DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Radio Frequency Identification is a method of wireless identification that utilizes waves predominantly in the radio band.  RFID is a fairly new technology, which has started to see growth in providing keyless access, location tracking and controlling devices. It provides a fairly robust system, which can replace many manual systems.

Universities spend thousands of dollars each year on student equipment. Naturally, they would like to protect their investment and this is achieved by limiting access to the building or the rooms that contain such equipment. This raises a big problem for students who would like to access said equipment to finish projects. To be able to solve this dilemma one must first look at all the reasons why access is restricted:

  1. If free access is provided there is no method implemented to determine who is using the equipment at any time and hold them responsible.
  2. Theft of equipment.
  3. If students are to be provided with keys to access the rooms, how is one to determine who gets access to what room and also brings up the hassle and cost of producing keys. What happens when someone loses a key?
  4. At any given time there are several hundred students in a department each at varying years of their academic studies, thus requiring access to different equipment. This brings the problem of limiting access to advanced equipment, which should only be accessed by those fluent in its use.

The main problem faced by the universities is that of determining responsibility for any damage or theft of the equipment, due to which universities limit access. The proposed project would eliminate this problem using RFID readers and tags. The system would enable the university to allow access to rooms and equipment using preprogrammed RFID tags and be able to track as to which individual used a certain room or equipment and at what time.

 

Figure 1: Model Room

Figure 1, above, shows a general overview of the model room and implementation of the RFID system. The system would utilize 1 RFID node; the node controls the RFID reader and monitors incoming data for either processing or sending data to the logging server for processing. Figure 2, shows a general overview of a RFID node and figure 3 depicts a block diagram for a RFID node. The implementation of the RFID node is explained in the design section.

 

Figure 2: RFID Node overview

Figure 3: RFID Node Block Diagram

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.