselves and enter their thumbprint into the department's biometric system. But rather than being an inconvenience, it actually makes subsequent crossings easier.
In the case of a six-month pass, he said, “They do not have to show a border pass – they only have to enter their thumbprint. If everything is according to the profile, we allow them to enter or leave the country.”
He reveals that there are approximately 2,000 entries in the database at the moment.
Raja Azahar assured that there were no serious security issues, but the measures were meant to stop those taking advantage of the lax enforcement of immigration laws.
“Anybody who crosses the border will need a travel document and we will have a record of all border crossings. At the same time, we have improved the security element by means of the biometric system.”
Another issue is the potential use of RFID (radio frequency identification device) in visas and passports, which the Ministry is looking into at the moment.
“The whole idea of using RFID is to enhance the security of travel documents, but it can also translate into convenience for the holders.
“We are in talks with Singapore to embed RFID in passports to facilitate faster clearance (through immigration checkpoints). With RFID we can capture all information – we will know if they have a valid passport or even capture their photo.”
However, the use of RFID will not replace biometric systems.

RFID technology is best utilised when it is embedded in visas attached to passports of foreigners entering the country.

Qualiti Alam

Qualiti Alam Sdn Bhd first received its first load of scheduled waste in Oct 1996. They use barcode to scan and track their assets supplied by RES.

Fancy 2D-Tag on Magazines

What is Semapedia?

The goal is to connect the virtual and physical world by bringing the right information from the internet to the relevant place in physical space.

To accomplish this, we invite you to create Semapedia-Tags which are in fact cellphone-readable physical hyperlinks. You can create such 2D Barcode Tags easily yourself by choosing and pasting a Wikipedia URL into the form above. Once created, you put the Tags up at their according physical location. You just hyperlinked your world! Others can now use their cellphone to 'click' your Tag and access the information you provided them. Pretty cool!

Barcode Art

I thought I was one of the few who thought that barcodes had a place in art. Looks like I'm not alone. Even our pals at GS1 are behind this modest effort. Obviously not our pals in Fremont trying to lay claim to a patentable idea themselves. This is further proof the idea is universal. Barcodes are now contemporary visual memes. Try barcoding Mona Lisa?!!

On-spot billing

Tenaga Nasional and Syabas are using Zebra portable printers for printing on-spot billing. Supplied by Powercomp, one of the Malaysian companies doing AIDC.

Iphone

Iphone is almost here, watch out Malaysia!