Help Finding RFID Reader & Interfacing for Senior Project

[ajaustin12]

Hello.

I am getting ready to start my senior year in college for EET. I had to come up with a senior project, design, and fabricate it. I have an idea of what I want to do but need help understanding it and what product is suffecient for my idea and cost effective for a college student.

Idea
I would like to desing a concept for replacing barcodes on items in any store with RFID tags. (I know that this idea has been thought of before but hasn't been made mainstream. I got the idea off of The History Channel) So the problem that I have ran into is finding a reasonably priced RFID reader that will read multiple RFID tags at the same time or with in a short period. Also the RFID reader must read tags several inches away.

I also need it to interface with a computer. I would like to use the computer to display the item, price, tax, and total. Then use the number keys to simulate paying with cash. I would also like to interface a magnetic card reader like a credit card reader to simulate paying with a credit card.

I am horrible at locating stuff on the internet. It seems I can never put the right parameters in google to get what I want.

 

[berkeman]

Hello.

I am getting ready to start my senior year in college for EET. I had to come up with a senior project, design, and fabricate it. I have an idea of what I want to do but need help understanding it and what product is suffecient for my idea and cost effective for a college student.

Idea
I would like to desing a concept for replacing barcodes on items in any store with RFID tags. (I know that this idea has been thought of before but hasn't been made mainstream. I got the idea off of The History Channel) So the problem that I have ran into is finding a reasonably priced RFID reader that will read multiple RFID tags at the same time or with in a short period. Also the RFID reader must read tags several inches away.

I also need it to interface with a computer. I would like to use the computer to display the item, price, tax, and total. Then use the number keys to simulate paying with cash. I would also like to interface a magnetic card reader like a credit card reader to simulate paying with a credit card.

I am horrible at locating stuff on the internet. It seems I can never put the right parameters in google to get what I want.

Welcome back, ajustin.

You can read through the "Related Threads" at the bottom of this page (they are selected by title, I believe).

Also, wikipedia is often a good source of introductory material, and often has pointers out to more reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rfid

.