David Calkins, founder of Robogames and cohost of the Revision3 show Systm, just finished wrapping up an entire episode dedicated towards RFID technology and a practical (impractical?) application of it. In this episode they cover RFID 101, how to lock your friends out of your beer cooler using RFID technology, and perplex us all as to what the heck ‘ARFED’ is. Silly Minnesotans!
Archive for the ‘RFID’ Category
RFID Beer Cooler Lock!
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008Modular RFID Readers/Writers from IB Technology
Thursday, January 17th, 2008Here at Trossen Robotics, we like modularity. It's been part of our philosophy from day 1. So needless to say, when we first discovered IB Technology's series of modular RFID reader/writer boards, we knew we had to have them. IB Technology is a British company, with limited distribution and relatively little promotion in North America. We'd like to change that, so we are proud to announce that we are now carrying this fine line of RFID products!
What's so special about IB Technology?
- Modularity: Start with the "Universal Socket Board," which has built-in antennas for both 125 kHz and 13.56 MHz, and add whichever reader/writer module is necessary for the protocol(s) you'll be using. You can also add external antennas if you need to increase range or reliability.
- Affordability: IB Technology's RFID products are affordable, fitting in to the same price range as the rest of the RFID readers we sell.
- Flexibility/Versatility: The ability to use one base board and swap out reader modules is great for prototyping, when you may have to evaluate a number of different formats to decide which is best for the system you're designing.
After the fold: A rundown of the available hardware, and what it can do.
pcProx: Plug-and-Play RFID Solution
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007Do you need a simple and versatile RFID solution? If so, you should check out the pcProx USB RFID reader module from RF IDeas. Requiring no programming and no software, it's the quickest way to implement the security and convenience of RFID technology into your project. It acts as a "keyboard wedge," inserting an RFID tag's unique serial number into any selected text field automatically when a tag is swiped near the reader.
Instead of typing in a password, you can use the pcProx reader to log into your computer. Use it to streamline data entry and inventory tracking. It also works great as a drop-in replacement for many barcode scanners. Using the intuitive configuration utility, you can also format the output; omitting digits from the tag ID or adding characters such as Tab and Enter.
Check out the pcProx RFID reader module in our store for more information!
We also offer this reader in a kit, which includes an assortment of 125kHz (EM4102) RFID tags. If you're not sure which tag will be best for your application, why not get the kit and test them all out?
Pizza Restaurant Using RFID System
Friday, June 1st, 2007Ordering pizza ain’t what it used to be, it ain’t what it used to be, oh wait… well, if you go to City Pizza in West Palm Beach Florida that is. That’s because SoftTouch has just finished installing a self-service RFID point-of-sale (POS) system where diners pay for orders without ever showing anyone in the restaurant their credit card number.
Waiters and Waitresses are assigned an RFID wristband. Employees cannot place an order without first logging into the system using the unique tag ID on the wristband. Each tag uniquely identifies each employee. Each table is assigned an RFID Thin Card which is essentially a “live check” which uniquely identifies the customer and all of the accumulated items ordered. As the customer orders various items off the menu, the employee then walks up to the kiosk, swipes both the customer thin card and RFID wristband and places the order which is then relayed to the cook:
After each swipe of the customer card, the wait staff returns the card to the customer table. Once the customer(s) are ready to leave, they take their card to a self-service kiosk, select their method of payment, add gratuity, and viola! No more waiting around for the waiter/waitress to bring the damn check:)
The cards and readers the SoftTouch system uses are the Phidget RFID reader, the 125kHz Thin Card, and the 125kHz Wristband
via (RFID Journal)
How radio-frequency identification and I got personal
Monday, March 5th, 2007
Amal Graafstra is a friend of ours who is the author of the do it yourself RFID book, RFID Toys, and owner of txtgroups.com.
Amal has experienced a decent amount of internet fame for being one of the first people to implant RFID tags into his body. Amal, is far from wierd or crazy, he’s a very down to earth guy who happens to like new technology and wasn’t afraid to insert a tiny glass bead into his hand. After all, it’s a pretty tame body mod compared to what many people do.
Amal has written an article about his experience experimenting with RFID called Hands On.
How radio-frequency identification and I got personal
When I open my front door, I don’t reach for a key. When I log into my computer, I don’t touch my keyboard. When I start my motorcycle, again, no key needed. Instead, I just wave my hand and I’m in business.
