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Handhelds Hardware Technology

Mobile-Ticketing - Delivery On Mobile Phone 101

Posted by timothy from the who-needs-a-boarding-pass dept.
quark007 writes "That's Cricket is reporting that the first match of the India-Australia cricket Test series in Bangalore next month will have hi-tech ticketing with the launch of 'Mobile-Ticketing,' a new service that enables cricket fans across the world to book the tickets online. But thats half the fun, since the tickets would be delivered directly to their mobile phones. the service is managed by Spice . The service delives the ticket as a special barcode which can then be scanned by a barcode reader. Sounds simple. Wired reported a similar story a while back." A system like this would have been great in my unsuccessful hunt for LotR Marathon tickets.
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Mobile-Ticketing - Delivery On Mobile Phone More

Mobile-Ticketing - Delivery On Mobile Phone

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  • ZebraPass (Score:5, Informative)

    by powdered toast dude ( 800543 ) * on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:41PM (#10279031) Journal
    Back in 2000, this was the original plan of a Washington, DC startup called ZebraPass [internet.com]. They failed spectacularly [fuckedcompany.com].
  • when I get a mobile phone.

  • this is old stuff (Score:5, Informative)

    by theskeptic ( 699213 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:43PM (#10279057) Journal
    go to NTT Docomo [nttdocomo.com] to see their phones and what they are capable of. Barcoding, ticket sales? Already in place for the past 2 years in jp.
    • Gah, you need to add the www [nttdocomo.com].
    • If you're an Orange customer then you can get a free cinema ticket every Wednesday (two for the price of one) just by sending a text (SMS) to or calling 241. The free ticket is sent to your phone by text (SMS) as a short (~10 digit) number, which is inputted by the cashier at the cinema when you get your tickets.

      It's simple and it works. And if it works for cinema tickets then it will work for concerts, sports, the theatre, planes, trains, etc.

  • They ticket you for watching cricket? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:43PM (#10279063)
    As an American I have no idea what they are talking about.

    Also as an American I will act as if this is your fault.

  • Yay for progress (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dynedain ( 141758 ) <slashdot2&anthonymclin,com> on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:44PM (#10279071) Homepage
    This is pretty neat because it makes scalping (which is illegal in the US) almost impossible.

    Unfortuneately, most people in the US don't have a phone that would be compatible with this system

    • Re:Yay for progress (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      scalping is legal within some states

    • Re:Yay for progress (Score:3, Interesting)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) *
      How does it make it impossible? Unless you require everyone to use the cellphone system to buy the tickets and stop offering them in a tangible form it's not going to stop anything.

      People are still going to buy gobs of good tickets up and resell them at a profit.
    • This is pretty neat because it makes scalping (which is illegal in the US) almost impossible.

      In this case, then, it also makes selling tickets legally for face value or below impossible then too.

    • Re:Yay for progress (Score:2, Interesting)

      by generic-man ( 33649 )
      Most sports stadiums in the US use Symbol Palm OS PDAs to scan tickets. They won't let you in until the attendant scans a bar code and the PDA reads "Go!" If the bar code readers could read a mobile phone screen, people could use mobile phone tickets at stadiums in the US as well.

      It also reduces the chance of counterfeit tickets, unless the counterfeiters figure out a way to steal legitimate tickets' bar codes.

      • Re:Yay for progress (Score:5, Interesting)

        by jdray ( 645332 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:11PM (#10279332) Homepage Journal
        One question: If a concert disallows cameras, but your phone has one on it, and you use the phone to redeem your ticket, isn't the venue in a sort of no-win situation when they actually observe that you are carrying a camera and are forced to let you in because that's your ticket, too?

        I understand that venues have started looking the other way when it comes to checking for cameras and other recording devices since they're so prevalent and easily hidden. But some promoters or artists get kind of up tight about this sort of thing, and will refuse to hold a show if recording devices are let in at all.
        • Have you tried to take a picture at a concert with your camera phone? Looks like shit. Not even worth your time.

          Of course, in time this will change. A friend that works at Radio Shack had a woman come in from India, I think, that had a phone with a 4MP camera.
      • Yes, but the question is how do you get a cellphone to display the barcode?

