Hello and welcome (back) to my blog! Today I will start to (superficially) discuss RFID technology and link this technology to Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS).
First, I will give some attention to what RFID is. RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, is a sytem used for tagging and identifying objects to enable identifying them. By using such an identification technology, it is possible to for example register which products are leaving a warehouse or store, open doors for certain people or tracking pets.
There are generally three types of RFID tags: active RFID tags, which contain a battery and can transmit signals autonomously, passive RFID tags, which have no battery and require an external source to provoke signal transmission, and battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID tags, which require an external source to wake up but have significant higher forward link capability providing greater range (retrieved 23 may 2010, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID).
The RFID tags can be “read” by a RFID reader, which is connected to a (personal) computer or microcontroller. By programming the latter, all kinds of actions can be linked to certain particular signals.
As an example of such a script, I wish to give this simple example of a script that is able to run natively on a Linux OS. The script makes sure that when a particular RFID signal is “picked up” by the reader connected to the computer, it will switch to another workspace (a Linux based operating system usually enables to spread open applications over several “desktops” (workspaces in jargon)).
This is the link to the script (pasted in a .doc file to make it accessible to everyone): http://bit.ly/9yEv7e. The workspaces are being switched by simulating the necessary keystrokes with a small program called XTE.
End of part 1
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