sebastianschipr

Air France, KLM and partners have worked for the past year on developing an innovative electronic bag tag and baggage tracker.
It enables customers to label their luggage at home, drop bags at the fast bag drop and trace their luggage worldwide.
The companies are aiming to go live with the first customer groups at the end of 2014.

See this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFUHACwp8VA

irishguy28

Seems similar to what Qantas have been doing for the past few years.

mfkne

I suppose this thing will only track when the bag was scanned (at drop-off, at loading, at offloading, on the belt) and not in between. If so, then why not just add that functionality to the existing iPhone apps? Delta has had that for a long time.

KLflyerRalph

And nevertheless AFKL claims it is innovative.

mfkne

Well it's innovative in that it seems to require a separate device to achieve what Delta has been able to achieve without a separate device for years

irishguy28

It apparently doesn't require the second device. The video suggests that both items are available separately at www.flyingblue.com - but that website has no further detail on either the eTag or the eTrack.

HasteFlier

Indeed, quite little details on the video - according to sebastianschipr's post, they should begin to come out at the end of the year - btw, where did you get that info?

In any case, no info about how they will deploy it / who will have the chance to get it first

irishguy28

According to this article, Delta is also involved - and indeed, one of the tags in the video shows the Delta logo. In fact, the tag should work regardless of airline (though of course this would be dependent on other airlines adopting the same system).

Trials begin in December???

sebastianschipr

I got the info for the subscription in youtube. KLM posted it...

sebastianschipr

I got the info from the subscription in youtube. KLM posted it...

KLflyerRalph

Indeed. I have asked KLM for more info yesterday but have received nothing yet.

Xandrios

Some more information has been posted on bright.nl: https://www.bright.nl/bagage-raakt-n...dankzij-etrack

eTag: A digital luggage tag with eInk displays. E-ink displays do not use power when the contents of the screen do not change, so this could potentially be a device that requires charging only once every year or so. It also contains a RFID chip that allows the luggage to be scanned more easily during its journey.

Its not clear how one can add new tags to the eTag device, and more importantly, how can be prevented that somebody unauthorised changes the tag. In regards to theft but also security this will be very important. (eg: To steal a bag I could re-program the tag of a random bag to show my details. Or regarding security, I could re-program the tag to show somebody elses details, while I do not board the aircraft. )

eTrack: A device that has two functions:
- Paired with your mobile phone over bluetooth, your phone will alert you when the distance between phone and bag increases (eg bag is being stolen).
- It has a GPS and cellular connection. This allows to retrieve the GPS location of your bag over the internet. Currently KPN is used to provide connectivity, its not sure if roaming is allowed/supported. If not, this would only work when the bag is in NL. Its also not sure if there is a monthly fee for this connection (I assume not, just like TomTom devices with cellular connectivity have no monthly fee either).

I wonder how they are going to disable the cellular radio for checked bags once on-board. Theoretically the device can disable the radio automatically when there is no GPS signal, or, the elevation is higher than ground level. Or the ground speed goes beyond 200KM/h. But that would require the plane to first (start to) take off, before the radio is turned off. Not sure if that, with current radio restrictions, would be allowed...

Also, and this is a more technical question, how is KPN going to handle all these cellular radios? Whenever a big event occurs (eg outdoor concert) KPN has to install additional radio towers to be able to handle all those thousands of extra mobile phones. Imagine the luggage sorting facilities at a major airport - these bags with a cellular connection each, would eat up all the cellular resources. That is, if the tracking is indeed real-time. If the eTag sends its location to a server somewhere once every, say, 30 minutes, there is no need to have the cellular radio turned on all the time. But that would seriously limit the functionality, making the tracking not instantaneous/real time.

irishguy28

To steal a bag, you could just take it off the carousel and walk away with it. (If it was a targetted steal, presumably you would know the owner of the bag, and working with an accomplice, could ensure that the owner is distracted at the critical moment).

You don't *really* need to "re-label" it - but the thief intent on re-labelling could still create a "forged" normal print-out label! (and this will be far, far easier when the AF "print your baggage tag at home" becomes mainstream!)

ChrisBD

Security is a major issue with electronic devices, be assured that communications to both the eTag and the eTrack are fully encrypted.

There are mechanisms in place to detect and prevent tampering.

As shown in the press release the devices can be used as a pair or as separate items.

The use of an eTrack device is not limited to flights. It just so happens to have the ability to be used on one.

It thus offers greater tracking potential than Delta are currently able to offer, hence why they have been involved.

As stated it meets all current regulations regarding radio emissions, which means that the GSM turns off before the aircraft starts to taxi and after it has reached the gate.

irishguy28

How is this guaranteed?

And how is the eTrack powered and, perhaps more importantly, recharged?