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Part One: An RFID-driven welcome application
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We installed 1 RFID Alien reader, at the entrance, on a walk-through arch. The arch reader’s signal was boosted by 4 antennas which are the white blocks.

We distributed simple conference name tag holders fitted with a thin passive RFID tag. These were connected to guests contact details – name, company, email address, LinkedIn. Beyond the arch we projected each name and company related to name card/tag detected. It would pick you up from about 3 meters from the screen. We calibrated it to pop your name a little before reaching the arch.

We also projected the same inside the exhibition space (as another projector was available), while on side monitors we showed a variation of the welcome screen with “person x, company x, has just entered this space”. These were turned off early due to mix-ups as there was a lot going on.

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Part deux: 2 physical “swap contact details” touchscreen consoles
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We placed the other two readers inside vertical touch screen units.

Your badge triggers your name to appear on the screen in a circle. The signal reached 2 meters. People in front of the unit blocked this reach signal working as a perfect damper to return only those in front of the screen to show up. Test, test. This is not really the best sequence series. Video would be great showing people interacting (coming soon).

As all participants had already given us their contact details before entering, we could easily hook people together. See the steps below. Pressing the central button sent emails to respective swappers. It worked! And of course there are a million add-ons that might be possible now, but heck this is just a prototype.

This project helped kick-start development of some new goodies for the Roomware Server. Due to the miserable software support we received from the RFID hardware suppliers, we were forced to write drivers for the RFID reader to communicate with the Roomware Server. So now the Alien reader is supported. What is the state of middleware for RFID? Anything else open source with lots of support for different readers? I assume that as we can read an Alien RFID reader that we are now supporting all Gen 2 UHF readers as that’s an RFID standard.

So this concludes this small case study on a social use of RFID in an exhibition/conference environment.

Oh and they went crazy with segways and smoke machines plus all those LEDs.

And a bit of a tour of the location via dutchcowboys, a dutch marketing and tech blog.

Thanks go to Tom for saving the day (once again!), as 4 people in the team were seriously ill during the crunch period(me included!), so not enough time to test and integrate. Also a big shout out to our collaborators and new special “Internet of Things” operations hit team, Tim and Maarten. All ran smoothly from about 6.30pm onwards. The guests responded very positively!!

My only dark moment was reflecting on the possible extinction of the business card and what that might mean for graphic design on small pieces of card. I was also slightly surprised by how some people used the application. I noticed people in their haste to show it off, clicking on 3 or 4 people they had just met and not really spoken to, pressing the connect button before receiving consent. It was game-like, youthful enthusiasm on show. Treating it as a game when you just meet people was probably due to the nature of the event, which was to show of cool technology. Some people might see this as “connection-lite”, or a new form of spam in which you see your spammer. Shy people will get their email address sent to a stranger who they did not really want to be associated with. Let’s implement that on/off button for RFID tags for people soon.

Team:
Project Management + RFID : Tim and Maarten of Innoviting
Registration web application: Rob van der Burgt – Asva
Roomware Server, database: Tom Burger of Mimic Media, Roomware Project
UI development: Mark Barcinski and Adrien JeanJean of BarcinskiJeanJean
Concept development and creative direction: James Burke of Alchemyst and Roomware Project

Demo08 profiled a new Alcatel/Lucent supported start-up tikitag. The company sells kits much like the people at Phidgets which connect RFID tags to your computer via a USB connection. Tikitag’s take on this is to enable developers to build new social RFID services. It also is place for people with ideas to connect with developers. Check the video of their founder giving his demo pitch.

To see what this future world would be like, a pilot project involving dozens of volunteers in the University of Washington’s computer science building provides the next step in social networking, wirelessly monitoring people and things in a closed environment. Beginning in March, volunteer students, engineers and staff will wear electronic tags on their clothing and belongings to sense their location every five seconds throughout much of the six-story building. The information will be saved to a database, published to Web pages and used in various custom tools. The project is one of the largest experiments looking at wireless tags in a social setting.

The RFID Ecosystem project aims to create a world that many technology experts predict is just on the horizon, said project leader Magda Balazinska, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. The project explores the use of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, tags in a social environment. The team has installed some 200 antennas in the Paul Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering. Early next month researchers will begin recruiting 50 volunteers from about 400 people who regularly use the building.

“Our goal is to ask what benefits can we get out of this technology and how can we protect people’s privacy at the same time,” Balazinska said. “We want to get a handle on the issues that would crop up if these systems become a reality.”

via UWnews.org

USA today just posted an interesting article on hotel door security upgrades taking place. Out with the recent, in with the new it would seem.

“Changing technology has hotels looking beyond the traditional plastic key card as a way to unlock guest-room doors.

The Plaza Hotel in New York, now closed for renovation, will open later this year with radio-frequency cards that unlock the door when swiped past the lock at close range. Paper cards, cellphones, fingerprints and iris scans are popping up as alternative unlocking devices.

