Hi Don,
I looked at this type of system a while back and determined that it
would not work for us... The problem is that the tracking device is
either hand-held, or satellite-based, so it would not work in an
automated way with our cameras, keyboards, and other devices that we
would want the apes to have access to, based on location.
My thoughts right now is to have a network of buried (in the ground,
or in the walls) location-aware computers (motes) that could auto-
sense each other, and whatever is on the collars. I'm envisioning it
working much like the navy's submarine tracking system in the
oceans. Sensors are strategically placed around the grounds with
varying radio range. When an ape (or human) gets within range of a
certain sensor, it flags this as a location in the central database.
With this type of setup, the ranges could be reduced, and errors from
triangulation get dropped to zero.
If we were to put a gumstix on the collar, it could get interesting
very quickly. For instance, we may be able to use it to translate
some of their vocalizations into english (I say may not because I
doubt the apes are capable, but because I doubt our technology is).
Essentially, each ape could have a "computer" of their own, which we
could enrich their lives with further.
--
Jon Thompson
Jon Thompson Consulting
jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(515) 360-0250
On Jul 13, 2005, at 9:31 AM, Don Anderson wrote:
Hi Jon
came across this company website today.
http://www.habitresearch.com/
This may be a solution for you. Not (yet) based on gumstix, though.
Don
gumstix, inc.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
At 10:45 PM -0400 7/11/05, Doug Sutherland wrote:
Jon,
Is there a question here? Passive RFID requires very close contact
to work
(like those touch to pay keychain things), and active RFID
requires power
on the tag to work (like on automobiles for toll pass). Not sure
how viable
this is for your application, but I suggest posting the RFID
questions on
an RFID diacussion forum.
I have a small RFID reader module here, it can connect to any host
with a
simple serial interface. Getting the antenna part right is tricky
though.
As for gumstix, consider it a general purpose processor, you could
use the
gumstix/etherstix/breakout-gs -> UART to RFID reader module, a
hub, and a
PC for data collection. The RFID interface could also be done with
lower
end MCU with ethernet or rs485 multidrop serial.
-- Doug
PS. You want to put RFID tags IN the primates? I don't like that
idea :(
Jon Thompson wrote:
Hello,
I emailed gumstix this, and someone replied, telling me that I
should ask around this list.
We're looking for a tracking system that we can embed in rooms,
and on the grounds (200 acres) to track our apes (both primate
and humans) as they move about the facility. When I heard about
the size of your devices, it occurred to me that it would be
very cool to have these embedded in the ground with some sort
of RFID sensor, with an RFID chip inserted in the apes, or in a
card of some sort for the humans.
We could then have other devices with gumstix that could also
interact with our gumnet, robots such as cars, video camera
devices that could stream to a server, and of course the
keyboards that Kanzi and Panbanisha (two of our apes) use so well.
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