On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 6:41 PM, Gene Giannamore <[email protected]> wrote: > I am dreaming of badges that use wireless smartcard, RFID, or > other similar tech, and each station uses a battery that lasts more > than 7 days.
The requirement to not have data or power feeding each station is going to be a difficulty. Most products on the market naturally assume you'll want something that's doing to last more than a week or two. For that, you need premises power. > ... the badge records the event, date and time. Contactless smartcards and RFID are all fairly passive technologies. There's little to no intelligence in the badge; it's the radio transceiver and attached controller that do all the work. In your scenario, that would be the stations. I suppose you could scatter laptops around the place, each laptop with an RFID reader, and have the guards badge to each laptop. Then have some go around and swap laptop batteries every day. ;-) Perhaps more sensible would be an intelligence device the guard carries, and passive stations. Perhaps RFID cards nailed to the walls, and a Symbol or similar handheld computer with RFID capability? I dunno if there's COTS software to do what you want, though. Digging into history: There was a device called a "watchman's timeclock". It was basically a special clock the watchman would carry around with them. It contained a paper disk that rotated with time. There were keys chained to various stations throughout the facility. The watchman would insert the key, and the key would punch a unique pattern through the paper disk. The clock itself was locked shut; watchmen didn't have the key to the clock. Supervisors could then check the disk and make sure the watchman made all his stations at the right times. A Google for "watchclock" and "watchman's timeclock" suggests these things are still available for purchase. It's rather low-tech by modern standards, but it sounds like that's what you need. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
