Dear Nick,
I noticed with interest your recent e-mail (copied below) about the project
we ran with the Fitzwilliam Museum in the summer of 2002.
Since that project ran, we have developed the system further, and were
awarded a contract last year, to supply a full Hypertag system to the
Fitzwilliam Museum, together with the At-Bristol science centre, and the
National Space Centre in Leicester. The system at the Fitzwilliam is going
live very soon, and will be closely followed by launches at At-Bristol and
the National Space Centre.
In addition, other leading visitor attractions are currently assessing the
technology for their own installations, and we expect to be able to announce
further implementations in the very near future.
The system actually uses infra-red tags, because infra-red is fitted to the
majority of PDAs as standard, and so this overcomes the constraint you
highlight below that is associated with RFID tagging, and it allows future
proofing for mobile phones as well.
For those interested in more information on this type of system, please
don't
hesitate to contact me with any queries you may have.
Many thanks,
Jonathan Morgan
Director
Hypertag Ltd
Tel: 01223 763710
Mob: 07779 793278
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Nick Poole
Sent: 15 October 2004 14:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: RFID
Mike,
Some time ago I was peripherally involved with a pilot project between the
Fitzwilliam
Museum and a company called Hypertag.
I believe that the product was originally developed to provide visitors to
trade
exhibitions with location-sensitive information through a PDA equipped to
read RFID
tags.
In the Fitzwilliam pilot, RFID tags were attached to object labels. The PDA
software
called the tag ID, and used it to reference browser-based content about the
object,
which it then displayed on the PDA screen.
The obvious weak link is the need for people to have appropriately-equipped
PDA's.
However, I believe that the development path was to enable interaction with
3G
phones, though I'm not sure where this got to.
The uses for collections-management are, as you suggest, very interesting.
However, I have a feeling that the software would have to get at least as
stable as,
say, that of the handheld units which shops use for inventory control before
it
became a viable option.
Best regards,
Nick Poole
On 15 Oct 2004 at 14:15, Mike Stapleton wrote:
> Colleagues,
>
> I note in a recent news article that the Vatican Library is a fair way
> in to a project to tag 2 million or so books in its collection with
> RFID tags. The original aim was to speed up the annual inventory
> process - expected to reduce the time taken for the task from a month
> to a day.
>
> It's a technology where the costs are expected to drop rapidly.
> Is anyone planning or carrying out such a project in the UK or
> is it anathema to consider sticking RFID tags to objects.?
>
> The technology would dovetail very nicely with procedures for
> Inventory Control, Location and Movement Control, Audit, Use,
> Loans out (for handling kits) etc
>
> Mike Stapleton
> System Simulation
Nick Poole
Director
Mda
The Spectrum Building
The Michael Young Centre
Purbeck Road
Cambridge
CB2 2PD
Telephone: 01223 415 760
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.mda.org.uk
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