RFID Locator Team Siqueira Anh-Vu Huynh Timothy Levernoch Samuel Patterson Christopher Ramonetti

Requirement Specifications

Background In a society shifting towards the idea that “smaller is better”, many of our everyday objects have been transformed into a miniature, more portable form. While our world and we stay the same, these smaller objects can become lost in our chaotic universe and thus making them harder to locate. Already we use organizers such as PDA’s to keep track of our appointments, addresses, phone numbers, shopping lists, and other aspects of our everyday lives. It would be convenient if we could also use these organizers to keep track of our valuables belongings and the items that always seem to vanish out of thin air.

Deliverables A working prototype of the RFID scanner Interface software for a Blackberry Schematic diagrams and circuit descriptions. System specification, including the design concept, block diagram, functional description of the blocks, a system description, and any analysis done during system design User manual

User interface The user interface hardware will consist of the blackberry phone we intend to use. Software written for this hardware will allow the user to interact with our hardware in a user friendly and familiar way. The user will select a mode and the device will perform the necessary tasks and provide necessary feedback.

Output The final output of the device will be a signal strength meter which will be transferred to the user either through audio or visual means by the blackberry phone. Intermediary outputs by our hardware will send out a signal telling all RFID tags to emit their signature.

Input RFID tags will emit a signal once they're instructed to by our hardware. Once the hardware receives these signals it passes them along to the blackberry which processes them.

The User’s Manual Getting Started –Connect the RFID scanner to your PDA via usb port and install included software. –Attach a tag to the object you wish to keep track of. –Scan the tag’s ID using the scanner. –Enter a name for the object associated with this tag. –Repeat this procedure for as many objects as you have tags for.

The User’s Manual Actively Searching for an Object –Open the locator program on your PDA. –Select the object that you want to look for by scrolling through the list of active tags or by entering the name manually through the keypad on the PDA. –Once the object has been selected the scanner will become active and begin transmitting its signal. –Now walk around the area with the PDA and scanner attached following the on-screen prompts regarding the distance from the object and the direction to it. –Continue this until the screen tells you that you should have found it according to the distance registered.

Acceptability Tests A working unit will be tested in a room with multiple objects to verify that it can indeed locate the items within an average size room. A set of parameters will be defined such as number of objects in a room with the tags attached, the distance between them, other objects that may interfere, etc. These parameters will then be varied and the device will be tested accordingly.

Product Cost PDA between $100 - $150 RFID scanner components $50 to $100 RFID tags $50 for large quantity Miscellaneous costs will bring the total cost of production up but will not exceed the limit of $500

Block Diagram