To use the Montreal subway (the Métro), you tap a paper ticket against the turnstile and it opens. The ticket works through a system called NFC, but what’s happening internally? How does the ticket work without a battery? How does it communicate with the turnstile? And how can it be so cheap that you can throw the ticket away after one use? To answer these questions, I opened up a ticket and examined the tiny chip inside.
Here is a link to the Mastadon post where I saw this first, since this link is showing as non-secure.
https://mastodon.world/@kenshirriff@oldbytes.space/112666771797972297
Thank you for the link! Always had only a vague understand of NFC communication.
Yeah, really appreciated that thorough breakdown!
But can it run doom?
I’m fairly sure the entire universe is a mass of computronium that’s there for the sole purpose of running Doom.
Maybe I’m gate keeping, but RFID technology is… old. Does this belong here?
Toronto uses a similar system and I keep the tickets because I can tell my phone to run scripts when it scans them lol
