Airports and transport terminals
An airport has areas that only some people may enter: the flight line, baggage handling, customs and the staff lounges. Seaports, rail stations and bus terminals have the same need. Checks at every door slow everyone down.
How the original system could serve it
Staff would wear hands-free badges, and readers at the restricted areas would let in only the people allowed there. In an emergency, the system could show where key staff were.
A badge could carry a tamper switch. If someone took the badge off, it could raise an alarm at once. Or it could mark the badge for checking again at the next reader, so that two people could not swap badges.
The old site went further, with an idea for passengers. A tag would serve as an electronic ticket, carrying the passenger's identity and flight. It would keep them to their own concourse and gate, and stand in for the ticket check at boarding. The old site offered the idea; it named no airport that used it.
The cardTag suited a staff badge. The wristbandTag sent an alarm at once if anyone unfastened or cut its band. Worn on a lanyard, the jumboTag could alert the guard station when a visitor entered an area they were not allowed in.
What a builder would need
A builder would need badges with tamper switches and a reader at each restricted door. Host software would hold who may go where.
The rebuild's first milestone includes a tamper alarm and two zones, which is enough to try the idea on a bench. This page tells what ActiveWave designed the original for. It does not offer a rebuild as security for a real terminal.
Building one today
Nobody has rebuilt the original hardware recently, so nobody knows whether the old files still make a working system. The TigeRFID project's study of the original found firmware for the sealTag only, and the rebuild's sealTag is a new design. A rebuild writes all of its firmware fresh.
The TigeRFID project is rebuilding the system from the ground up, for a complete beginner with free tools. To build your own, start at the TigeRFID repository, whose readme tells where the rebuild stands.
Nothing on this site says a rebuild may transmit on the original radios' frequencies as they are. Radio rules differ by country, and the TigeRFID project checks them before it chooses a rebuild's radios.
If you build one, or try, please report back in the repository's issues. What works and what fails both help the next builder.
Sources:
- the old site's Airport Security page and its featured-application box, as it served them until October 2026;
- the cardTag, wristbandTag and jumboTag pages on this site;
- the TigeRFID project plan on its main branch, for the rebuild's first milestone.