RFID for Museum Exhibits - Reader Needs Help
Filed in archive RFID Basics on December 19, 2006
A reader of this blog emailed me looking for help.
He is in charge of putting up an interactive exhibit in a museum and would like to incorporate RFID technology.
So I am posting his note to see if anyone has an answer for him. If you can provide any guidance, please leave a comment below:We are building an interactive exhibit for children at our northern California children's museum and we want to use RFID technology. It's such a weird application, it's hard to get good advice.
I'll be quick. Attached is a layout of our design (PDF). We want to use 3 readers, one in each recycling bin .... There will be 30 recyclable items all with tags. When kids put the items in the bins, it affects their environment. My questions are specific to RFID (we've pretty much worked out the other stuff).
-- Can you recommend a good place to purchase RFID equipment in small quantities?
-- Will it be possible to limit the readers range to the bins (approx 3 foot square)?
-- Can the items with the tags be made of aluminum?
-- Any advice on specific readers and tags?
Ryan Donahue
ECO Station Director
S.T.A.R. Education
Leave a comment if you can help with any of his questions.
I'll be quick. Attached is a layout of our design (PDF). We want to use 3 readers, one in each recycling bin .... There will be 30 recyclable items all with tags. When kids put the items in the bins, it affects their environment. My questions are specific to RFID (we've pretty much worked out the other stuff).
-- Can you recommend a good place to purchase RFID equipment in small quantities?
-- Will it be possible to limit the readers range to the bins (approx 3 foot square)?
-- Can the items with the tags be made of aluminum?
-- Any advice on specific readers and tags?
Ryan Donahue
ECO Station Director
S.T.A.R. Education
Permalink: RFID for Museum Exhibits - Reader Needs Help
Tags: RFID museum rfid tags rfid+museum reader+needs needs+help
Vote for RFID for Museum Exhibits - Reader Needs Help:
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Response from:
FatButler
(12/20/06 11:28am)
Response from:
(12/20/06 1:46pm)
We always accept donations... but for this project we do have funding. I was having trouble finding people that would return my calls regarding such a small application. With the advice I get here, we're going to order the suggested readers and tags an tool around with them. Thanks for your response.
Response from:
Barb
(12/22/06 3:44pm)
-- Any advice on specific readers and tags?
It would need one gateway, mounted high in the exhibit, and three reference tags, one in each bin. Then you would attach asset tags to the recyclable items (30 is a lot of asset tags). The system would then show which bin each of the recyclable items is in.
-- Will it be possible to limit the readers range to the bins (approx 3 foot square)?
Yes, we can do this by reducing the transmit power of the reference tags. However, without further reference tags outside of the bins, you couldn't tell whether the recyclable items are inside or outside of the bins, only _which_ bin they're in (or close to).
-- Can the items with the tags be made of aluminum?
Yes The only problem would be if so many metal items are stacked inside a bin that the reference tag were completely obscured by metal. This seems pretty unlikely if the bins are large enough.
Hope this helps,
-- Any advice on specific readers and tags?
It would need one gateway, mounted high in the exhibit, and three reference tags, one in each bin. Then you would attach asset tags to the recyclable items (30 is a lot of asset tags). The system would then show which bin each of the recyclable items is in.
-- Will it be possible to limit the readers range to the bins (approx 3 foot square)?
Yes, we can do this by reducing the transmit power of the reference tags. However, without further reference tags outside of the bins, you couldn't tell whether the recyclable items are inside or outside of the bins, only _which_ bin they're in (or close to).
-- Can the items with the tags be made of aluminum?
Yes The only problem would be if so many metal items are stacked inside a bin that the reference tag were completely obscured by metal. This seems pretty unlikely if the bins are large enough.
Hope this helps,
Response from:
FatButler
(12/24/06 1:07pm)
I am not sure why you would need "reference tags". Barb is right as you would only need one gateway (reader) connected to 3 ANTENNA's, each in turn attached to each of the bins. The recycable items would have passive tags. The middleware will have to distinguish whether or not the recycable item was placed in the right bin. I believe this would be the most cost effective way. That's FATBUTLER's two cents :) Visit my site will you? http://www.fatbutler.com
Response from:
Ryan
(01/04/07 2:36pm)
Any advice on a good place to purchase this equipment?
Response from:
wewake
(03/16/07 6:20am)
Please send me some details about making the library management using RFID.
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I would suggest trying to get a donation since your project is for a worthy cause.
-- Will it be possible to limit the readers range to the bins (approx 3 foot square)?
Yes. Assuming you use UHF Readers, you can control the range in two ways
a. Control the power level
b. Use a custom antenna for the reader
c. Use small profile tags
-- Can the items with the tags be made of aluminum?
There are ways around tagging metal objects (using spacers or specially designed uhf tags e.g confidex has one and so does avery (metal track tag). These however are rather bulky and you are probably tagging aluminum cans. One way around tagging these cans would be to use tags that are tied to a string which in turn is tied to the can.
-- Any advice on specific readers and tags?
Almost any reader out there would work fine (Gen2). Passive tags would help keep the cost down. Omron has "ninja" tags that would work, Rafsec has small profile tags that work really well...
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FatButler of course :)
www.fatbutler.com