Electronic badges

Dave Cramer davec-zxk95TxsVYDyHADnj0MGvQC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org
Mon Jul 9 17:50:31 UTC 2007


On 9-Jul-07, at 12:09 PM, Colin McGregor wrote:

> --- Dave Cramer <davec-zxk95TxsVYDyHADnj0MGvQC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> On 9-Jul-07, at 8:42 AM, Colin McGregor wrote:
>>
>>> --- Dave Cramer <davec-zxk95TxsVYDyHADnj0MGvQC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>>> The company I work for is visible assets. We make
>> a
>>>> unique RFID tag
>>>> which is active and can store information on the
>>>> card.It is unique in
>>>> that it operates at 132KHz.
>>>>
>>>> I may be able to get a few hundred tags, and a
>>>> reader or two for the
>>>> show. I will provide how instructions on how the
>>>> card/reader works if
>>>> anyone is interested.
>>>>
>>>> Complete disclosure here... my aim would be to
>>>> expose this technology
>>>> to some innovative people for a new application.
>>>> FWIW we already have
>>>> most of what you need working.
>>>>
>>>> Dave
>>>
>>> Okay, I may be missing something here (or I may
>> not be
>>> imaginative enough...), but I'm not sure where/how
>>> this technology, that while interesting helps
>> GTALug.
>>>
>> I'm probably to blame here for not following the
>> thread closely enough.
>>
>> There is a display on some of the tags, however it
>> is pretty limited.
>>
>> The tags can be used to read the name of a person on
>> a computer when
>> they come up to the booth. You can store approx 256
>> nibbles inside
>> the tag.
>
> I'm still not seeing a fit with GTALug. But I do see a
> potential fit for events like the Ontario LinuxFest as
> a whole.
>
> Large trade shows (and even some not so large shows)
> issue the attendees a paper name badge with a bar code
> on them. Ask for more information at a vendor booth
> and they will pull out a battery powered hand held bar
> code reader and scan the bar code. Then end of the
> show, those scans are matched up with the registration
> database.
>
> I could see your firm's tags in the above sort of
> role. The concerns I would see are:
>
> - Getting enough tags so that every attendee has one.
> - Getting enough readers so that every "vendor" has
> one.
> - Co-ordinating tag numbers with registration data
> (i.e.: tag 1234 = <<Sue Jones,sjones-omLZJFyqO6s4Q++5jOxPmw at public.gmane.org>>)
>
> If you can see solutions to the above, I would
> strongly suggest you get in touch with the Ontario
> LinuxFest people and see what can be worked out.

Well all of the above is technically feasible. We do have challenges  
limiting the range of each reader so this would be a problem
>
> Further I could, depending on how Linux friendly your
> firm's products are I could see doing a magazine
> article that mentions the above.

Almost everything we use is linux. The tag itself does not run linux,  
as it's processor is ridiculously small ( It's actually an epson  
watch chip)