The plastic cards that decades ago replaced brass keys still dominate. But the alternative devices could gather momentum as lock suppliers show they can deliver better security, lower costs, greater environmental friendliness or a combination.

The standard plastic key card has a magnetic strip encoded at the front desk to unlock a guest-room door. They cost about 10 cents to make and are designed to be used 20 or more nights.

But guests often carry them away or toss them out after one or two nights of stay, says Brian McGuinness, an executive at Starwood Hotels, which has plans to install locks using radio-frequency technology at some of its hotels.

Among the new options:

•Paper card. Charlotte-based Cadmus makes paper keycards used at several independent hotels. Similar to parking stubs, they contain a magnetic strip on the back and can work in the existing locks that take plastic keys.

Paper cards are more environmentally friendly, without being more costly for hotels, says Ray Berger, CEO of Pineapple Hospitality, which markets Cadmus’ keys.

But Mark Goldberg, CEO of Plasticard Locktech International, one of the largest plastic key card manufacturers, says most hotels average about 10 nights per card — not one or two — and that plastic remains the overwhelming favorite among hoteliers because it’s more durable. “We’ve been here 20 years, and we’re confident we’re going to do (plastic) key cards for a long time,” he says.

•Radio-frequency identification (RFID): The Plaza is one of many hotels using or considering RFID, which unlocks doors by verifying information — room number and duration of stay — stored on a chip in the key card.

Aloft and Element, Starwood Hotels’ (HOT) new chains that plan to open their first properties this year, will be built with locks that will initially use traditional key cards but can be converted later to read RFID cards.

The RFID card, which is more expensive to make than the plastic key card, affords greater security because it’s harder to duplicate than a conventional key card, says Marc Freundlich, an executive at Assa Abloy, a hotel lock manufacturer. Based in Sweden, Assa Abloy makes the locks that will be used at the Plaza and the Aloft and Element chains.

Using a cellphone instead of a key

Assa Abloy is working with Accor, operator of Sofitel, Red Roof Inns and other brands, to take the RFID experiment a step further.

The French hotel company recently began testing in two rooms — one each at Hotel Sofitel Le Faubourg and Pullman Paris Bercy (formerly Sofitel Bercy), both in Paris — a new lock that allows guests with advanced models of cellphones or PDAs to flash their device to open the door.

It’s likely to be years before RFID in hotel locks becomes common. Freundlich says he says he knows of no U.S. hotel now using it, though some foreign hotels have already installed it.

•Iris-scan. In 2004, Nine Zero Hotel in Boston, part of the Kimpton chain, installed iris-scan technology in its penthouse suite. When guests check in at the lobby, a hotel employee takes a photo of their iris. Guests open the doors by flashing their iris once again while standing in front of the lock’s iris image reader.

South Korea-based LG, which developed the technology, says the image taken in the lobby involves an auto-focus camera similar to a home camcorder operated in normal indoor lighting.

•Fingerprint. Locks that use fingerprints as the keys have started to emerge. The SoHo Loft, a seven-room hotel in New York, is one of the first customers and has installed it in five of its rooms, owner David Drake says.

Its guests are escorted to their rooms, where their prints are scanned on the lock. Guests can open the doors by pressing their index fingers on the locks and keying in a numerical code issued at check-in. The code is issued as an extra layer of security, Drake says.

For protection of a guest’s privacy, the hotel throws out the scanned fingerprints every few days.

Repeat customers may request that the hotel keep them on file so that they don’t have to repeat the scanning process, Drake says. “I love it because I never have to worry about the keys,” he says.

Todd Morris, CEO of BrickHouse Security, a New York company that installed the hotel’s locks, acknowledges that many customers are concerned about their privacy and are reluctant to render their fingerprints. “The technology is there. The only pushback is that customers are a bit hesitant,” he says.

via USA today

So say researchers and developers who are finding ways to make the tiny devices much more than just a hi-tech price tag that can help shops and supermarkets track cans of beans from warehouse to store shelf.

“It all started with simple radio tags and asset tracking,” said Gerd Kortuem, “but that really only gives you an identifier for an object.”

Now, said Dr Kortuem, tiny Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags are getting smarter and more communicative as bigger memory, basic processing power and wireless technologies are added to them.

“We are trying to embed a little more intelligence beyond location by adding sensors and by networking these objects together,” he said.

Safe and sound

Dr Kortuem and colleagues are working on a project that combines smart tags and personal identifiers to keep an eye on people working on construction sites using heavy machine tools.

“It’s to keep track of how long they are used, to figure out vibrations generated by these tools,” he said. “It’s for health and safety. We create personalised health and safety records for every worker.” read complete article over on the bbc News site here

What is it?
It’s a combination of GPS with RFID with glued together within a wireless network service.

” These applications enable K – 12 institutions to track school bus locations, monitor their speed and condition while on the road and report on events within vehicles. The service enables school districts to improve student safety and to save money by routing their school buses as efficiently as possible — cutting down on fuel, maintenance and labor expenses.

