Josh Cheng
Anne Hong
Kazuhiro Nozaki
Max Weng

Antennae Design

We wanted to reveal the technology in our antenna design therefore our design inpiration is the RFID tag itself.

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Antenna Design 01: This design was suggested in a book titled RFID TOYS and also the Skyetek data sheet. There is just one coil and reverses polarity on the top right corner. RFID TOYS suggested using the Texas Instrument tags. They look physically bigger, and I think Nick mentioned they help with the "anti-collision" factor, which we haven't tested yet. Both tags work, but the Texas Instrument tags have approximate 1 inch range and work consistently, while Tom's Scotch tags work at 0.5 - 0.75 inch range. Also, the tags are not read in the center space where "Smart Shelf" is etched (approximately 5 x 24 inches).

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Antenna Design 02: This design was an experimentation inspired by the actual Skyetek Antenna PCB board that is included in the $1500 development kit. There are 3 or 4 coils arranged continuously, but Skyetek's module is about 4 x 4 inch in size. We have about 11 coils and they are also smaller in diameter (1/4 inch versus 1 inch in Antenna Design 01), and they are continuously coiled clockwise. In this design, Tom's tags have a 1 inch range and the reading is more consistent, while the Texas Instrument tags have a 0.5 - 0.75 in range. Also, we get a reading in the center space there, so we're assuming that we created an electrical field in that 5 x 24 inch space.

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Since this is a shelf, we're going to place many books, which mean that the shelf has to read multiple tags, and be sensitive enough to read when 1 book is taken off the shelf.