System and method for transportation check-in through NFC using a handheld electronic device, such as a cellular phone or a personal media player
Apple has been granted a patent for an application called iTravel, which will allow future iOS devices store travel and identification documents as well as use NFC technology to pay for bus and train tickets.
The patent is among a group of other patents awarded to it by the US Patent & TradeMark office.
The application would allow users to check in at airports and handle baggage claims, make reservations and then share trip details on social networks, reported Patently Apple.
The application has been designed to work with Mac computers as well as Apple's other mobile devices iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
Last month, Apple has announced its new Passbook application that lets users store loyalty and gift cards, including airplane boarding passes and movie or sporting event tickets.
Passbook for iOS will be part of the company's iOS 6 slated to be launched by the end of this year.
While Apple has not yet announced iTravel, the concept is also said to be released for iOS devices.
iTravel uses near-field communication (NFC) to communicate ticketing information, which is said to be a feature of Apple's next-generation iPhone, the report said.
The technology may store and transmit travel reservations and traveler identifications using a travel management application.
User identification may be acquired by scanning a radio frequency identification tag embedded in a government-issued I.D.
In another embodiment, an I.D. number may be entered via the travel management application, and the user's identification information may be downloaded from the issuing authority.
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