        Can you imagine how many competing, non-interoperal standards would appear if it was implemented in the US?

  • Sounds great (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tyndmyr ( 811713 ) * on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:44PM (#10279074)
    Now to get there before the battery dies...
    • Great point

      But at least you'll be able to listen to your polyphonic eminem ringer, take pictures in low light, and gaze at your large, color, battery-sucking screen while you're running to the theater.

      But seriously, try to find a phone without one of those "features." Your choices are usually limited.

  • Holy crap! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Quasar1999 ( 520073 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:45PM (#10279080) Journal
    When I read the title the first thing that popped in my head is that while I'm driving at 70 mph in the school zone, reading the paper and yapping on my cell-phone, the copy will send my speeding/wreckless driving/careless driving ticket to my cell phone directly... no need to pull me over and disrupt traffic...

    Good to know I'm safe for another few years before someone implements this... ;)
    • CopDude456: Sup?
      CopDude456: Do u no y I IM u?
      CopDude456: Bustinated for speeding.
      CopDude456: ASL? Licence and registration 2.
      CopDude456: And your using your cell while driving. GOT U AGAIN! LOL!!! :)
      Nokia alert: $500 charged to cell phone bill.

      www.geocities.com/James_Sager_PA

  • That's the Ticket... Yeah... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:45PM (#10279087) Homepage Journal
    Me: "Ok, I want a ticket for the Manchester United match..."dit-dit-diddit
    Phone: "Congratulations! You have an advance ticket for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith"
    Me: "wtf.. Gimme a ticket for The Producers..."diddit-dit-dit-dit
    Phone: "Congratulations! You have another advance ticket for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith"
    Me: "whaaaattt.. How about a ticket for standing in the road and being hit by a bus..." dit-diddit-dit
    Phone: "Congratulations! You have yet another advance ticket for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith"
    Me: "Hm.. I think this thing's been 0wn3d, that could explain all the sold out performances of Barry Manilow."
  • Wow, hope I don't have to hang up on my agent to talk to those icky ticket collectors...

  • A good first step (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Precognition and folding of space-time to follow.

  • Barcode? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by moonbender ( 547943 ) <moonbender@@@gmail...com> on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:46PM (#10279099)
    I wonder how the "barcode" works, exactly. The story doesn't go to any details. Different cell phones display images in different ways, and older models might not be able to display them at all. Resolutions vary wildly. Of course I guess they could just go for the lowest common denominator of image-compatible cell phones, like a 40x40 black and white bitmap. But it's probably an MMS image which kind of limits the audience. Still, a neat idea, beats waiting in line if your phone is up to it.
    • using the 'logo' semi-standard.

      or mms.

      or whatever that you can transmit a 30*30 or bigger picture with.

      not that hard to add a number too, for failback.

      the thing just is that this is NOT NEW BY ANY MEANS(it's been done before).

    • You would be surprised how many people in India have newer mobile phones. Earlier this year when I was in India, I rented a fairly advanced cell phone, with mms and all that, which I used routinely to connect to Internet at >64Kbps. To my astonishment, the taxi driver had the same exact model. I feel that the newer models get born in Japan/SE Asia and make their way around the globe and finally reach the States.
    • The other problem is hitting a sufficiently high contrast level to get the barcode scanner to read it. A while ago there was a program to generate barcode images onthe screen of TI calculators, but they didn't scan unless you played with the contrast settings a lot.
      • Since there are already DoCoMo camera phones that can scan barcodes by taking a picture of them (This one [sonyericsson.co.jp] even looks like it can read 2D bar codes), I assume they'll use something like that instead of a laser-driven scanner that may have problems with contrast, the LCD's polarizers, etc.

        Either way, I figure that it still won't be as quick to get people through a line as just having someone visually inspecting tickets and tearing off the stubs.

  • You can order the ticket online via cellphone OR.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jakhel ( 808204 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:47PM (#10279105)
    just call the ticket office ON your cell phone and order the tickets.

    Hmmm..decisions decisions

  • Yawn (Score:3, Interesting)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:50PM (#10279140) Journal
    I've been printing eTickets for a few years, all they do is scan the barcode at the door.