MRM relays vehicle location, speed and other data across the AT&T wireless data network and sends it to a secure Web site portal. Both RFID and MRM data are available to designated educators and administrators who have access to a Web browser.

The integration of RFID and MRM applications is especially beneficial when trying to ensure the safety of students when they’re on their way to and from school. Deploying RFID readers in addition to tracking devices on school buses enables educators to determine when students get on or off, as well as the location of buses when they’re en route.

The company’s RFID application works seamlessly with any 802.11 standards-based wireless local area network (LAN) infrastructure and offers precise, on-demand tracking. Wi-Fi-based RFID tags, placed on ID badges that can be secured to equipment, bracelets, shirt pockets or book bags, send a wireless signal to locate, monitor and report on assets, students and educators. Additional AT&T RFID benefits include:

— Asset tracking. Minimize theft of high-value equipment and assets,
including computers, projectors, laptop carts and lab equipment. Also,
because many of these assets are mobile, locating them can be difficult
in a large school building. Active RFID allows the teachers and staff
to easily locate these assets, saving time and optimizing inventory.
— Daily attendance tracking. Automate the tracking of average daily
attendance, as well as notify administrators when students are not in
school by importing information in the student-information databases.
— School-visitor tracking. Monitor the location of visitors and even
alert school administrators when visitors enter unauthorized areas.
— Disaster response. Provide the location of school staff in the event of
a man-made or natural emergency or disaster situation.

“In today’s world of K – 12 education, enhanced visibility regarding the location of students, teachers and valuable assets is crucial,” said Bill Hughes, principal analyst for wireless research group, In-Stat. “By introducing mobile technology, such as RFID and MRM, school districts can save time, eliminate unnecessary costs, reduce theft and unnecessary inventory and, most important, enhance student and teacher safety.”

In fact, according to In-Stat, the U.S. market for RFID and GPS-based services is about $650 million annually, with projections to grow by 24 percent annually to $1.5 billion by 2010.

AT&T’s expertise includes designing, deploying and managing the solutions. These solutions vary from mobile devices and applications to AT&T’s Internet Protocol (IP)-based network and Internet data centers to education-facility infrastructure, such as RFID readers, tags and data-collection servers, LANs, wireless LANs, firewalls and routers.

“Our RFID and MRM services help K – 12 institutions rapidly deploy end-to-end solutions without significant capital investment,” said Ann Rotatori, vice president of Business Marketing for AT&T. “For the first time, school districts can now turn to a network services provider for all of their RFID and MRM needs, and that enables them to save money, make the most of their assets and resources and enhance student safety.”

These solutions are a continuation of AT&T’s strategy to deliver a range of RFID and sensor-based network solutions, and it’s another example of how the company is delivering converged, IP-based applications and services that enable users to access content, applications and information virtually anytime, anywhere and by using any device.”

via Ministry of Tech

Following dinner with a new friend working with the open-eyed people at Trendwatching, persuing their site today i came across this RFID-dy/mobile-phone story and had to share it. It’s a funny proof of concept, which somehow befits a fast-food restaurant…(don’t imagine this in a gourmet setting except as a skillfully introduced piece of stagecrafted experience design).

“Working with SK Telecom, McDonald’s in Korea is testing food ordering by RFID (radio-frequency identification). A pilot program in Seoul’s Shinchon neighbourhood lets customers place an order by pointing their cell phone at the items they want. Actually, it’s not quite that simple—they first need to download software to their phone and then, seated at their McDonald’s table, plug an RFID reader into the phone and aim their handset at a menu with built-in RFID chips. Items are automatically charged to their cell phone bill. As soon an order is ready, a message is sent to the customer’s cell phone, letting them know that they can pick up their tray at the counter.

According to SK Telecom, McDonald’s “Touch Order” system is the first in the world that lets customers use RFID to place orders at a restaurant. Like GoMobo, the company that enables members to order food by text message at a growing number of US restaurants, Touch Order allows customers to avoid queues, making the buying process faster and more convenient for both the restaurant and its patrons. One to watch if you’re in mobile commerce or the fast food business! (Related: Food ordering by text message.)

Website: www.mcdonalds.co.kr

Being notified when you food is ready was something i also experienced in the US, earlier this year too. Some sandwich joint gave me a blocky wireless receiver which beeped when my sandwich was ready. Was pretty unexpected, and if only the sandwich were as good as the idea of signaling when the food was ready…..

via springwise

Speakers include Katherine Albrecht (CASPIAN – Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion And Numbering, USA), Bart Schermer (privacy lawyer and coordinator of RFID Platform Netherlands), Melanie Rieback (Ubisec researcher, VU University Amsterdam), Stephan Engberg (Priway/Copenhagen Business School), Christian van ‘t Hof (researcher, Rathenau Instituut), Willem Velthoven (designer and director of Mediamatic) and many others.”