I was one of the first do-it-yourselfers to have a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag implanted under my skin. In fact, I have two—one between the thumb and index finger in my left hand, the other in the matching spot on my right hand.
So what’s a nice guy like me doing with a microchip in each of my hands? My life as an RFID guinea pig started in early 2005. At the time I was managing servers for medical facilities around Seattle, a job for which I carried around a ring of keys to almost 100 different doors and drawers.
That bulky key ring got me thinking. It struck me that modern keys are just crude identification devices, little changed in centuries. Even if each lock were unique—most aren’t—keys can be copied in any hardware store and, once distributed, are hard to control.
RFID Powder ?!
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
As if the various other permutations and teensyness of RFID weren’t wild enough, here comes Hitachi with its new “powder” 0.05mm x 0.05mm RFID chips. The new chips are 64 times smaller than the previous record holder, the 0.4mm x 0.4mm mu-chips, and nine times smaller than Hitachi’s last year prototype, and yet still make room for a 128-bit ROM that can store a unique 38-digit ID number. The main application is likely to be anti-counterfit, but since the previous mu-chips could be embedded into paper quite easily enough, we’re fairly certain Hitachi is just doing this for bragging rights and potential pepper shaker mixups. Hitachi should have these on the market in two or three years.
Via Engadet via pinktentacleÂ
RFID Playing Cards !
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
We have had a lot of people ask for these so we decided to make a kit. We don’t have any official documentation to back it up, but we are going to call these the world’s first available RFID deck of cards for purchase. 
Kit comes with:
- 2 matching decks
- 60 labels (54 for cards + 6 extra)
With the RFID Playing card kit you actually get 2 decks of playing cards. We give an extra deck with 6 extra RFID labels so that cards can be replaced if they are damaged. (Kit comes with labels not yet applied).
Please note that this deck is meant for fun & experimental purposes. The RFID labels are different sizes than the cards and are hard to place perfectly so a sharp eye could learn which cards are which. This deck is intended for home projects, school projects, demonstrations, proof of concept, etc.
The deck is 1.5 inches tall when the labels are applied. The cards shouldn’t be bent to insure they last, but they are very easy to shuffle together since the RFID labels space the cards out.
We look forward to seeing what kind of interesting projects people come up with for these decks. What would you build?
Teaching statistics in the classroom ?
Tracking software for a Texas holdem game ?
Drinking games for parties ?
High Tech, Under the Skin
Monday, October 9th, 2006
High Tech, Under the Skin By ANNA BAHNEY Published: February 2, 2006
This Blog post is a bit of a blast from the past, but some of you may have not seen this article yet. Back when the first few people were implanting RFID chips into their hands a flurry of articles came out. I must have given seven or eight interviews myself to reporters and passed along just as many to Amal that I didn’t talk to. I know he gave dozens of interviews and it was the same with the other guys like Mikey Sklar. Amal is the author of RFID Toys book we sell. The starter kit with the book is still one of our best sellers.
Anna’s New York Times article was one of the best written on the subject. Many other reporters just couldn’t resist resist dragging the topic down to titles like, “The cyborgs are coming!” or lending a voice to those mark of the beast nut cases.
For those of you in a time crunch here’s the best part of the article, it’s the part where she talks to me 
——————————————————
At least one supplier of RFID chips, Matt Trossen, owner of PhidgetsUSA Trossen Robotics in Westchester, Ill., is skeptical about the ultimate appeal of implants. “Think about how many people have never gotten their ears pierced,” he said. “A lot of people just don’t want to stick themselves.”
Mr. Trossen sells his chips to people who use them for education and robotics and his Web site includes a disclaimer stating that the company does not advise consumers to implant them in humans or animals because the tags are not sold as medical products and are not sanitized.
He said that one could use an RFID chip just as easily for turning on computers and opening doors by putting it on a key chain or card. Although he could see a day when society would deem it acceptable for babies to be tagged at birth with chips bearing their Social Security number, now the technology for making the chips useful for home applications is beyond most people’s reach.
“For a kid to say, ‘Mom and Dad I need this implant,’ ” Mr. Trossen said, “it would be like me running out and buying an atom collider. It is a nice conversation piece, but I can’t really use it.”
——————————————————
And there goes my 15 minutes… thank you for having me.
Matt
