THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GROCERY ITEMS IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM USING RFID (GIIS)

BY NOOR AZLINA BINTI MD NORANI 2005384968

A final project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the B. Sc (HONS) DATA COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKING Major Area: Networking/Communication

A project paper submitted to

FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND QUANTITATIVE SCIENCE UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

Approved by the Examining Committee:

.. Project Supervisor, Mr. AHMAD YUSRI DAK

Examiner, Mdm ZARINA ZAINOL

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work in this project paper is on my own except for those quotations and summaries, which have been acknowledged.

................................................
NOOR AZLINA BINTI MD NORANI 2005384968

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Bismillahirrahmanirrahim Alhamdulillah, most of all I would like to convey my grateful feeling to Allah S.W.T for I am blessed to complete this research project in time. Special thanks to my supervisor, Mr. Ahmad Yusri Dak for helping and supervising me.

I would also want to thank Mdm Nor Shahniza Kamal Bashah and Mr. Adzhar Abdul Kadir for giving me all the guidelines in order to complete the project.

To my beloved parents and family, I would like to thank them for giving me a lot of support and encouragement for me to complete this project especially my mom and brother.

To my beloved friends Kiekie, Erie, Eriena, Missfidz, Teletubbies, Bumblebee and others who have contributed and helped me during the completion of this project.

Last but not least, to Tomoko and Jemy for their tools and so on.

Thank you.

Wassalam

ABSTRACT

There is a slightly increased on the number of people become blind or visually impaired reported with difficulty in reading or unable to read letters in regular print. Basic activities such as riding a bus or buying a packet of sugar at the grocery store are just some of the challenges for the blind people to face everyday.

A common problem for the blind people when go for shopping is to differentiate between containers that feel the same but contain different contents. Besides, blind person must wait a grocery store employee to assist them identify the right product. This will lead to decrease their independence in daily activities.

The GIIS project is developed to assist the blind people for identify grocery items during shopping using RFID technology and text to speech system. Within this system, the blind will know the related information of the item which they hold by stamping RFID tag on the RFID antenna before the system convert output text into speech on the hand phone via Bluetooth connection.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF DIAGRAMS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

i ii iii iv v viii ix xi xii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Problem Statement 1.3 Project Objectives 1.4 Project Scope 1.5 Project Significance

1 1 2 2 3 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) 2.2.1 What is RFID 2.2.2 RFID system 2.2.3 RFID source 2.2.4 Passive and Active RFID tag 2.2.5 Cost 2.2.6 Advantages 2.3 Different methodologies/approaches to solve the same problem 2.3.1 Assistive Technologies for the Blind (Trinetra) 2.3.2 ScripTalk 2.3.3 RoboCart 2.3.4 I.D.Mate

4 4 4 4 5 5 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10

2.4 Different methodologies/approaches to solve the similar problem 2.4.1 Blind Audio Tactile System (BATS) 2.4.2 Aloud Digital Audio Labeling System 2.4.3 Talking RX System 2.4.4 A text to speech interface for Universal Digital Library 2.4.5 Orizin

10 10 11 11 11 12

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Phase 1: Project Planning and Overview 3.3 Phase 2: Analysis 3.3.1 Hardware Requirement 3.3.2 Software Requirement 3.4 Phase 3: Design 3.5 Phase 4: Development 3.6 Phase 5: Testing and Implementation 3.7 Phase 6: Maintenance

13 13 15 16 17 18 19 19 21 21

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND FINDINGS 4.1 Introduction 4.2 RFID System Interface 4.3 Grocery Items Identification System 4.3.1 Main System 4.3.2 System Interfaces 4.4 Text to Speech 4.4.1 Text to Speech Output Page 4.5 Bluetooth 4.5.1 Bluetooth Devices 4.6 SMS Sender 4.6.1 Interface SMS Sender 4.7 Analysis of Interviews among Blind People 4.7.1 Blind People Details 4.7.2 Analysis of Interview Question Before Testing GIIS 4.7.2.1 Selected Questions