>
> Again, depending on how Linux friendly your firm's
> products are I could see these badges as the basis for
> a good GTALug presentation.
>
I'd certainly be willing to open source portions of what we have.
> Hopefully someone else on the list can come up with
> additional ideas.
>
>> If this is of not what you had in mind, then please
>> ignore. However
>> I'd still make the offer to anyone who does have an
>> application more
>> suited to this.
>
> Basically I see the badges as an extra advertising
> media, a role your firm's badges were not really
> designed to fill. Still as noted there is some room
> for doing interesting things with those badges...
>
>> The tags can be read underwater, inside steel cans
>> (not aluminum
>> however). As they are at 132Khz the bandwidth of the
>> channel is
>> pretty slow.
>>
>> DAve
>>> The name badge idea was as a cute talking point
>> and
>>> being able to go from a paper badge on people's
>>> shirts/blouses that says something like:
>>>
>>>    Hello, I'm <<name>> of GTALug
>>>
>>> to a scrolling sign that says something like:
>>>
>>>    Hello, I'm <<name>> of GTALug, we meet the 2nd
>>>    and 4th Wednesday of every month, we are the
>>>    Toronto area voice of Linux fans ...
>>>
>>>    Today's lucky number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3
>> 5B
>>>    D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
>>>
>>>    Hello, I'm <<name>> of GTALug, we meet the 2nd
>>>    and 4th Wednesday of every month, we are the
>>>    Toronto area voice of Linux fans ...
>>>
>>>    If Microsoft is the answer it must have been a
>>>    very dumb question
>>>
>>> etc., etc. GTALug promo mixed with some geek
>> humor.
>>>
>>> In other words how could we use this offer to help
>>> GTALug is my basic question, and at the moment I
>> don't
>>> see it...
>>>
>>> Ideas folks?
>>>
>>> Colin McGregor
>>>
>>>> On 8-Jul-07, at 11:08 PM, Colin McGregor wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> --- phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>>>>>>> As noted in my posting about the Ontario
>>>> LinuxFest
>>>>>> I
>>>>>>> am opening up the electronic name badge can of
>>>>>> worms
>>>>>>> again. So, with that in mind let note the
>>>>>> strengths
>>>>>> (snip)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To anyone considering a single-chip
>>>> microprocessor
>>>>>> project using the PIC,
>>>>>> I would strongly recommend looking at the Atmel
>>>> AVR
>>>>>> series of
>>>>>> microprocessors. The Microchip PIC is arguably
>>>> more
>>>>>> popular, but - based
>>>>>> on my experience implementing code on it and
>> the
>>>> AVR
>>>>>> - it has some serious
>>>>>> architectural deficiencies.
>>>>>> - limited number of instructions leads to
>> opaque
>>>>>> assembly language code
>>>>>> - bank-switched registers and paged memory make
>>>> for
>>>>>> convoluted code and
>>>>>> complex debugging environment
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyone who challenges this is invited to write
>> a
>>>>>> routine that simply pumps
>>>>>> out a section of memory to a host computer. On
>>>> the
>>>>>> AVR, it's about three
>>>>>> lines of code. On the PIC, it's an ugly,
>>>>>> non-intuitive hack.
>>>>>
>>>>> On the BASIC Stamp the oddities of the PIC chip
>> is
>>>>> hidden behind a BASIC interpreter. So, I have
>> not
>>>>> written any PIC code...
>>>>>
>>>>> Oddly enough the LCD name badge problem is a
>>>> variation
>>>>> on what you describe. The LCD module has some
>>>> limited
>>>>> smarts, so we don't have to worry about dealing
>>>> with
>>>>> individual pixels (well, subject to conditions
>> we
>>>> can
>>>>> if we want to...). We want to walk through a
>> block
>>>> of
>>>>> memory, feeding information out to the
>> controller
>>>> in
>>>>> the module, toggling two control lines, and we
>>>> want to
>>>>> do a lot of waiting (even the BASIC Stamp could
>>>> update
>>>>> the display so fast as to make the display a
>> blur,
>>>> so
>>>>> waits are a must).
>>>>>
>>>>>> A compliler can hide many of the architectural
>>>> warts
>>>>>> of the PIC, but there
>>>>>> are good reasons for projects of this type to
>>>> work
>>>>>> in assembly language.
>>>>>> The code size is smaller and C tends to hide
>>>> certain
>>>>>> types of bugs.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Comparable IC's and development systems are
>>>>>> available for both devices.
>>>>>> Prices are similar.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have an old PIC programmer, not sure how many
>>>>> current devices it supports. But regardless I
>>>> suspect
>>>>> that if this is all a one person show it may not
>>>> get
>>>>> done. So this is why I got a kick out of:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
> www.instructables.com/id/E5H5UDWB5UEUKIKV8V/?ALLSTEPS
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> A very bare bones AVR development system for
>> about
>>>> $10
>>>>> (U.S.). Even that modest sum can be slashed if
>> one
>>>> say
>>>>> has a parallel printer cable they are willing to
>>>> cut
>>>>> up. In other words a development system cheap
>>
> === message truncated ===
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