PROTOTYPE FOR INTELLIGENT TICKETING SYSTEM USING NFC
Anita Chaudhari, Brinzel Rodrigues, Pratap Sakhare, Caston Fernandes
Department of Infonnation Technology
St. John College of Engineering and Technology, Palghar, India
anitac@sjcet.co.in. brinzelr@sjcet.co.in. castonf@sjcet.co.in.prataps@sjcet.co.in
Abstract- Development in technology enabled us to use
virtual money for online transaction. It is proven through a
developed technology, when transaction can be done not only
using real money but also virtual money. This technology is also
supported by NFC. This paper gives an overview of NFC
technology for generating tickets using intelligent NFC based
android phone. We will see how through machine learning and
NFC technology tickets can be generated in a more faster way as
compared to the existing systems. This system uses QR code
Technique for verification of ticket. The Paper also analyzes
what will be future implementation of this System.
Keywords-NFC (Near Field Communication), Android, Train
ticket booking application.
I. INTRODUCTION
NFC is the abbreviation for Near Field Communication
technology. As the name suggests, it is the communication
taking place between two devices which are placed very near
to each other. It is similar to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (Wireless
Fidelity) technologies. NFC is based on an older technology
called as RFID which stands for Radio Frequency
Identification. NFC works on the principle of electromagnetic
induction. NFC based devices include NFC based mobile
phones, NFC based payment machines, NFC tags and NFC
based contactless smart cards[l].
Life in the present times has became faster and
prefers quick methods for perfonning day-to-day operations.
Now-a-days people prefer mobile phones to carry out most of
their day-to-day tasks like checking train timings, booking
hotel rooms, GPS for tracking locations, messaging, sharing
files, listening to music, watching videos taking pictures etc.
There are various methods in place today to book a ticket for a
local train journey but all the systems used for this purpose
requires the travelers to fonn queues which results in wastage
of time and inconvenience. This technique overcomes most of
the disadvantages of the existing systems and is faster as
compared to them. It uses the NFC technology to directly get
the source whereas the destination is selected by the user
followed by which the e-ticket is generated and saved in the
user's NFC based android phone in the fonnat of an image.
Train ticketing application is an android application to book
train tickets for a local journey. It is comparatively faster than
the other existing systems. It allows a user to choose his/her
Destination when the NFC enabled device is tapped. This
application can save time as well as papers which are currently
in use for printing tickets.
To make a system more fast and automated, we are using
machine learning algorithm where the usage pattern of the
user will be recorded and through data mining process the
system comes to know the users pattern of booking the tickets.
978-1-4673-7910-6/15/$31.00 © 2015 IEEE
II. PREVIOUS WORK
In this section we will see different system that works on NFC
technology. In today's world, technology is increasing day to
day. there are many networking Icommunication technologies
are available in present like blue tooth, Wi-Fi (wireless
fidelity), infrared etc. NFC is one of them. near field
communication (NFC) is a set of ideas and technologies that
enable smart phones and other devices to establish radio
communication with each other by touching them together or
bringing them. all connected NFC enabled smart phones can
be provisioned with dedicated apps, which gives any
application hundreds of millions of potential dedicated readers
in opposition of the traditional dedicated infrastructure of
ticket, access control or payment readers. all NFC peers can
connect a third party NFC device with a server for any action
or reconfiguration.[1]
NFC device is classified into two types:
I. Active Device: Those devices which have their own power
supply are known as Active device.
II. Passive Device: Those devices which do not have their own
power supply are known as Passive device[2]
The different NFC tag type definitions are as follows:
Tag 1 Type: The Tag 1 Type is based on the IS0l4443A
standard. These NFC tags are read and re-write capable and
users can configure the tag to become read-only. Memory
availability is 96 bytes which is more than sufficient to store a
website URL or other small amount of data. However the
memory size is expandable up to 2 k byte. The communication
speed of this NFC tag is 106 kbit/s. As a result of its simplicity
this tag type is cost effective and ideal for many NFC
applications.
Tag 2 Type: The NFC Tag 2 Type is also based on
IS014443A. These NFC tags are read and re-write capable
and users can configure the tag to become read-only. The basic
memory size of this tag type is only 48 bytes although this can
be expanded to 2 k byte. Again the communication speed is
106 kbitls.
Tag 3 Type: The NFC Tag 3 Type is based on the Sony FeliCa
system. It currently has a 2 K byte memory capacity and the
data communications speed is 212 kbitls. accordingly this
NFC tag type is more applicable for more complex
applications, although there is a higher cost per tag.
Tag 4 Type: The NFC Tag 4 Type is defined to be compatible
with ISOl4443A and B standards. These NFC tags are per­
configured at manufacture and they can be either read 1 re­
writable, or read-only. The memory capacity can be up to 32
kbytes and the communication speed is between 106 Kbit/s
and 424 Kbitls. [3]
877
Android is a mobile operating system (OS) based on the Linux
kernel and currently developed by Google. With a user
interface based on direct manipulation, Android is designed
primarily for touch screen mobile devices such as Smart
phone and tablet computers, with specialized user interfaces
for televisions (Android TV), cars (Android Auto), and wrist
watches (Android Wear). The OS uses touch inputs that
loosely correspond to real-world actions, like swiping,