22 22 22 23 23 25 38 38 40 40 44 44 45 45 45 45

4.7.3 Analysis of Interview Question After Testing GIIS 4.7.3.1 Selected Questions

50 50

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Conclusion 5.3 Recommendation 5.2.1 Use RFID device with greater range of signal 5.2.3 Use RFID reader that can detect tags at the same time 5.2.4 Design Better Text to Speech Engine

52 52 52 53 53 53 53

REFERENCES APPENDIX I - Interview Questions APPENDIX II - Coding

55 58 59 60 61

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE

TITLE

PAGE

Table 2.1 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 4.1

RFID Class Structure Hardware Requirements Software Requirements Schedule of Interviews

6 17 18 45

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE

TITLE

PAGE

Figure 3.1 Figure 3.2 Figure 4.1 Figure 4.2 Figure 4.3 Figure 4.4 Figure 4.5 Figure 4.6 Figure 4.7 Figure 4.8 Figure 4.9 Figure 4.10 Figure 4.11 Figure 4.12 Figure 4.13 Figure 4.14 Figure 4.15 Figure 4.16 Figure 4.17 Figure 4.18 Figure 4.19 Figure 4.20

Overview of the structure of the research method Project Overview RFID detect items ID RFID tag with no any data yet GIIS Flowchart Login Interface Error Login Interface GIIS admins main page Interface GIIS staffs main page interface Register Item Example of items registration View item interface Redundant ID alert Main Item Search Item Search by ID Search Items by ID Items Information Search Item by Brand Delete Item Interface Example of Delete Item Confirm Delete Item

14 15 22 23 24 25 26 26 27 28 28 29 29 30 31 31 32 32 33 33 34 34

Figure 4.21 Figure 4.22 Figure 4.23 Figure 4.24 Figure 4.25 Figure 4.26 Figure 4.27 Figure 4.28 Figure 4.29 Figure 4.30 Figure 4.31 Figure 4.32 Figure 4.33 Figure 4.34

Delete Item After Successfully Delete Item View Item Edit Item Interface Confirm Edit Item Interface Items information had been modified Text to speech output page Bluetooth Devices Setting Show Bluetooth Devices Bluetooth File Transfer Transfer Files Name Loading Transfer File Bluetooth file transfer is completed Message sent to hand phone

35 35 36 36 37 37 39 40 41 41 42 42 43 44

LIST OF DIAGRAMS

DIAGRAM

TITLE

PAGE

Diagram 3.1 Diagram 4.1 Diagram 4.2 Diagram 4.3

Flow of GIIS Interface Do you face any problem to identify grocery item? Usually, how do you identify the grocery item? Usually, how do you overcome the problem to identify items?

20 46 46 47

Diagram 4.4

Do you have any gadget or application to help you identify grocery item?

47

Diagram 4.5

Normally how long do you spend your time to identify each item?

48

Diagram 4.6

Is it hard for you to differentiate between containers that feel the same but have different contents?

48

Diagram 4.7

Do you feel burden of asking for assistance by sighted person during grocery shopping?

49

Diagram 4.8

Do you feel that you had lost your confidence when asking for a help from sighted person?

49

Diagram 4.9 Diagram 4.10

How long do you spend to identify an item? Do you understand the output that spoke out through the hand phones speaker?

50 51

Diagram 4.11

i. Do you feel that GIIS is really help to identify grocery item? ii. Do you agree if GIIS is implemented in grocery store?

