xFID solution overview
posted by: Franco Ricci
Department of Physics and CASPUR have been starting, in the past 2 years, a collaboration in order to develop a new RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) system for automatic library loan procedures. These systems (generally known as self-check equipments) uses radio signals in the UHF frequency range to interact with antennas (passive tags) used to identify books. Users identification is made through special cards with an embedded tag. The entire loan process is completely managed by users through programs which run on a PC (terminal) directly attached to the reader. In our project we used an approach different from current commercial solutions, that works with RFID reader in the range of HF. We think in fact, that this new “technology” could be very promising in the future for the enhancements it could bring vs the “old” one (e.g. for massive inventory of library items in a “single shot”, not permitted then using HF RFID technology). xFID system demonstrates that UHF RFID readers can be used inside libraries as effectively as HF RFID readers (despite the latter is a more mature and stable technology), but also define a solution that makes use of UHF RFID components which are relative simple to maintain and to upgrade, open for systems integration, web manageable and with an Ethernet port for direct local network connection. Users interactions with library loan system is performed through a simple Web interface on a network attached terminal.
SIP2 Protocol
posted by: Franco Ricci
SIP2 (Session Initiation Protocol) is the most used protocol by Library management systems for automatic loan procedures. A PHP5 library fully compatible with SIP2 is available for Internet communty under BSD license.