tapping, pinching, and reverse pinching to manipulate on­
screen objects, and a virtual keyboard. Despite being primarily
designed for touch screen input, it also has been used in game
consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics[6].
We had gone through different research papers and Existing
systems that are related to our project, In this paper payments
are made using NFC enabled phone, where the consumer
sends the money using an application running on NFC enabled
phone and receiver receives the money using his/her NFC
enabled phone[4]. The payment made using mobile is more
secure and people need not to carry money. The main
drawback of this system is that both buyer and seller should
have NFC enabled phone for the transmission of money using
this System.
The main goal of another existing system is to transfer money
between two mobile phone SIM Cards. This application
allows mobile operator to change the usual call center calls or
auto attend to a nice look mobile application. The drawback of
this system is that NFC is only used to send a message to the
receiver to tum on the Blue-tooth.[5]
Next is the Bus Ticket Reservation System which is a web­
based application that allows the visitor's to check the bus
ticket availability, buy the bus ticket and pay the bus ticket
fare online. The advantages related with this system are that it
makes the travelers aware of the availability of the ticket and
avoids the traveler's to line up in a queue. But this system is a
web based system and requires the user's to have a desktop
system in place and user's should have a prior knowledge
about the bus code (number) for their destination.[6]
Another system is the NFC based stock maintenance and
billing system that automates the operations of a general store
shop using NFC. As a result of this system, the retailer's can
keep a record of the available stock present with them.
Customers are kept up-to-date regarding the availability of
goods with the retailer and they are also alerted when a new
stock of goods they were looking for have arrived in the
shop[7].
The Indian Railways (IRCTC) have developed a website
where passengers can visit and book tickets for long distance
trains. The website displays a record of different trains
available and seats available for the passengers. But the
problem with this system is that it can only be used to book
tickets for a long journey.[8]
Next, the Android Urban Railway Application allows the
user's to access to entire details of train schedules, ticket
booking process and also perform validation of ticket. An
admin module has also been provided on the server side to add
878 2015 International Conference on Green Computing and Internet of Things (ICGCloT)
and manage routes, locations, fares and hmmgs which
provides as a front end to manage the database and make easy
entries. This application eliminates the use of paper.[9]
III. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The reason for the development of this system is the
increasing work load on the people and decreasing amount of
time left with them. People are always in hurry and do not
have sufficient time to stand in the queue for buying the train
ticket for their journey. This system will save a lot of time of
the people which they can utilize for their other important
works.
This system is based on NFC enabled Android device. In this
system user will have to use an application in which he/she
will select the destination and the number of passengers. Then
he/she will have to tap his/her phone to NFC tag present in the
source railway station. After tapping the button for booking
the ticket will be enabled and user can press it in order to
generate the ticket. As this Ticketing process continues system
records users pattern of booking tickets on daily, weekly and
monthly basis.
This system overcomes most of the drawbacks faced in
already existing system for booking railway tickets. People
don't have to stand in the queue and don't have to pay in cash
for the railway tickets. As this system is based on NFC tag
there will be hardly any technical problem. The passenger can
also recharge his account using his credit card or debit card.
The balance will be transferred to the passenger's account.
Following steps user has to follow to generate ticket:
l.For using this application user have to login into the
application and if the user do not have account then the user
can register by providing his details.
2.The user selects the destination and the number of
passengers and then the user will have to tap the phone the
NFC tag present on the Source Railway Station to get the
Source. After getting the source the user can click on Preview
Button to see the ticket's preview. The recharge and ticket
history is maintained by our system.
3.The user can see the preview of his ticket and can save it.
The ticket will be saved in the image format in the mobile
phone's memory.
4.The user can provide his Bank's details to recharge his
account balance.
eTC:
Scans the ticket and displays the data which were present
inside the QR code of the ticket and shows whether the ticket
is valid or not.
IV. METHODOLOGY
NFC tag is working as the key for the application. Without the
NFC tag the application is useless and the user will not be able
to book the ticket. NFC provides source to the application
which is used to know the starting point of the passenger's
journey. For this purpose read mode of the NFC technology is
used in this system.
Using the learning algorithms our system learns about the user transfer ticket from one mobile to other mobile and cannot
patterns, and through this it tells the user which are the fre­ take screen shot of it.
quently visited places. So next time when the user comes they
TABLE II. FREQUENT PATTERN ON DATASET GIVEN IN TABLEI
get their frequent choice of travel.
We are using the following algorithm, where I ={Il, 12, ...., In}
Frequent patterns support
a set of items and J = P(I) set of all subsets of the set of items,
Borivali->Dadar 60%
elements of J are called item-sets and Transaction T: T is sub­
set of I Data Base: set of transactions, where an association Dadar->Borivali 60%

