CAT300 Group Innovation Project

Semester 1, Academic session 2014/2015

Final Report

Title: Once Upon A Time

(Personalize Museum Visitor Experiences by Using
RFID-based Technology)

Supervisor
: Dr. Wong Li Pei
Coordinator : Dr. Wan Mohd. Nazmee Wan Zainon
Prepared by :
Name

Matric
No

Student mail

Major

Aizattul Anis Bt
Sobri

114998

aanis.ucom12@student.usm.my

Networking
Computing

Ain Syazwani Bt
Roslan

114997

asyazwani.ucom12@student.usm.my

Intelligence System

Syaza Bt Ismail

115135

syaza.ucom12@student.usm.my

Intelligence System

Abstract
Museum is a place for everyone to gather the information about the past. It is important
in preserving things that will never be seen for the next generation. However, young generations
nowadays are not interested in visiting the museum as the information about the exhibits can be
easily obtained from the Internet. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the information can be
true.
When visiting the museum, visitors find that it is difficult to get the information about the
exhibits because the information is placed near to the exhibits on a small panel. The displayed
information is too small and not friendly to the needy. The information is displayed in dual
languages which are Malay and English. Not all visitors understand well in both languages. The
visitors tend to feel bored during museum touring due to these non-interactive activities. Some
museums do provide tour guide but this will not guarantee that the visitors get the all the
information.
To address the problem, we propose solution by implementing RFID-based systems in
the museum called Once Upon A Time. Once Upon A Time is a simple and easy to use data
fetching system for the visitor to get the information about the exhibit inside the museum. The
system will provide an interactive experience by displaying all the information about the exhibits
when a RFID tag is scan via a RFID reader. The information about the exhibits then will be sent
to the visitors smart devices.
It is a great innovation as the visitors can view the information and do some interactive
activities related to the current viewed exhibit. This project will be implementing using Arduino
Uno by using C programming language. The application will be implement by using Java
Android.

Acknowledgement
Apart from the efforts of us, the success of any project depends largely on the
encouragement and guidelines of many others. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to
the people who have been instrumental in the successful completion of this project. A special
thanks to our project coordinator, Dr Wan Mohd Nazmee Wan Zainon, whose help by
stimulating suggestions and encouragement, helped us coordinate our project especially in
writing this report.
Last but not least, many thanks go to the supervisor of the project, Dr. Wong Li Pei
whose have given his full effort in guiding our group in achieving the goal as well as his
encouragement to maintain our progress on track. We also really appreciate the comment and
tips given as it improve our writing skills in completing this report.
This system accelerate the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) where it is a
computing concept that describes a future where every day physical objects will be connected to
the Internet and be able to identify themselves to other devices. The term is closely identified
with RFID as the method of communication.

Table of Contents
List of Figure ........................................................................................................................................ 2
List of Table ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3
1.1

Research Background.............................................................................................................. 3

1.2

Motivation............................................................................................................................... 3

1.3

Problem Description ............................................................................................................... 4

1.4

System Objective .................................................................................................................... 4

1.5

System Scope .......................................................................................................................... 5

1.6

Proposed Solution System Functionalities ........................................................................... 6

1.7

Business Benefits .................................................................................................................... 6

Chapter 2: Background Study ................................................................................................................. 7

2.1

Past System ............................................................................................................................. 7

2.2

System Purpose....................................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 3: Project Management Plan..................................................................................................... 9

3.1

Project Scope .......................................................................................................................... 9

3.2

System Capabilities ................................................................................................................. 9

3.3

System Limitation.................................................................................................................. 10

3.4

Project Management ............................................................................................................ 11

3.4.1

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) ............................................................................... 11

3.4.2 Work Schedule GANTT chart and milestone timelines ..................................................... 12

3.4.3

SWOT Analysis............................................................................................................... 15

3.5

Prototype Development Methodology ................................................................................. 16

3.6

Detail requirement of new system ....................................................................................... 16

3.6.1

Information Gathering .................................................................................................. 16

3.6.2

Requirement Modelling ................................................................................................ 17

Chapter 4: System Design and Implementation ................................................................................... 18

4.1

Requirements Specification .................................................................................................. 18

4.2

Hardware and Software Specifications ................................................................................. 18

We have identified the hardware requirements and software requirements for our system. The
reasons choosing such hardware and software are listed below. .................................................. 18
4.2.1

Hardware Requirement ................................................................................................ 18

4.2.2

Software Specification .................................................................................................. 19

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4.3

Application Architecture ....................................................................................................... 20

4.3

System Interface .................................................................................................................. 21

Chapter 5: System Testing and Evaluation ........................................................................................... 22

5.1

Testing Strategy .................................................................................................................... 22

5.2 Test result ................................................................................................................................... 23

5.3 Critical evaluation ....................................................................................................................... 24
Chapter 6: Conclusion and Future Work............................................................................................... 25
6.1

