Programming Fundamentals of RFID with Special Applications in Urban Tree

Management

Stephen WingardM.Sc. Candidate

Forest Information Technology

Vermessung & Geoinformatik GmbH

TRIGIS Vermessung & Geoinformatik

Founded

1990

Employees

ca. 120

Headquarters

Heidelbergstraße 7

07554Korbußen/Gera

TRIGIS - ServicesGeoinformatics

Creation of GIS, Digital City Maps, Network Information Systems (electric, gas, water, etc.)

SurveyingAsset documentation, Building and Street Construction, Planning Surveys

PhotogrammetryAcquisition and Analysis of Aerial Photography, Ortho-photos, Satellite Photography

ConsultingProject Conception, Process and Procedural Consulting, Education

Software DevelopmentInterfaces, IT-Integration, Application Development, Databases

Radio Frequency IDentification

Data

Contactless Interface RFID-TransponderRFID-Reader

„Auto-ID“ Technology

Transponders Readers

Frequency Ranges

LF HF UHF MW

Active vs. Passive

Controversy

Data Privacy & Security„Secret“ SurveillanceViruses & Worms

One should differentiate between real threats and paranoia!

RFID in Forestry

Project Objective and Goals

ObjectiveDevelopment of fundamental programming procedures for an RFID device for the purpose of expediting future application development

Project Goals

Describe and demonstrate functions of the T4CE dynamic link library (dll)Develop practical mobile RFID software example (e.g. in Forestry)Create PDA-PC InterfaceCreate interface with GeoMedia geodatabase

Materials & Methods

Programming LanguageVisual Basic .NET .NET Framework 1.1.NET Compact Framework

Programming EnvironmentMicrosoft Visual Studio Enterprise Edition

Materials & Methods

T4CE dll programming interface (C++)OpenNetCF.org Desktop CommunicationDLLIntergraph GeoMedia (GIS)

RECON Industrial PDAWindows CE.NET OS

Compact Flash II RFID reader (13,56 MHz)Misc. Industrially coated RFID tags

T4CE DLL

First HurdlesImporting C++ library into .NET

Normally: Import DLLnameNon-.Net (for each function)

Solution: Class „RFID“ containing all functions and properties

Declare Function T4SelectTag Lib "t4ce.dll" Alias "T4SelectTag" (ByRef TagType As Byte, ByRef SerialNumber As Byte) As Integer

RFID Functions

25 Functions5 Initialization/Deinitialization5 Tag selection2 Read/Write2 Tag Options2 Reader Configuration2 Version Info1 Reader status6 Low level digital IO

Not all functions needed for

basic operation!

General Program Flow

Reader Initializaion

Tag Selection

Tag Operations (R/W)

Deinitialization

Reading/Writing Data

R/W operations occur in blocks1 block = 4 bytesUp to 4 blocks (16 bytes) may be read/written at once

To change 1 byte of information, entire block must be re-writtenMemory mapping very important!

Similar data stored together

Example: Memory MapBlock Byte Description

0 0 Day

1 Month

2 Year

3 Year

1 0 Hour

1 Minute

2 Second

3 Empty

2 0 Height

1 DBH

2 Age

3 Stem

3 0 Tree species

1 Tree species

2 Tree species

3 Crown

Read/Write Benchmark

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1 4 8 16 32 64 128 256

Total Blocks

Tim

e (s

) Read 4Write 4Read 1Write 1

Practical Example:Prototype for an Urban Tree

Management System

Szenario

DB

XML

MS Access

GeoMedia

XML Format<Grünflächen_Laubbäume>

<LBAUM>

<RFID>00F090F4</RFID><ID>506</ID><Anlage_Name>Nibelungenring 30-42</Anlage_Name><Straße>Nibelungenring</Straße><Hausnummer>30-42</Hausnummer><Baumart>Spitzahorn</Baumart><Kronendurchmesser>6</Kronendurchmesser><Kronendurchmesser_max>7.5</Kronendurchmesser_max>

</LBAUM>

</Grünflächen_Laubbäume>