rule is an implication of the form: X-> Y, where X, Y are dis­ Bandra->Borivali 20%

joint subsets of I (elements of J) Dadar->Malad 20%

Join Step: Ck is generated by joining Lk-lwith itself Malad->Andheri 0%
Prune Step: Any (k-l)-item-set that is not frequent cannot be a
subset of a frequent k-item-set As this system is developed for Mumbai local train ticket, we
Pseudo-code:
had considered all the drawbacks of previous system. We
Ck: Candidate item-set of size k
came on conclusion top provide these security feature for our
Lk. frequent item-set of size k
Ll = {frequent items}; project.
for (k = 1; Lk!=0; k++) do begin V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Ck+ 1 = candidates generated from Lk; We had developed ticket checker application(eTC) and ticket
for each transaction t in database do booking application(eTC). user uses (eTC)to generate ticket.
increment the count of all candidates in Ck+ 1 that Ticket checker uses eTC application to check validity of
are contained in t ticket. In eTC If user can do the recharge, he can see the previ­
Lk+ 1 = candidates in Ck+ 1 with min_support ous ticket history and he can book ticket. user can recharge
end
through debit card or credit card. To generate ticket user has to
return UkLk;
TABLE 1. USER TICKET HISTORY
tap on NFC tag, he will get source, after that he has to enter
destination and number of passenger, the balance will be de­
T-id Ticket history Purpose to visit that place ducted from account.
Tl Borivali, Malad, Dadar Doctor Appointment,
Shop-ping, In eTC ticket checker uses this application, to check ticket va­
Relatives place, Function lidity, if checks ticket generation day. This system cannot be
T2 Borivali, Dadar Educational Institute used on the Android devices which do not have NFC technol­
T3 Borivali, Andheri, Dadar Dining out ogy. The following survey represented in graph format shows
T4 Bandra, Borivali College the generation of tickets in manual system and NFC system.

