We wanted to design a system that would be able to track the stock of a refrigerator.
Knowing what is in your fridge is powerful information if you can easily collect the
data. There are a number of applications for such a system but it would be tedious
to do all the data entry by hand. Our system would track the stock of your fridge
by monitoring movement with Radio Frequency Identification. If every item has its
own RFID tag we can make estimations on usage and know when it is time to head
to the grocery store.
Overview / High Level Design
Our system tracks items as they move in and out the attached fridge with Radio
Frequency Identification. When placing items in the fridge or taking them out, you
simply move the item near the RFID reader and it will change the status of the item
in memory. Items are initialized into the system with a barcode scanner. When a
new item is to be placed in the fridge, it is first scanned by its barcode. The barcode
identifies the item when it is cross-referenced with an online database. This new
item is then given a unique RFID tag for identification. The current state of the fridge
is displayed on a small screen. The different modes for the screen
can be navigated with a keypad. All of the information is also accessible on the web
as our processor uses an Ethernet connection to act as a server. We also have a
temperature sensor to monitor the conditions in the fridge.
High Level Diagram
Results
The final product of our fridge was a large success. We were able to create a system
that could pair barcodes and rfid tags, allowing a user to then track their movement of the rfid tags
in and out of the refrigerator. Peripherals such as a screen, keypad, and temperature sensor provided
additional functionality and integrated well into the product. However, we were not able to incorporate
every additional feature we would have liked to. We were not
able to get sound integrated in time for our demo, and we could have added additional
components such as a printer (for printing grocery lists),
which might have given more experience with other protocols such as SPI and I2C.
Given more time, we also would have perfected our client side TCP/IP lookup, to allow lookups from actual online UPC
databases to work more consistently.
Media
Additional photos on each individual device page (see menu at top)
Members / Division of Work
Zach - Display, Ethernet, System Integration Dan - RFID, Thermometer Mario - Barcode Scanner, Low Pass Filter Andrew - Keypad, Poster
