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Case Study: Malaysian Smart Shelf

Monday, July 23, 2007

by Rohisyam Abdul Rahman

Smart Shelf is a device that can pinpoint the exact location of books in a library. The device, communicating in High Frequency (HF) band, can detect whether a book placed in different tier levels is being misplaced, missing or rented. The device was launched on 9th February 2007 at MMU in Cyberjaya. The Minister of Higher Education, YB Dato' Mustapa Mohamed was present to officiate the event, which was attended by librarians from all over Malaysia.

Telekom Research & Development Sdn. Bhd. (TMR&D) has developed a Smart Shelf harnessing the RFID technology working on HF band (13.56 MHz). The Smart Shelf exploits the short-range RFID technology that can automatically identify books within a distance of 30 cm relative to the shelf.

The innovation began in 2005 when we received feedbacks from the patrons of the Multimedia University (MMU) library who faced a difficulty in physically locating catalogued books. The difficulty has prompted the idea to begin with our research on Smart Shelf.

The Smart Shelf research was conducted to facilitate library search and enable multiple book tracking in real time. The RFID tag technology with 128-byte storage capacity has made this goal possible.

UHF and HF RFID Frequency Testing.

At first, we tested the RFID technology working in UHF band to track books on a shelf. We found out that we could not control the signal spectrum to automatically identify books in a pre-defined area. Furthermore, we also found a number of invalid identification.

After we tested the RFID technology working in HF band, we got more accurate results and we only had to tune the strength of signals using a vector network analyzer for achieving a specific working distance from a shelf.

We also learnt that several frequency bands may not be suitable for RFID systems. Any vacant space in the frequency spectrum for wireless systems is limited. In addition, the available license-free or Industrial-Scientific-Medical (ISM) frequency bands vary substantially from country to country in terms of regulations. In our case, the frequency range of 13.553 – 13.567 MHz suits our application that requires a small amount of data reading at low speed over a short distance.

The Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia.

Our Smart Shelf was launched on 9th February 2007 at MMU in Cyberjaya. The Minister of Higher Education, YB Dato' Mustapa Mohamed was present to officiate the event, which was attended by librarians from all over Malaysia.

The writer is Researcher/Project Leader at Telekom Research & Development Sdn. Bhd., a company that provides customized solutions through leading edge designs, fabrication and state-of-art technologies.

Send your comments and discuss.

Labels: hf, malaysia, project, rfid, tag, technology, tracking