QuikTrak and smartphones

[jdcnosse]

Has anyone with a smartphone tried pulling their email confirmation up on their phone and then having the QuikTrak scan that instead of a piece of paper?

I tried to on my Android phone but gmail wouldn't load the barcode image Luckily KAL does have one staff member working, so I was able to get my tickets that way...

Only 40ish minutes until I'm on a train again! Even if it is just KAL to CHI for the day

 

[grounded flyboy]

I have tried to scan the bar code using my iphone 3 times with no luck. Immediately after trying, I have scanned the paper copy and it goes right thru. I have a plastic protector on my phone face that might be causing distortion or reflection.

 

[hessjm]

The machines will not pick up the bar code, I have watched many try! I tried with my XOOM to see if screen size made any difference and it did not.

I'm also heading to CHI today only I'm on the Pere Marqutte!

 

[PRR 60]

The Quik Trak's use a older, laser scanner which just reflects off a smartphone screen. Newer scanners are optical - essentially a video camera that processes the image and decodes the barcode. The scanners being used on the Downeaster (iPhones) will read the QR codes being used for Amtrak E-Ticket confirmations. This will be the system rolled-out nationwide.

 

[amamba]

I have also repeatedly tried to scan the barcode on my iPhone at the QT with no success.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Maybe this is why my local QT has been broken recently; too many folks trying in vain to get it to scan a tiny video screen it can't even see. :lol:

Having used the actual scanners intended to work on phones I must say it wasn't as simple as I had hoped. Maybe it's because I didn't have an app that would force the image to display in a way that the scanner could easily read. Instead the phone variously re-sized and/or re-oriented the image in ways the scanner was apparently not expecting. The TSA guys didn't know how my phone worked and I didn't know how their scanner worked so we just sort of screwed with it for a few minutes until something beeped and I was on my way.

 

[jdcnosse]

Awe well it was worth a try. Currently stuck on 365 no more than 10-20 miles from CUS because of a dead Norfolk Southern train and the 351 in front of us lol