This article describes an in-depth methodical approach to the development of efficient high-frequency (HF) antennas for use in radio frequency identification (RFID) systems operating at 13.56 MHz. It presents brief theory relevant to RFID communication and sets up a framework within which features and requirements of antennas are linked to key design parameters such as antenna form-factor and size; RF power level, material and communication protocol. Tuning circuits necessary to adjust the resonance and power matching characteristics of antennas for good transponder interrogation and response recovery are discussed. To validate the approaches outlined, a stepwise design and measurement of an HF antenna for an ISO/IEC 15693 compliant read/write device (RWD) is described. Common practical problems that are often encountered in such design processes are also commented on. The prototyped antenna was tuned, connected to the RWD via a 50 Ω coaxial cable and tested.
Location of appropriate seats in seating areas of theaters remains a significant challenge that patrons of these enterprises face. There is therefore, the need for seat occupancy monitoring system to provide readily accessible seat occupancy information to clients and management of these halls. This paper presents the design and implementation of a low cost seat occupancy detection and display system which is capable of monitoring seat occupancy in halls efficiently. The system uses capacitive seat sensors which is designed based on the loading mode technology. It detects the presence of a human occupant using a single electrode. Occupancy data is relayed to a WiFi-enabled microcontroller unit which processes the data and wirelessly transfers the processed data to a central base station over a local area network for graphical and numerical display. Commands are also transferred from the base station to the microcontroller units when needed. Theoretical and empirical results show that the system is able to achieve seat occupancy monitoring accurately, neatly and cost effectively.Keywords: Capacitive sensing, seat occupancy, sensor cluster, microstrip transmission line, Wi-Fi
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is a fairly well explored problem with many successful solutions. However, these solutions are typically tuned towards a particular environment due to the variations in the features of number plates across the world. Algorithms written for number plate recognition are based on these features and so a universal solution would be difficult to realize as the image analysis techniques that are used to build these algorithms cannot themselves boast hundred percent accuracy. The focus of this paper is a proposed algorithm that is optimized to work with Ghanaian vehicle number plates. The algorithm, written in C++ with the OpenCV library, uses edge detection and Feature Detection techniques combined with mathematical morphology for locating the plate. The Tesseract OCR engine was then used to identify the detected characters on the plate.
Drivers often encounter problems associated with locating empty parking slots in parking areas. This paper presents a smart parking lot management system which operates using image processing. An image processing algorithm is used to detect empty parking areas from aerial images of the parking space. The algorithm processes the image, extracts occupancy information concerning spots, and their positions thereof. The system also reports if individual parking spots are occupied or otherwise. Occupancy information is made available to newly arriving drivers by projecting it unto large displays positioned at vantage points near the vicinity. The smart parking lot management system reduces the stress and time wastage associated with car parking and makes management of such areas less costly.
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