Novel Applications Of Rfid Product Tagging System

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

ABSTRACT

The aim of this project was to develop an RFID product tagging system which could be used as the successor to the current barcodes being used on products. This paper looks at methods of storing various data values securely on an RFID tag and provides several novel applications using RFID tagging. An Ehuoyan YHY632A RFID reader was used to read and write data to a set of Mifare One K S50 RFID tags. A product’s information such as name, price and nutritional information were stored on the RFID tags. Two novel applications were then developed to make use of this data. A cupboard contents manager which records items inside a cupboards and a nutritional intake monitor which records daily nutritional intake were successfully developed.

Introduction

The aim of this project was to establish whether or not RFID tagging is a suitable replacement for the existing barcode system and to develop a program that would easily allow product information to be stored on an RFID tag. This was then extended into developing a multitude of applications which could make use of RFID tags.

Related Work

There are already several examples of RFID being used in real world applications by Wal-Mart, Procter and Gamble, and the U.S. Department of Defense who have deployed RFID systems with their supply chains [2]. In these cases, RFID has typically been used in supermarkets and as part of the manufacturing process to label and track goods. Whilst this may prove to be beneficial to the manufactures there has been limited research into using RFID to create quality of life products for consumers. This paper looks at developing several applications which show the benefits of using RFID systems in the home.

Hardware

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a means of storing and retrieving data through electromagnetic transmission to an RF compatible integrated circuit [1]. An RFID system comprises of two components, the RFID reader and the RFID tags used to store the data with wireless communication between them.

RFID Reader

The reader used in this project was an Ehuoyan YHY632A RFID reader which operates at 13.56 MHz. It

Figure . RFID Reader and Tags

can read data emitted from RFID tags using the same radio frequency and also supports several different protocols to transmit and receive data. The reader features an onboard buzzer and two LED indicators (see figure 1).

RFID Tags

RFID tags can be classified into two main categories: active and passive. An active tag contains a radio transceiver and a button cell battery to power the transceiver to provide a long range. On the other hand, passive tags do not operate using batteries. Instead they reflect RF signals transmitted from the reader and add information by modulating the reflected signal. Although they have a lower range, they are much less and less expensive than active tags making them ideal for this project of replacing traditional barcode technology. The tags used in this project are the Mifare One K S50 which operates at the same 13.56 MHz as the reader. They have a capacity of 1024 bytes of EEPROM which is split into 16 sectors each with 4 blocks containing 16byes of data. With data retention of 100 years and write endurance of 100,000 cycles, they offer a virtually unlimited operational lifetime. In addition to this, every tag has its own unique manufacturer code allowing them to be individually identified.

RFID Programmer

Before any application using the RFID tags could be created, the appropriate data needed to be written to the

Figure . RFID Programmer

tag. The RFID reader came with its own Source Development Kit (SDK) allowing a all the functions of the reader to be easily accessed. The RFID programmer, shown in figure 2, consists of two components. The first part allows tags to be read and the second allows data to be written to the tag. Each block of data is individually accessed when reading or writing to it. A total of 8 blocks have been used, leaving 39 blocks available for any future use. Data is input by the user in ASCII form and a conversion to hexadecimal is required before it can be written to the tag.

Anti-collision protocol

When reading information from a tag, the reader broadcasts a message requesting the unique identifier of the tag before reading its data. This prevents the reader from gathering data from a tag with a different ID. However, if more than one tag responds when the initial request is made for a single tag ID, the responses will collide on the RG communication channel, and thus cannot be received by the reader [3]. As part of the ISO 14443A standard, the reader comes with its own anti-collision algorithm which can be accessed using the SDK. To select an individual card for reading, a request message is broadcast by the reader. The anti-collision algorithm is then applied which selects a single tag and returns its unique ID. This tag is then chosen for any future communication until a new request is made. The same process applies whilst writing data.

Security

As mentioned previously, each tag is split up into 16 sectors of programmable memory. Each of these sectors feature their own key block which contains two access keys and the key access bit which determines which key has what access rights, see figure 3. Since some applications would only need to access data on the tag and not be able to overwrite it, the key access bit was set to 08778F69 allowing the use of key A in the RFID programmer so that the reader was able to read and write data whilst key B would be used for other applications where writing data to the tags was not necessary. Table 1 shows the list of available key bits and their corresponding functions.

Figure . Example key block

Table . Key Access Bit Values

Key Access Bit

Key Function

Key A Key B

FF078069

Read/Write all blocks

Invalid

F0FF0069

Read only

Read/Write all blocks

08778F69

Read/Write all blocks

Read only

08778f69

Read only

Read/Write all blocks

POS Application

Whilst this may not be a novel application, in order for the RFID to replace the barcode system entirely, retailers need to be able to scan RFID tags. When this application is started, the reader is programmed to continually within its range for any RFID tags and to read the blocks for product name and price. This solution provides two main advantages over barcode systems. Firstly, barcodes rely on a back-end database. When a barcode is scanned, the code is looked up in the database to find the corresponding item and its price. This has a large potential for failure if the connection between the point of sale and back-end database goes down. Since all the product information can be stored on the RFID tag, this is not a problem faced by an RFID system. Furthermore, it allows any Smartphone user to scan a product to see the information. The second advantage an RFID system poses over barcodes is the increase in number of items that can be scanned per minute.

Cupboard Contents Manager

The first application developed for home use was a cupboard contents manager which would allow users to view what items they had in their cupboard. This works by attaching a scanned onto a cupboard which actively scans objects when they are passed over either in to or out of the cupboard. Since each tag has its own unique identifier, each product has its own record. When an item is scanned, its ID and product name are stored into the readers database. Upon scanning the same item for a second time, the database removes that entry as the item is no longer in the cupboard.

Nutritional Intake Monitor

Nutritional awareness is a growing trend with an increasing number of people monitoring their nutritional intake. The aim of this application is to make accurate recording of daily nutritional intake an easy and efficient task. Traditionally, nutritional information is found on packaging or by searching the Universal Product Code (UPC) in an online database. RFID tags allow all the nutritional information to be stored on the tag without reliance on any external source for information.

To provide an accurate recording or nutritional intake, once an item has been scanned, the user can input the quantity of consumed. This allows the program to calculate what percentage of the total nutritional value has been consumed. A database is then used to store the data along with a timestamp so that it may be recalled at a later date.

Future Work

The cupboard contents manager could be further developed in the future to store its database as part of an online solution. This would enable the data to be accessed by other applications connecting to the online database; creating the possibility for mobile applications for Smartphone users which would allow them to see the contents of their cupboard whilst they are away from home. A simple android application which connects to the database and retrieves the contents of the database would be able to achieve this. The use of an online database for the nutritional intake monitor would also open up the possibility of a mobile version which uses Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled devices to scan products.

Conclusion

Several novel applications have been developed as part of an RFID system. As the digital age continues to progress, an increasing number of people are looking for new digital solutions to aid with everyday life. The cupboard contents manager allows users to actively keep track of their stock. This could be connected to an online network, creating a "smart" cupboard which alerts users when they run out of a certain product. A nutritional intake monitor was also developed that allows users to quickly capture their daily food consumption in a digital form without relying on additional databases to look up information. It appears that RFID has a great potential for replacing barcode systems and provides numerous advantages over barcodes.

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