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CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

A. Introduction

Nowadays, mobile devices play a huge role in human’s daily life. Mobile devices

such as smart phones do not only provide entertainment and communication between

people, but it is slowly becoming a major interface in accomplishing personal, social and

business interactions. This is true because Smart phones are enabled with a number of

technologies which help realize their enhanced functionality.

Today the rapid development and adoption of information technologies is

changing the way of doing business significantly. The growing interest on electronic

commerce to perform business transactions brought vital improvements, especially in

contactless technologies [1].

One activity that is slowly incorporated in smart phone’s uses is mobile payment.

Mobile payment refers to payment services performed from or via a mobile device.

Instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone

to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods. Mobile payment help

reduce the time used in personally paying for goods. With this notion, mobile payment

can be useful in financial transaction occurring in business with numerous transactions

happening in a daily basis.

Near Field Communication has become one of the promising technological

developments in IT industry. NFC technology is a short-range, high frequency, low

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bandwidth and wireless communication technology based on Radio Frequency

Identification (RFID) technology. It allows the transfer of data within few centimeters.

One of the advantages of NFC over other wireless technologies is simplicity.

Transactions are initialized automatically after touching a reader, another NFC device or

an NFC compliant transponder. Due to its simplicity, it has become a new and exciting

area for practitioners, many NFC enabled applications and services are developed which

are operating in three different modes; reader/writer, peer to-peer and card emulation [2].

The integration of NFC technology into mobile devices offers many reliable

applications such as payment, ticketing, loyalty services, identification, access control,

content distribution, smart advertising, peer-to-peer data/money transfers, and set-up

services [3].

In line with this, this study investigated on using mobile payment as a mode of

payment gaining access to a transit based entrance while SMS load or credits represented

as digital payment for a ticket. To further demonstrate the use of mobile payment, the

researchers created a transit style entrance machine equipped with NFC.

B. Background of the Study

A turnstile, also called a baffle gate, is a form of gate which allows one person to

pass at a time. It has been used to enforce one-way traffic of people, and in addition, it

restricts passage only to people who insert a coin, a ticket, or a pass. Thus a turnstile can

be used in the case of paid access (sometimes called a faregate when used for this

purpose), for example public transport as a ticket barrier or a pay toilet, or to restrict

access to authorized people, for example in the lobby of an office building.

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Turnstiles are used at a wide variety of settings, including stadiums, amusement

parks, mass transit stations, office lobbies, airports, ski resorts, and casinos. Near field

communication, or NFC for short, is an offshoot of radio-frequency identification (RFID)

with the exception that NFC is designed for use by devices within close proximity to each

other. Three forms of NFC technology exist such as Type A, Type B, and FeliCa. All are

similar but communicate in slightly different ways. FeliCa is commonly found in Japan.

Devices using NFC may be active or passive. A passive device, such as an NFC tag,

contains information that other devices can read but does not read any information itself.

A passive device is like a sign on a wall. Others can read the information, but the sign

itself does nothing except transmit the information to authorized devices. Active devices

can read and send information. An active NFC device, like a smartphone, is not only able

to collect information from NFC tags, but it is also able to exchange information with

other compatible phones or devices and can even alter the information on the NFC tag if

authorized to make such change.

C. Objectives of the Study

The general objective of this study is to develop a baffle gate using NFC and mobile

payment as payment interface.

In line with this, the project aims to achieve the following specific objectives:

To develop a system that can handle all the financial interactions generated

through mobile payment;

To create a mobile application that can interact with the prototype;

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To effectively communicate the data generated by the user to the central database;

and

To create a machine that allows a user to have access in a train station that is duly

operated using a NFC-equipped device, such as a smart phone.

D. Significance of the Study

In general, the study is beneficial to the daily commuters of LRT lines. The

project enables the commuters to have access in the station automatically freeing them

from the labor of paying at the counter for a ticket. Through this, commuters are giving

another means in paying for their ticket saving them time and effort.

E. Scope and Delimitation

This study focuses on the development of the mobile payment to be implemented

in having access into any establishment especially train stations. Due to development and

budget constraint, the study does not incorporate real monetary value for financial

interactions, we are going to use dummy credits as a replacement. For any NFC based

smartphone, they must install the mobile application provided; otherwise the prototype is

rendered useless. The database will not withhold any vital information such as texts, the

smartphone’s files and similar and for the prototype to work, you must have a NFC based

smartphone specifically with a PN532 NFC technology.

Input

System for handling financial interactions.Mobile application for the prototype

A central database for effective communicationA machine that is equipped by NFC based devices

Process

Problem statementRequirements specification

DesignDesign Verification and Testing

Output

Automated LRT Ticketing System using NFC enabled smartphone and Android Technology

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F. Conceptual Framework

Fig. 1 Conceptual framework of the study

Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of the study. It covers the three major

parts, namely: input, process and output phases. The input phase includes a system for

handling financial interactions, a mobile application for the prototype, a central database

for effective communication and a machine that is equipped by NFC based devices .The

process phase covers problem statement, requirements specification, design and design

and verification testing. The output phase includes the proposed prototype design which

is the Automated LRT Ticketing System using NFC enabled smartphone and Android

Technology

G. Operational Definition of Terms

mobile device - Is a handheld tablet or other portable device that stores data.

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mobile payment - Generally refers to payment services operated under financial

regulation and performed from or via a mobile device.

Near-Field Communication (NFC) – Is a set of standards for smartphones and

other mobile devices to establish radio communication with each other by

touching them together or bringing them into close proximity

baffle gate - A mechanical   used to control passage from one public area 

to another.

android - Is a mobile operating system (os) based on the linux kernel and

currently developed by Google.

turnstile - A post with arms pivoted on the top set in a passageway so that persons

can pass through only on foot one by one.