Ticket validation system

A ticket reading system comprising:

• a portable head section comprising an aperture and a charging connector that is configured for removably affixing the head section to a charging station;
• in the portable head section, a camera mounted with a field of view over the aperture and configured to read visible code elements of a ticket;
• an RFID antenna and RFID module adjacent to the aperture and configured to read RFID or NFC code elements from a mobile computing device or RFID tag;
• a computer comprising at least a processor coupled to a non-transitory computer-readable storage device;
• a wireless network communication module configured to communicate data packets between the processor and a wireless network access point;
• a plurality of light-emitting diodes, a loudspeaker and a sound driver circuit that are configured to provide ticket validation feedback;
• wherein the storage device comprises one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform:
• receiving a ticket identifier value from one of the camera or the RFID module;
• forming and sending a request via the wireless network communication module for a server computer to validate the ticket identifier value;
• receiving a ticket validation response from the server computer via the wireless network communication module;
• based upon the ticket validation response, driving the means for providing ticket validation feedback to generate either valid response feedback or invalid response feedback.