    Nothing really new here, except for the mobile phone angle. Personally I wish people would leave their mobile phones at home just fucking once.

    Everyone thinks their so fucking important that they need to take calls in the middle of the Phantom of the Opera.

    If you're an emergency room doctor who's on call, by all means carry your cell phone around. But don't go out to 100 dollar a ticket broadway plays and ruin them you pretentious fucks.

    Will we as a society ever get over the novelty of cell phones? You still see people talking in public with that stupid look of half-stupidity and half-conceit on their face and saying things like "GUESS WHERE I'M CALLING FROM!!!"

    • Re:Yawn (Score:2, Funny)

      by syrinje ( 781614 )
      Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow Sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-three million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think cellular phones are a pretty neat idea. God, I miss looking forward to his next book.
      DNA, Return If Possible.
    • Again, way behind the Japanese.

      Maybe it's a cultural politeness thing, but you never see Japanese yapping away on their phones on the subway, just immersed in messaging, games or whatever.

      I think I heard that they usually turn their ringer off when they leave the house and only turn it back on when the return.

  • Way behind the japanese (Score:5, Interesting)

    by KanSer ( 558891 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:55PM (#10279181)
    If you've been to Tokyo Dome City (The amusement park next to the tokyo dome) recently you'd have seen people cutting in line by putting their cellphone screens on to little scanning beds. For the modest sum of 1000 yen you could reserve four spots in line at either the main rollercoaster or the ferris wheel. They would send your cell phone an e-mail with a funky barcode that was less bar code and more dot-matrix/bitmappy black and white image. I cut a four hour line into 15 minutes. I love japanese cellphone technology.

  • Estonian Parking (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Peter Cooper ( 660482 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @01:56PM (#10279200) Homepage Journal
    Not quite the same, but in a similar area with similar gains.. in the capital of Estonia, you can use your phone to buy/pay for parking. You park up, put your registration number in, and pay via SMS/text message. Sure beats dealing with a broken meter, and also means you can 'top up' your parking from afar if you need to park for longer than originally planned.
    • Ingenious! Downtown Phoenix needs something like this.
    • Across the Strait in Helsinki, you can pay for tram tickets by SMS. They are 10 cents cheaper than buying a paper ticket too.

      When I was there recently, I was wondering if Finnish ticket inspectors carry signal blocking equipment to stop everyone from buying tickets only when an inspector boards, or are Finns just too honest?



  • Anything that will put ticket master out of business is good news to me. I could see this system working well with how Prince sells tickets through his website. You get a membership for $24 a year. Then when he tours you get a chance to buy floor tickets for $75. When you get to the theater you pick them up at will call. only thing is the line at will call is a mile long. The tickets are worth it though concidering his LA show I sat two rows across from Halle Berry :P on the floor seats at staples
  • An even more extravagant way for my wife to spend our money faster than I can make it. Please...don't tell my wife about this.

  • How this works... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Serious Simon ( 701084 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:12PM (#10279340)
    The service sends you an image containing a 2-dimensional bar code such as Data Matrix. This bar code contains data that identifies your ticket.

    The bar code reader uses a CCD camera to capture the image and a relatively powerful processor to decode the data from it.

    It is actually not that easy to construct a reader that is able to read these bar codes, from a variety of mobile telephone displays. Especially when the backlight of the telephone is off, it is difficult to get an image with good contrast while avoiding reflections from the reader's light source.

  • wait a minute, we can't ensure that a computerized voting device works, but we're going to start selling tickets on it? "Hmmm...I think I'm sitting here, see on my phone here, I've got my ticket right here on the little screen..."

    "Usher, usher, this guys phone says he's sitting here, but I was promised this seat by the ticket seller!"

    Let's see how long it takes to hack this system...

    CB#@*)_)(*&
    • It's the same eTicket system that's been used for a few years, just with barcodes on the cellphone rathter than printed out.

      It's pretty simple. If two people show up at the door with the same barcode, one of them stole it. From there it's a simple matter of seeing who purchased the tickets in the first place to decide which guy rides home in the back of a black and white.
  • A system like this would have been great in my unsuccessful hunt for LotR Marathon tickets.

