GaiShan manufactures products to assist the approximately 140 million people in the world who suffer from full or partial blindness. While there has been a proliferation over the years of basic devices that "talk," such as clocks, thermometers and calculators, availability of more sophisticated products has been lacking.
By embedding low-cost, intelligent RFID readers from SkyeTek™ GaiShan is manufacturing innovative new products to assist the visually impaired. GaiShan has incorporated RFID technology into portable audio players, along with a "text-to-speech" engine, Internet connectivity and other utilities to produce a player that will read aloud information about an item. Visually impaired individuals, their family members or caregivers can label household items with directions or other pertinent information which the player can then verbalize.
This same player can also be used to read RFID tags placed in store books that provide the title, author and a synopsis. The system can then pay for and download an audio version of the book from the Internet.
Requirements:
- Support for ISO 15693 air-interface protocol and associated tags
- Low total cost of ownership and forward compatibility
- Ease and timeliness of integration with existing solution and application software
- Small footprint to fit inside portable, handheld audio player approximately the size of most MP3 players
- Read range that allows for a convenient read distance (approximately 5 cm)
Solution:
- SkyeTek M1-mini HF reader module with ISO 15693 support
- Single application programming interface (API) that does not require RFID expertise
- Remote, field upgradeable firmware to keep readers current with latest technology and security
- Antenna design and power matching to achieve 5 cm read range