T5 Bandra, Andheri Hospital

!III [ I [ ! [ ! [-;�� ; i
In the above table we have listed down the users travel history
and his purpose of visit to those places.
Manual system generates ticket, that ticket can be exchanged
by anyone. In our proposed system we are providing security.
[ ![![ [

II 1 111111 I"IlTIIIIIIIII
User needs an account to use the application tag id is fetched
from the NFC tag to prevent threat from NFC cloning code is
generated on the ticket for verification of the ticket. User will
not be able to take manual screen shot of the Ticket. ,-

In this system we can fetched the information from NFC tag,

Fig 1.2:System Performance
and that tag had id associated with it, so only intended user
can used this. We are using QR code to scan the ticket, QR
code is a machine-readable code consisting of an array of
black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or V. CONCLUSION
The eTC application is used to book the ticket using NFC
other information for reading by the camera on a smart phone.
enabled Android phone for Railway. It is time saving as
QR code is useful for Ticket checker to check whether ticket is
passengers do not need to wait in queue for booking ticket. It
valid or not. The other main security feature is user can not is easy to use and Secured. The eTC application will be used

2015 International Conference on Green Computing and Internet of Things (ICGCloT) 879
 by TC to check the validity of the Ticket. The application itself College of Engineering and Technology, Palghar, Mumbai
validates the ticket and gives the result. This system has some University. He has 10 years of teaching experience as
limitation, it cannot be used to book the ticket for the long Assistant Professor. He has published papers in one national
Journeys and cannot work on non android device. User must and one international conference. His research area include
have Credit/Debit Card. In Future The application will be GIS, WebGIS, SOl, Remote Sensing and Data Mining.
available for all mobile operating systems. And can be used in
other public transportation system like bus. Mr. Caston Fernandes has done his B.E in
Information Technology from St. John
REFERENCES College of Engineering & Technology,
Palghar, Mumbai. He is working as a
[I] Smart Card Alliance, "Proximity Mobile Payments: Leveraging NFC Lecturer in St. Johns from the past three
and the contactless financial Payments",2007.
ears.. His interests include Cloud
[2] David M. Monteiro, Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues, and Jaime Lloret, "A secure
NFC Application for Credit Transfer among mobile phones." , 2011. Computing Security and Database
[3] Oloyede, Alaya ,Adewole, "Development of an Online Bus Ticket Management Systems.
Reservation System for a Transportation Service in Nigeria" Computer
Engineering and Intelligent Systems , ISSN 2222-2863 , Vol. 5, No.12,
2014.
[4] M.Elizabeth Sherine I, Shinu Sadeyone,"NFC based stock maintenance
and billing system with auto alert to customers",IJRET: International
Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 23 19-
1163 ,Vol: 03 Issue: 06 Jun-2014
[5] Mohanad Halaweh ,"Adoption of near field communication technology
for mobile payments in the UAE" case study Mobile Payments, 2012.
[6] Dr. Vijethas shetty, "E- Ticketing in India - A Study on the Indian
Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Ltd.", 2014.
[7] Antero Juntunen and Sakari Luukkainen, "Deploying NFC Technology
for Mobile Ticketing Services",2010.
[8] Rob Triggs (2013,September 21) [Online]
Available: http://www.androidauthority.comiwhat-is-nfc-273 070
[9] Ian Poole [Online] Available:
http://www.radioelectronics.com/info/wireless/nfc/nearfieldcommunicati
ons-tags-types.php

Anita Chaudhari completed her

from Mumbai University in 2013.
she is working as Assistant
0 ... __._,,

in St. John College of

and Technology, Palghar,
University. She has published
national and seven international
paper. Her research areas include network Security, and Data
Mining.

Brinzel Rodrigues completed her M.E

Mumbai University in 20l4.Currently
is working as Assistant Professor in St.
College of Engineering and
, Palghar, Mumbai University.
research areas include image processing,
iomedical engineering. Her interest areas
artificial intelligence and

Mr. Pratap Sakhare has completed

M.Tech in GIS (Geographic Information
System) and Remote Sensing from
Motilal Nehru National Institute of
Technology, Allahabad. Currently he is
working as Assistant Professor in st. John

880 2015 International Conference on Green Computing and Internet of Things (ICGCloT)