51

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

Abbreviations

Full Term

API GIIS OCR OLE TTS EPC UPC SAPI PRONTO NLP RFID RFDC ID

Application Programmable Interface Grocery Item Identification System Optical Character Recognition Object Linking Embedded Text to Speech Electronic Product Code Universal Product Code Speech Application Programmable Interface Prolog Natural Language Toolkit Natural Language Processing Radio Frequency Identification Radio Frequency Data Communication Identification

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

INTRODUCTION

During daily activities, blind people had to be assisted from a sighted person. Basic activities such as riding the bus or buying a can of beans at the grocery store are just some of the challenges that these blind people have to face everyday. There are a lot of assistive technologies for the blind such as Braille to improve their reading. But, Braille literacy is still not wide spread. Generally, a significant number of individuals who are legally blind find that large print or audio text are helpful rather than using Braille as a reading medium.

Traditionally, blind people had to be assist from a sighted person in doing their daily activities such as identify and shopping for items in grocery store. The common problem for the blind is to differentiate between containers that feel the same but have different contents. Normally, when they go for shopping, they will request a help from grocery store employee to identify the items which they hold. Sometimes, this will lead to burden both parties besides wasting their time. Furthermore, this situation will contribute to less independence among blind shopper. They have to plan their shopping trips to ensure the store is less empty where they are able to buy a large number of items because of fear to bother the grocery store employee.

This project is limited to a small grocery store which consists of less than a thousand of selected items. Besides it is limit of distance because passive tags have practical read distances ranging from 0 to 10 cm using the RFID reader. Thus, this will give an independent shopping experience where the blind shopper will not ask to be assist from the grocery store employee and they are able to locate and search the products on their own. As a matter of fact, this technology will save their time to shop. Furthermore by using GIIS, it is more economical compared to apply Braille tags on every stocked product in a grocery store.

1.2

PROBLEM STATEMENT

There are many kind of items especially foods, can be identified by touch or smells such as vegetables and fruits. But it is harder to identify grocery items such as bottles of ketchup, canned beans, cereal boxes, packets of biscuits and others. This is a common problem for the blind people to differentiate between containers that feel the same but that have different contents. Although they are guided with typical blind navigation aid such as cane or guide dog, sometimes it is useless since the grocery stores often change the location of items. Thus it will be more serious problem to the blind people if they not fetch the right product, but they had fetch products which are poison, hazardous and others.

Normally blind people must wait a grocery employee to have a free moment in order to assist them to identify grocery item which they was hold. This will burden both parties since the blind have to wait for several moments and describe the desired products which will waste their time, while the grocery store employee have to spend some times to fetch the product. Furthermore, this will lead to decrease the blind people independence in daily activities.

Therefore an alternative technology which will assist the blind people to shop in a grocery store is needed to improve the quality of shopping experience for them.

1.3

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this project are:

i.

To enhance and improve interface of Grocery Items Identification System (GIIS).

ii.

To develop a Bluetooth connection coding between (GIIS) to a Bluetooth gadget or mobile.

iii.

To analyze the effectiveness of the system from user needs perspectives.

1.4

PROJECT SCOPE

The scopes of this project are:

i. ii.

The project was focused on grocery store only. Limit of distance because passive tags have practical read distances ranging from 0 to 6 cm using the RFID reader.

iii. iv.

The type of hand phone used is Sony Ericson (w850i). The target users are blind people.

1.5

PROJECT SIGNIFICANCE

This project will give a lot of benefits for many parties. Not only for the blind people, this project gives benefits to researcher, grocery management and visually impaired people.

Implementation of technology for the blind people can offer additional independent shopping experience for the blind. The blind shopper should not need to ask for the assistance from the grocery store employee anymore and they are able to identify the products which they were holding on their own. As a matter of fact, this technology will allow faster and accurate identification, without requiring assistance from a sighted person during the time of identification.

The implementation of technology does not required blind people to bring along big equipment to assist them. They just have to bring their hand phone that has been configured with the GIIS and Bluetooth connection. This will not burden the blind people of having trouble bring a lot of equipment and gadget to assist them in identify item. Thus, the blind will gain a new experience in using new technology.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

INTRODUCTION

The literature review is valuable resources which consist of knowledge and thinking about a topic area. This chapter will be discussing on all of the information that related to the project. These literature reviews are taken from internet articles, books and cite about previous research that related to Grocery Items Identification System (GIIS).

