RFID reader helps person identification for photo captioning on ski slopes

Project Overview

Vail Resorts are the premier mountain resort company in the world and a leader in luxury, destination based travel at iconic locations. It has six resorts located in Colorado and California, USA.

Halse Imaging Systems Ltd have been a critical player in the delivery of the RFID driven photography system for Epic Mix Photo. This UK-based company is a leading provider of high-volume, database-driven workflows in leisure, cruise, schools and professional imaging markets around the globe. Vail Resorts use the EpicMix* program to link the skier’s activity with an online ‘dashboard’ at all of their resorts.

Challenge

Vail Resorts and Halse Imaging wanted a solution that would enable them to accurately link visitors to their photos, locations, and other statistics gained from their activity on the slopes. The terrain is high alpine with challenging outdoor conditions, therefore a rugged, weather proof hardware solution was required.

Solution
The TSL UHF RFID Reader identifies people taking part in action sports, helping the photographer to send captioned photographs to software which are then disseminated to the person photographed allowing them to upload their pictures to social networks.

UHF RFID tags were embedded into lift tickets and passes and then worn on the skier’s chest or arm pocket.

On-mountain photographers scan the skier’s UHF RFID enabled pass, take their photo and then upload it to the skier’s EpicMix account.

Data and photos are accessible online or via smartphone apps, and can be easily linked with social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter.

Result

The EpicMix program provides a system to capture photos and activity on the slopes and upload this data to an online ‘dashboard’. The UHF RFID season passes enable the on-mountain photographers to take skier’s photos and send them to their EpicMix account.

TSL’s Bluetooth^® UHF RFID Reader provides the link between the photographer’s MC65 terminal and the UHF RFID technology built into every Vail Resorts season pass. Skier’s can download or share their photos on Facebook and Twitter.

TSL’s 1097 Bluetooth^® UHF RFID and Barcode Wearable Hand Scanner

Response/Feedback

“The TSL UHF Scanner provides an essential part of the Vail Resorts EpicMix Photo experience. Posing, shooting and identifying guests in an Alpine environment has traditionally been difficult. The TSL Solution, including hands-free RF identification and wireless Bluetooth^® scanning, allows our staff to focus on service and guests to focus on their experience. We have been extremely impressed with the readers’ performance, stability and ease-of-use.”

Ryan Schwartz,  Photo Applications Manager , Vail Resorts, Inc.

* For more information about EpicMix please visit www.epicmix.com