    That wouldn't have done you a damn bit of good. I was on-line when they went on sale and I immediately tried to purchase. And so did everybody else on earth and their system crashed.

    Rule of thumb is that computers make things easier when they work and MUCH MUCH harder when they don't.
    • I went to the theatre itself and had no problem buying tickets. Long after they went on sale, too.

      eTickets are for chumps. Buy your tickets at the venue. No 900% TicketMaster or MovieFone markups, no paying a 20 dollar "convenience fee" to have TM email you your tickets. Yeah, a 0 cost delivery method should definately cost more than having FedEx deliver the tickets overnight, absolutely fucking brilliant, TM..

      And you can resell paper tickets if something comes up and you can't attend. Selling ticket
  • ...until the orbital mind control satellites will be able to tell what movie or concert or event that I want to go to, and then will automatically bill me for it.

    Then they will instruct me to attend, and I wil simply pass my Mark of the Beast (tm) over a scanner for admission.

    That's gonna *rock*.
  • I wasn't able to use it myself, but I did see another passenger show his cell phone to the ticket checker - she typed in the code, and moved on. Alright, so it's not a barcode, but still incredibly cool.

    Found this online
    "Ulteriore chicca del servizio è la possibilità di trasmettere i codici via SMS al cellulare, per essere sicuri di non smarrirli e di averli con sé nel momento del controllo."

    (Another "chicca ?" of the service is the possibility to SMS the code to a cell phone, to make sure

  • ...the only sport where a match takes 5 days, and often ends in a draw. You gotta love it -- and I do!

  • Mobile-Ticketing? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Malk-a-mite ( 134774 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @02:25PM (#10279450) Journal
    For a brief moment I had the wonderful vision of people who talk loud enough on their phone in a train for everyone to hear the conversation getting a Mobile Ticket for being stupid in public...

    What's this about cricket?
  • Do they have to own a cricket phone? Cricket communications [mycricket.com]
  • As cellphone operators run into service plateau mode, the effort to find more innovative revenue generating services gets more aggressive. In most cases, it causes enormous heartburn and annoyance to operator and customer and the "value added service" dies a quiet fussless death.

    Once in a great while there comes along an idea of enduring worth - something that really makes life easier by providing a simple solution to small everyday problems. The concept of the mWallet, being pushed by the MeT Forum [mobiletransaction.org] i

  • They won't even have to bother with tickets once the government issues a national id card. Just swipe your card to get into the stadium, pay for beer, and lap dances after the game.

  • check out one in action (Score:2, Informative)

    by raarky ( 653241 )
    Here in NZ, we've been using it for a little while. i'm quite sure how successful it is but i use it a lot.
    check out this site
    http://www.mticket.net/

    There's only once gripe with it. You have a cut off point thats about a day or so before the event in which they send the event owners a sheet that is used as a sort of 'guest list'. You can't stand outside a dance party and txt in your ticket and expect to be on the door :)
    Trust me, I've been there

  • Am I the only one... (Score:3, Funny)

    by dbc ( 135354 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @04:51PM (#10280732)
    .. that misinterpreted the headline and thought I'd be getting speeding tickets on my cell phone as I drove past a trooper?

    Ummm... no wait... I don't speed... I was thinking about that *neighbor* kid getting a speeding ticket....
  • Something similiar has already been done in Finland, as in here we can buy buss and metro tickets using a cellphone and sms messages, each ticket gets a verification number for ticket inspection in a sms message.
  • I'd like them to text the barcode to me as a series of X/O's. They could scan my phone, or I could forward the text (or Bluetooth) as I entered the venue. Only the first instance of my unique barcode would gain entry. Who needs tickets? The barcode could link to the website for the event, from which I could order merchandise, drinks, recordings - all from my seat, or on the ride home.
  • This is very cool!

    Pretty soon we will have tickets to other sporting events, music concerts, musicals, and more on our cell phones.

    Only... if the ticket does not show up on your cell phone... do you have any other proof?

    Plus... if venues continue to not allow camera phone... what then???

    http://allwaysmusic.modblog.com/ [modblog.com]

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