Hackathon-2018: Students present RFID-tech to locate lost baggage at airports
Students of three engineering colleges have come up with tagging technology that will use RFID chips to track luggage real-time at every stage of transfer, a concept that may bring an end to baggage being lost or their delivery delayed at Indian airports. Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. The tags contain electronically-stored information.
Passengers can get lost baggage information on smart-phones
The prototypes were presented at Smart India Hackathon at Pilani (Rajasthan) by teams from New Delhi-based Bharati Vidyapeeth's College of Engineering (BVCE), SIES Graduate School of Technology, Navi Mumbai, and RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru. "Passengers can get information about their luggage on their smart-phones or through SMS," said Supreeth YS, who was leading Bengaluru-based college's team. These tags can be reused, he said.
13 models on different concepts were presented at Hackathon
The teams, each having six members, were participating in Hackathon's Smart Communication Category in which 13 models on different concepts were presented at the Pilani-based CSIR-CEERI. The grand finale was held on Friday at 10 major centers including CSIR-CEERI, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Roorkee and IISC Bengaluru.
RFID technology not harmful for health: Students
Harshil Bansal, who was leading the BVCE team, said, "Our RFID tags will only improve the existing bar-code tag being used by airport authorities." Besides passengers, even airport officials can use information from these tags to locate and trace misplaced baggage, Bansal said, adding that the tags can be used with the existing system. Both the teams said, RFID technology wasn't harmful to health.
128 bags get misplaced or mishandled on daily basis
According to these students, nearly 128 bags and suitcases get misplaced, delayed, mishandled or lost during transfers at Indian airports everyday. On March 29, hundreds of passengers faced delays in baggage clearance, leading to long queues and flight delays, at Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International airport. Director CSIR-CEERI Santanu Chaudhury said that these prototypes if commercialized could help solve the problem.
