Case Study: Canadian Artist Trades RFID-tagged Belongings Across North America

 

Some people are just braver than the rest of us. Canadian Artist, Nancy Nisbet, is one of them—as she tags all of her personal belongings with RFID, packs them onto a semi trailer truck, and travels the Continent freely trading with anyone that crosses her path. The entire project is an “art performance” that blends art, technology, and political statement.

 

To fulfill the challenging technical aspects of this project, UBC Artist and Assistant Professor Nancy Nisbet has engaged the services of Richmond-based NJE Consulting.

 

Faced with a strict deadline for project launch, NJE Consulting was able to use its extensive expertise in RFID, voice and data communications, and custom application development to deliver a unique solution for this project.

 

 

Canadian Artist, Nancy Nisbet, has RFID-tagged all she owns in preparation for her North American trading tour.

How it Works

 

Due to the public nature of the project, Nisbet required as much information as possible about the on-going trades to be made available on the Internet. NJE Consulting’s complete hardware and software solution for this project consisted of specially-programmed Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s) equipped with High-Frequency RFID readers from Syscan International. Nisbet and her assistants use the PDA’s to scan the RFID tags on incoming and outgoing items for each trade. It is also possible to record voice messages about the new incoming item (e.g. an interesting background story), and also take digital camera images of these items. Finally, incoming items are categorized according using large, convenient touch-screen buttons on the PDA screen. All of this information: RFID, voice, photo, and item category is tied together in the system database, located on a server in the truck. This information also includes a complete history of trades, so that every single exchange of items is precisely tracked.

 

During truck ‘pit-stops’, wherever Nisbet can find access to the Internet, the collected information is uploaded to the project Web Server, located at http://www.exchangeproject.ca/, for the eyes of the entire world to see.

 

 

Nisbet’s route will take her across North America, and possibly further

Tour-De-Force of RFID System Integration

 

“From a technical point of view, this was a very challenging and rewarding project,” says Bartek Muszynski, President of NJE Consulting. “Firstly, we managed to integrate data from multiple sources including RFID, voice, and image into a single, coherent database. Secondly, we successfully overcame significant data-synchronization challenges of this project—each component of the system can function independently, including the PDA’s (for data collection), the Server on the truck, and the Web Server,” continues Muszynski.

 

Possible Commercial Applications

 

While, in its current form, the system obviously does not have any commercial applications, it is not difficult to imagine how a similar system might find a myriad of commercial uses. Auction houses routinely deal with large numbers of physical items that all require careful description

and tracking. Similarly, the justice could use a similar system for tracking court evidence. Other possible applications include medical and industrial lab sample tracking, document tracking, rental goods tracking, and general asset tracking.

 

 

For more information about this and other RFID-related projects please contact: info@nje-rfid.com.
Phone: 604-295-0519