2.2

RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM (RFID)

2.2.1

What is RFID?

Radio frequency identification or RFID is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. There are several methods of identification, but the most common is to store a serial number that identifies a person or object, and perhaps other information, on a microchip that is attached to an antenna (the chip and the antenna together are called an RFID transponder or an RFID tag). The antenna enables the chip to transmit the identification information to a reader. The reader converts the radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag into digital information that can then be passed on to computers that can make use of it. Refer http://www.rfidjournal.com/faq http://www.rfidjournal.com/faq

RFID system has two main components that are the RF reader also known as the base station or the interrogator and the RF tag (transponder).When RFID tag are attached to physical objects; they enable those objects to identify themselves to RFID readers through the use of radio frequency communication.

Along with passive RFID tags, there are also active tags which are slightly larger, about the size of a coin. These tags come with their own power sources and operate at greater signal strength over longer distances. Active RFID tags have

been proposed for use as intermediaries between passive RFID tags and a central reader or computer (Matt, 2005).

2.2.2

RFID System

A system requires, in addition to tags, a means of reading or interrogating the tags and some means of communicating the data to a host computer or information management system. A system will also include a facility for entering or programming data into the tags, if this is not undertaken at source by the manufacturer. Quite often an antenna is distinguished as if it were a separate part of an RFID system. While its importance justifies the attention it must be seen as a feature that is present in both readers and tags, essential for the communication between the two. Refer http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/resources/papers/rfid

An RFID system consists of two main components, RFID tag (transponder) and RFID reader. RFID tag is usually attached to the object to be identified and carries information in an electronic microchip. RFID detect tags and performance read/ writes operations on RFID tags (Lara, 2005).

Normally readers are connected with an additional interface to forward tag information to another system. The most common RFID system, the reader transmits a low-power radio signal to the tag, which receives the signal and uses it as a power source to activate the embedded integrated circuit, before transmit the information stored in it back to the reader through the antenna. The information carried by the RFID tag is the identity of the tag and other relevant information (Lara, 2005).

2.2.3

RFID Source

According to Matt, Rob, Gaynor (May 2006) RFID tags come in a variety of different types have been defined in an RFID Class Structure by the Auto-ID Center and later through EPC global.

Class Class Layer Name 1 2 Identity Tags Higher Functionality Tags

Class Functionality Purely passive, Identification tags Purely passive, identification,

additional functionality (read/ write memory) 3 4 5 Semi Passive Tags Active Ad-hoc Tags Reader Tags Addition of on board battery power Communication with other active tags Able to provide power for and

communicate with other tags, eg: can act as a reader, transmitting and receiving radio waves.

Table 2.1: RFID Class Structure

2.2.4

Passive and Active RFID Tags

Active and passive RFID are fundamentally different technologies. Active RFID tag has an internal power source, battery. The battery that can be used as a partial or complete source of power for the tag's circuitry and antenna, and may have longer range and larger memories than passive tags, as well as the ability to store additional information sent by the transceiver. Some active tags contain replaceable batteries for years of use (JR Tuttle, 1997).

Passive RFID tags have no internal power supply (battery).The power is supplied by the reader. When radio waves from the reader are encountered by a passive RFID tag, the coiled antenna within the tag forms a magnetic field. The tag draws power from it, energizing the circuits in the tag. The tag then sends the information encoded in the tag's memory and temporarily stores a very small amount of energy from the readers signal to generate its own quick response. Even though active RFID offer best performance than passive RFID, most of the researcher prefers to use passive RFID in their system.

For GIIS, passive RFID tag will be used to accomplish this project. This type of RFID is chosen because the tag is functions without a battery; this tag has a

useful life of twenty years or more. The tag is typically much less expensive to manufacture and much smaller. Passive tags have almost unlimited applications in consumer goods and other areas.

