intelligent race pass

The European Sailing Championships in eight Olympic classes was held in Helsinki waters during summer 2011. The competition was the biggest Finnish sailing event so far. The event, for the first time, featured NFC technology as a part of the race logistics. One of the project’s motivations is to test public transportation card in multipurpose use, and see how it can be turned into more than just a regular travel pass.

The competitors, staff and press attending the Open Europeans Helsinki race were offered an exceptionally versatile competition badge. The badge is simultaneously as an ID card, food voucher, public transportation pass and access control system. The basis for the race badge is the public transportation card of the Helsinki Region Transport (HSL).  Data on the race pass is read with NFC equipped Nokia C7 smart phone. NFC stands for Near Field Communication, and enables data reading on the card just by touching it with the phone.

The race logistics application was made by Bonwal Oy in cooperation with Forum Virium Helsinki, the European Championships Organization and HSL. The smart phones used in the project are offered by Nokia.