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In recent years, bicycle sharing activities have gradually emerged around the world, providing passengers and tourists working in cities with a convenient, zero-emission transportation option. Both Lyon, France and Quebec, Canada have launched such bicycle sharing projects. Last month, Denver of the United States also joined this trend and launched the B-cycle project, which is by far the largest bicycle sharing project in the United States. A total of 500 bicycles were used in 50 RFID bicycle stations (B-stations) across the city. .
The B-stations supplied by the Kiosk Information Systems system consist of a bicycle lock frame and a kiosk similar to an ATM. The bicycle is fixed by the lock position of the lock frame. A bicycle station has at least 5 locks and a maximum of 25 locks. The number of locks depends on the usage of bicycles at different sites. Overall, each bicycle occupies an average of 1.5 locks. The user can access the bicycle in two ways. Unusual users use their letter cards to purchase short-term, 24-hour membership at the bicycle station service kiosks. The user can first select a bicycle. When the transaction is completed, the system will beep and turn on a green light, indicating that the selected bicycle has been unlocked and the user can pick up the bicycle.
Each lock position contains an RFID reader to read the embedded low-frequency RFID tag of the bicycle
For those users who plan to use B-cycle regularly, they can purchase 7-day, 30-day or annual membership online (common to all bicycle stations). After the user completes the purchase, he receives an RFID card-also known as B-card-mailed by the B-cycle project team. With the B-card, users can select, read, unlock, and pick up the car directly from the bicycle station without using a kiosk.
According to Andrew Davison, chief marketing officer of B-cycle LLC, the company in charge of the project, the use of B-card makes it easier for users to pick up the car without having to wait in line at the kiosk.
The cards are supplied by Synometrix. Each card contains a passive low-frequency RFID inlay with a working frequency of 125 kHz, which complies with the protocol adopted by EM Microelectronic EM4100, EM4102 and EM4200 RFID chips. When picking up the car, the user presses a button next to the selected bicycle. This action activates the RFID reader embedded in the bracket (each lock position corresponds to an RFID reader). The user places the card against a small sign next to the button, and the reader collects the unique ID code of the tag. This information is sent to a central B-cycle database via the site’s Internet connection. If the user account status is normal, the main database instructs B-station to unlock the bicycle. At the same time, the user will also receive a sound and a green light notification. The user must remove the car within 30 seconds, otherwise the bicycle will be automatically locked again.
Regardless of whether the user picks up the car by credit card or B-card, before picking up the car, the reader also collects the ID code of the bicycle tag and sends the ID code to the central database, so that the system corresponds to the bicycle and the user.
When returning the car, the user only needs to find an empty lock at any B-station station, and then push the bicycle into the locked position. The system lights up with a green light and beeps, indicating that the bicycle has been successfully locked and the user account has been updated. When returning the bike, the reader also collects the bike tag ID code and sends this information to the central database.
The built-in GPS device of the bicycle records the user’s driving route. When the user returns to the car, the GPS information and the ID code of the bicycle tag are uploaded to the database. This helps the B-cycle project understand the routes users take most often, and cooperate with merchants to provide users with related products or services based on the users’ daily routes.
According to Davison, the B-cycle project team is also interested in launching mobile applications, using mobile phones with NFC modules to pick up bicycles. However, this may require additional readers at bicycle sites because the NFC tag runs at 13.56 MHz and is based on the ISO 14443 high-frequency RFID standard.
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