2.2.5

Cost

According to Grajales (2003), RFID readers using the UHF band are among the most expensive purchases for companies complying with supply chain mandates from Wal-Mart and others. Wal-Mart consistently cites UHF reader costs as verging on the prohibitive. The typical UHF reader today costs more than $2500. The readers price depends on its features and functionality. Passive tags are cheaper than active tags. The cost is actually depends on frequency, amount of memory, antenna design and packaging around transponder. Refer to http://www.rfidjournal.com

2.2.6

Advantages

According to Nadeem (1999), RFID offer not line of sight where RFID tags do need to be visible to be read or written. Besides, RFID is a robust technology because they do not need to be visible; they can be encased within rugged materials protecting them from the environment they are being used in. This means they can be used in harsh fluid and chemical environments and rough handling situations.

Furthermore, RFID tags can be read from significant distances (especially the active variety) and can also be read very quickly. This is especially useful when the items needing to be identified are moving quickly for example a conveyor. This technology also can read multiple items in at the same time.

As a matter of fact, since tags can be enclosed, they are much more difficult to tamper with. A number of tag types now also come programmed with a unique identifier (serial identification) which guaranteed to be unique throughout the world.

2.3

DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES/APPROACHES TO SOLVE THE SAME PROBLEM

In developing this project, there are some projects that address the needs of blind users in grocery-shopping or other purchasing context. These previous project are very useful for us as a guidelines and give a great details of this topic in order to accomplish all of the objectives.

2.3.1

Assistive Technologies for the Blind (Trinetra)

In this research project by Priya, Patrick (2006) has developed cost effective assistive technologies to increase the quality of life for the blind by harnessing the collective capability of diverse networked embedded devices to support navigation, grocery shopping, transportation and others. The blind will scan aisle which equipped with RFID tag using Baracoda IDBlue-RFID scanning pencil and Baracoda barcode scanning pencil before sent via Bluetooth to Trinetra Symbian C++ application residing on the mobile phone. The application checks a persistent, most recently- used (MRU) local, first-level, catch for a product match before turn to the end user. The Trinetra remote server will return the result to the mobile phone application via TCP. Then the user will able to hear the output through his mobile phone.

This system is similar with GIIS in term of using RFID technology to identify grocery items. Besides, the blind can hear the output; item description. Trinetra system has a drawback since require the blind to bring a lot of device such as Baracoda IDBlue-RFID scanning pencil, Baracoda scanning barcode pencil and mobile phone.

This system is different with GIIS in term of GIIS is using RFID device which consist of RFID reader, tag and antenna. The blind just have to bring a hand phone that has been configured with the Bluetooth application. Besides that, they just stamp the RFID tag before the system will identify the items information and speak out the output through the hand phone.

2.3.2

ScripTalk

En-vision (2005) had developed ScripTalk where it is a talking medication-label system that exploits radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to tag and later identify prescription drugs for visually impaired individuals. When a ScripTalk user submit a prescriptions to a pharmacy, the pharmacy uses a special ScripTalk software and a custom printer to generate and affix an RFID label containing information such as patients name, drug name and others. The ScripTalk user retrieves the information off the affixed label using a portable, electronic reader unit with vice synthesizer to read the label details aloud.

Similar to GIIS, it use RFID technology to identify the information needed. Besides that, this project was implemented to help the visually impaired person by speak out the information before it can be hear by the user. But, this system is different with GIIS since it requires special RFID labels and RFID-label printer.

2.3.3

RoboCart

The RoboCart from Utah State University provides for robotic assistant to aid the blind in the task of grocery shopping. The principle of this technology is to assist the blind in navigating through a store and in carrying their purchased items. It is develop from the idea of a guided dog which always been used by the blind to assist them during navigation. RoboCart relies on RFID tags that are embedded at various locations in the store, and is not intended for individual ownership but rather requires an investment of the store.

