Mobile Ticketing-Choosing the Right Technology Platform is Critical
04 August 2006
Executive Summary
- A major trend in the evolution of ticketing is "mobile ticketing," where a bar-coded electronic ticket is sent to a buyer's mobile phone or PDA via short message service (SMS). That bar code is then scanned off of the device's display at the point of admission
- Not all bar code symbologies or scanning technologies are equally suited for accurate and reliable readability in the mobile ticketing environment-specifically reading bar codes from an electronic display
- The combination of the right bar code and data collection technology will enable you to read the bar codes on today's preprinted and home-printed paper tickets, as well as give you the ability to read mobile tickets from electronic displays
Mobile Ticketing Evolution and challenges
Ticketing has evolved from preprinted tickets, to tickets printed at a ticket window at the time of purchase, to Internet sales where customers print their own bar-coded tickets. The latter method is becoming increasingly popular, since it allows ticket buyers to avoid long lines and enables ticket sellers to eliminate printing and distribution costs.
The next step in the evolution of ticketing will be to replace home-printed and preprinted paper tickets with an electronic ticket that can be sent to a mobile phone or PDA via short message service (SMS). This mobile ticket (m-ticket) consists of a bar code that can be quickly read and validated directly from the mobile device's display screen.
Whatever method is used to create and distribute tickets, all of them need to be efficiently and reliably validated at the point of redemption to prevent fraud and slow-moving lines. Technology for reading paper bar codes is well established, but the advent of people printing their own tickets at home adds complexities because various papers, inks and printers result in bar codes of varying qualities. Reading bar codes from an electronic screen adds additional challenges due to variations in screen resolution, specular reflections coming from the displays, and backlighting. The choice of the right bar codes and the right bar code scanning technology is critical to developing a successful ticketing operation that will provide the best possible customer service plus reduce costs and fraud.
Choosing the Best Bar Code Symbology and Technology
The type of bar code used is a major factor in the performance of the entire m-ticketing system. There are several symbologies you can choose from. Each has important attributes that need to be considered before being employed in an m-ticketing application.
When deciding on a data collection technology for your ticketing operations, it's important to look for a solution that will allow you to be flexible and adapt to industry changes.
2D bar codes are becoming the preferred type. As an example, Europe's International Union of Railways (UIC) has worked out a standard for home printed train tickets called IRTHP (International Rail Tickets for Home Printing). In this standard, special attention is focused on the usage of 2D Aztec coding. Traditional laser bar code scanners are only able to read linear bar codes, so you're immediately limited to one type of symbology in your ticketing operations. Linear bar codes are not ideal for use on mobile phone displays because of the amount of space required for the code.
2D imagers provide a level of flexibility beyond that of any other bar code scanning technology because they allow you to read any linear or 2D bar code. Therefore, regardless of what bar code symbologies your ticketing process uses today, 2D imaging will work and enable you to adapt to changes in the future.
For more information, go to www.mobileticketing.com .
