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Before I forget, I would like to ask if attaching RFIDs to checked baggage at airports will make life much easier for the airlines and passengers? By attaching scanners on each plane and on the airport terminals, we would be able to track where each piece of luggage has gone very accurately and repeatedly.
Case in point: On my flight back, our plane was switched with a smaller one which could not hold all of the people who were flying back to Toronto. They had asked for volunteers to move to a later flight in the night, and then to the next flight on Sunday morning.
One problem that arose from this was that the people who volunteered to switch flights had to have their luggage transferred from our plane to their new plane. This required opening up the luggage, and sorting through all of the baggage to find the ones that needed to be transferred, and to confirm that everything else was there. With RFIDs, all of that information should have been available and easier to access no?
Well, I guess it also depends on how much RFIDs cost. Slapping a tag on a suitcase will not cost much, but slapping them on millions.. that really does add up.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 22:21:22 (UTC)
Here's an interesting entry from Dr. Wiki which suggests that it's already being done in Hong Kong International Airport:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rfid#Transportation_and_logistics
For the application you're envisioning you would probably need a self-powered RFID capable of broadcasting a signal over a good distance (and possibly through the hull of an airplane). This would probably be prohibitively expensive. (The cheapest passive RFIDs are about a dime each at the moment).
For the scenario you're describing it's probably better if the airplane's cargo hold can somehow be better designed to improve organization. I'm no jet-expert but I think the vast majority of mid-sized jets have a single cargo hold. The baggage handlers just park the conveyor belt next to the opening and pile the luggage in.
I've noticed that the bigger jets (747 and 767) actually use multiple individual cargo containers which they load in segments. The containers are loaded with luggage first inside the terminal and then the containers are wheeled out and loaded into the jet. A detailed cargo manifest should let the airline isolate a specific cargo container if you're looking for a specific piece of luggage. The efficiency breaks down if the luggage you want is scattered across multiple containers.
I guess airlines don't particularly care where in the plane the luggage is as long as it is on board and arrives at the final destination.
--HKL
GrinningReaper
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 17:58:40 (UTC)
If it ain't cheap yet for cargo, then it ain't cheap enough for consumer use!
Dangerman