This project is similar to GIIS since it was developed using RFID technology to assist the blind during grocery shopping. But, this project is different from GIIS where do not have to use special recorder and audio label in order to speak out the output.

2.3.4

I.D. Mate

The I.D. Mate product is a talking barcode scanner which is specifically targeted for blind users. The product is portable, electronic device that scans barcodes and labels of various items at the grocery store. On board the device is a UPC database of almost 1 million items to enable the identification of scanned items. It eliminates the need to visually and precisely locate the barcode since run by omni directional scanner. This product allows voice message to be recorded and associated with any scanned item, in case user wishes to recall important information. Custom barcodes can be generated and affixed to items without barcodes on them.

The similarities between GIIS and this product is developed to assist the blind identify items during shopping at the grocery store. While the difference from GIIS are the I.D.Mate use barcode technology and have to record voice message before used in the system.

2.4

DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES/APPROACHES TO SOLVE THE SIMILAR PROBLEM

2.4.1

Blind Audio Tactile System (BATS)

The BATS project focused on helping people with visually impaired access and explores spatial information using standard open source software and standard computer hardware. Besides, this project uses prior techniques to present maps to the blinds such as text to speech synthesis, auditory icons and tactile feedback.

This project is similar to GIIS in term of it was develop to assist the blind gather information using text to speech application programmable interface. The difference between this project and GIIS where, it was develop by using Python language, Open Database Connectivity besides using touch screen concept.

2.4.2

Aloud Digital Audio Labeling System

This system consists of an audio-recording device that allows the pharmacist to generate an audio label for a prescription bottle. The user employs the Aloud player unit to listen to the audio labels by placing the tagged prescription bottle onto the player unit. This requires custom devices at the pharmacys end, and requires the cooperation of the pharmacist in order to ensure the effective usage.

This system is similar to GIIS since it was developed to help the blind identify the prescription needed by speak out the information needed. But, this system is different from GIIS where do not have to use special recorder and audio label in order to speak out the output.

2.4.3

Talking RX System

This system is developed to contribute a device that contains a 60-seconds digital recording device that fits on the bottom of a standard prescription bottle. The pharmacist records the prescriptions related information into the device using recessed record button. The user can listen to the recording later at home by pressing another button on the device. Each prescription bottles requires its own unit, thereby requiring the user to buy as many units as the products that he wishes to identify in this manner.

This system is similar to GIIS in terms of it alert the user by talking the required information. But it is different from GIIS since do not have to record any information related to the grocery items. The admin just have to key in the information in the GIIS system before the system will speak out the output.

2.4.4

A text to speech interface for Universal Digital Library

This project using text to speech interface for UDL portal would enable access to the digital content in voice mode, and also provide access to the digital content for illiterate and vision-impaired people. This project focuses on design and implementation of text to speech interface for UDL portal primarily for Indian

languages. It was implemented using OCR, scanner and text to speech server to obtain the information of books before speak out the output.

The similarity to GIIS is this project is implemented for helping the blind to identify the correct item. In this case, it was used to identify the books. While the difference to GIIS, this project use different technologies to detect the books, by using OCR and scanner. Besides, this project used multi language in their TTS engine.

2.4.5

Orizin

This project using RFID technology to identify the stock and items information in retails stores in India. The implementation had been done on 2005 which covered the identification and verification of stores stocks information or inventory information. The RFID system Orizin set up includes a station consist of a desktop RFID reader for tagging items and updating the prices. As items are received at the store, workers outfit them with 867 MHz RFID tags based on EPC globals second-generation standard. Relevant information is linked to the unique EPCs. Data is transmitted via WiFi connection, from the desktop and handheld readers to a server.

The similarities of this system with GIIS are this system is used to identify the items information in a store and using RFID technology. While the different from GIIS is GIIS is a system for the blind users and for a small grocery store which less than a thousand items. Besides, GIIS do not use EPC during the project implementation.