[Vanhackspace] Hardware for people/inventory tracking

[Gavin]

Cool, another idea, one I didn't remotely think of. Unfortunately I don't
think all the feasible for the final version. Right now due to storage
restrictions the phones are stored in plastic drawers inside of the cabinet,
so I'm not sure if there would be enough space for cradles for each of them.
But its worth looking into.

As for tracking people, I was intending to base that on a barcode reader
(for the prototype it sounds like I can use a cuecat scanner) that controls
the lock to the cabinet.

Thanks,
Gavin

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 10:43 PM, Bob Cook <bob at bobandeileen.com> wrote:

> Hi Gavin,
>
> The simplest thing you could make is a cradle for each item, with a small
> switch inside each cradle. When the phone/gadget/etc. is in the cradle it
> depresses the switch. When removed, the switch is opened. This switch event
> can be recorded by the microcontroller of your choice. This is likely
> cheaper and easier than implementing any sort of wireless tracking beacon
> e.g. rfid. It doesn't really help to track people though, but your
> description below made it somewhat unclear whether that was an actual
> requirement.
>
> Hope that helps!
>
> Bob Cook
>
> On 2010-07-22, at 3:13 PM, Gavin wrote:
>
> > Hi Hackspace.
> >
> > Long time lurker, but kinda curious about feedback for an project.
> >
> > We have various small items (cellphones) that are tracked manually here
> at work. Usually not a problem, but once in a while during rushes, people
> grab an item, and forget to sign it out. So I was trying to think of a nice
> system that could track a tagged item from leaving the container, and signal
> an arduino or laptop on which specific item it is.
> > I'm at a loss for what could be used relatively cheaply to track items
> like that.
> > It doesn't need a lot of range, or to be tracked where it is, just that
> its being removed from some sort of holding container.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Gavin
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> >
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