Friday, June 14, 2013

Tweaking and Testing the RFID System

OCR Canada was on-site this week at SA: Western performing "tweaks" to the install of our RFID system. Every box of archaeological material held at the Sustainable Archaeology facilities will be identified by an RFID tag, and RFID tracking technology will be integrated into the SA database. The RFID system will be used at both the SA: Western and McMaster facilities to track the movement of boxes both within and between the two facilities.

The "tweaking" of the system involved testing the range of the RFID antennas at the portals installed at every room entrance and every exit/entrance point in the facility, to ensure that the signal strength of the antenna was strong enough to track the movement of boxes, but not so strong as to incur false reads when a box passes close to, but not through a portal.


Now that the portals have been optimized, we can proceed with testing the integration of the RFID system into the inventory management component of the database.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Ark of the Covenant, or....?

While the large crate and black wrapping material may give off an exciting aura of mystery, we have to  disappoint our fellow archaeologists with the news that the latest arrival at the facility is not the Ark of the Covenant, but in fact a soil flotation machine from R. J. Dausman Technical Services, Inc.