Constellation - Fall 2006

Mode of transportation, everyday use.
This is very important when considering the possibility for improvement.
Inconveniences: stairs, steps, doors, turnstiles, small passages, slopes( for non-motorized chairs)...

Disabled or not, we spend our days opening and closing doors, entering and exiting rooms, buildings, manning knobs, keys, the fridge, the microwave, the car…
How to acommodate the use of doorways to people that can’t always open or close them.

Passive RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification) are simple and small microchip devices. Now-a-days, they are mainly used to tag a family pet in case it runs away, looses its collar, and in businesses for automated stock inventory. This non-powered device has a serial number in its chip. A scanner sends an electromagnetic wave at a designated frequency which ricochets off the chip( http://tinyurl.com/9cjg3). The reflected wave carries the serial number back to the scanner. The retrieved serial number can be looked up in a preassembled index for reference.
A scanner or also known as a reader/ interrogator can be connected to a computer. The reader can have several antennas to emit a range of frequencies. This is important as different types of passive RFID microchips work with different frequencies.

Intergrating RFID tags to building entrance ways, lavatories, handicap accessibility, directions, cross streets i.e. mapping purposes for the visually impared or wheelchair access.

Tagging an RFID to a wheelchair or blind stick to open doors eliminating the need for finding a knob to open a door, fumbling for keys, manuvering a wheelchair around to open a door.

http://www.electric-clothing.com/downloads/txt/rfid_pocket.txt

From Tom Igoe’s email:
-Passive tags get shorter range
-Active tags handle the longer range applications.
-Suggestions: Going to a model where you touch the tag, like the London Tube turnstiles, or use active tags, like EZPass.
-A foot is a risky range for a short range passive tag and a small reader.

Today, Rich decides to attend the ITP Spring show. He is looking for a project that contains AUDIBLE information – like an audioguide. He heard through the grapevine ITP just got 8 new tags and he is curious to hear this new information.

He knows that the floor contains a few – when he pressed “4” on the elevator, his PDA was pinged by the passive RFID tag by the elevator buttons and said “On this floor, you will find 8 rfid tags”

When he walks into the assistive technology room, he scans the wall to his right (South) to check in. He steps into the room to avoid crowding the door and listens to the message. “There are 3 tags in this room. If you walk to your left, you will find two projects with tags. Watch out for the sofa 5 feet to your left.”

He walks toward the first project and scans it with his PDA reader. “This project was designed by Spalding Gray and is called Hugathon. It hugs you even when you don’t want personal attention. To get more info on this project, you may contact Spalding directly at: 917-234-1122. For more info, scan the 2nd tag below this one.”

Rich is not really interested in this project or this room and decides to leave. As he leaves, he scans the doorway – except this time, he scans the rfid tag on his right side, but this time his right side is facing North.

Rich is glad that there were two tags for entering and exiting in this room. He knows the admin who put the tags up read the rfidTag’s instructions when they received their tags. He has been to many places where they didn’t see the point of putting two tags for one doorway, but Rich sees the point even though he can’t see the doorway…

I think we should use what we’ve got – while it’s not ideal, it will allow us to rapidly prototype and begin to develop a web-interface for offices, stores, restaurants, and other locations to order and customize their own rfid tags.

The infrared solution is great, but the implementation is just too costly and crazy. While the PDA is not the ideal reader for this project, it will allow us to develop a working model and get going on building a database.

Codes for the tags:

1. 1042901A0

2. 104290453

3. 102AC5FF7

4. 102AC6664

5. 1023C690D

from: http://www.mobspray.com/faq.php
How does it work?

Writers’ tags are deposited, and collected, from a database operating on a central server using a GPRS connection initiated by a Java application on a Nokia 5140 with an in-built RFID reader. These tags are currently displayed on the writers phone but the system is being evolved so that they can be projected on walls in urban landscapes.

Can I participate?

The project is currently being tested around a University campus but we would be happy to hear from any groups or organisations interested in testing the technology on a larger scale.

What else could it be used for?

The integration of RFID and mobile phones is likely to grow with current predictions estimating that over 50% of all phones sold will have this technology by 2009. The technology itself could be used for a games, advertisements, micro-payments, location based services etc.