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 25

6.2

Future Work .......................................................................................................................... 26

References ............................................................................................................................................ 26
Appendices............................................................................................................................................ 27

List of Figure
Figure 1: System Scope ........................................................................................................................... 5
Figure 2: System Limitation .................................................................................................................. 10
Figure 3: Project Management ............................................................................................................. 11
Figure 4: Gantt Chart (Phase 1)............................................................................................................. 12
Figure 5: Gantt Chart (Phase 2)............................................................................................................. 12
Figure 6: Activity Diagram ..................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 7: SWOT Analysis........................................................................................................................ 15
Figure 8: Development Methodology ................................................................................................... 16
Figure 9: Use Case ................................................................................................................................. 17
Figure 10: High-Level Design ................................................................................................................. 20
Figure 11: Schematic diagram of RFID reader to Arduino UNO microcontroller ................................. 28
Figure 12: Arduino part programming .................................................................................................. 20

List of Table
Table 1: Project Scope.9
Table 2: Work Schedule Table.13

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1

Research Background

The museum is a place that keeps a collection of artifacts and other object that related to
scientific, artistic, cultural and historical importance and makes them available for public
viewing. Most of the museums are located in the big city as it will be the centre of attraction
for tourist to have more understanding about the culture in that place. Moreover, museum
system and facilities nowadays are equipped with high technology.
Thus, a system called Once Upon A Time is created as a platform that store and give
information about the exhibits to the visitor using RFID technology.

1.2

Motivation

Our motivation to undertake this project is due to our experience and observation when
visiting the museum. Nowadays, visitors frequently rely the information about the exhibit that
is written on the stand based-board thus it is important for the museum management to give
reliable yet accurate information. Furthermore, there is one English quote says
We have museum to remind us of how we came, and why to start fresh, and begin a new
place from what we had learned and carried from the old. This has further motivated us to
promote more people visits museum is to preserve our knowledge about the past history and
the first footstep of it is to facilitate the museum with a good digitalized resource so the
information obtain is more accurate in a more convenient way.

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1.3

Problem Description

As we all know, our museum has equipped with the stand based-board where it provides all
the information about the exhibits in the museum. The problems occur when the visitors have
difficulties to get the information about the exhibits as the information is placed on a small
stand based-board especially during the peak hours of visiting (school holiday, public
holiday, etc.). Besides, the information displayed on the stand based-board is too small. It
gives a hard time for the visitors who have eyesight problem. Thus it gives non
environmental friendly surrounding. Furthermore, the information is displayed in dual
languages which are Malay and English. Not all visitors understand well in both languages.
The visitors tend to feel bored during museum touring due to these non-interactive activities.
Some museums do provide tour guide, but this will not guarantee that the visitors get the all
the information.

1.4

System Objective

The objectives of the system are:

1. To create a personalized user experience by using RFID technology.
2. Provides interactive activities between user and information in the system by sending
information to the visitor smartphone.
3. To offer multi-languages information displayed in the system for user friendly system.
4. To ensure the integrity of information about the exhibits to the museum.

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1.5

System Scope

Figure 1: System Scope

Details for all functionality include in the system scope are listed below:
1. Interactive exhibit function

Get the information about the exhibit in more efficient, simplify and exciting way.

2. User-centric approach

This approach will be applied throughout the entire GUI in the system to make the
interface more convenient in term of user friendliness.

3. Multi-languages

To provide user with multi-languages content to make the experience of

browsing the system more enjoyable.

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1.6

Proposed Solution System Functionalities

In order to solve the problem that museums facing now, we proposed the Once Upon

A Time system should have a multi-languages option so that visitors from different kind of
races and countries will able to switch the languages based on their preferences. So we hope
that it is convenient for the visitor understanding. Besides, we will also create an attractive
graphical interface for the system as the system will be used by all ages. This will enhance
the interactive session between the visitors and the system.

1.7

Business Benefits
In terms of business benefits, the information about the exhibit can get easily by using

this system. The implementation of this system enables the visitor to get the information
about the exhibit more accurate and precise in a short time. Visitors can read the information
from their smart devices as it gives convenience for the visitor to read about the exhibit
everywhere inside the museum. For the attractive graphical interface, they will appreciate
more if the design is appealing to their eyes. Besides, it will attract more users to engage in
using this system to get information about the exhibits, thus, it will make people come to the
museum. For the intangible point of view, the museum also will attain the credit for their
name by implementing such a breakthrough technology and it is first in Malaysia using this
system.

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Chapter 2: Background Study

2.1

Past System

In the past system, people who visit a museum will be provided stand-base board
information about the artefacts in front of the artefact exhibits. But the problem is the font is
not in appropriate size. Moreover, the information display mostly on a single language
translation. Hence, this will make visitors feel uncomfortable to read the information clearly
and thus reduce the understanding of the artefacts. So, the information cannot be delivered to
the visitors effectively and some visitor cannot understand well the language provided in the
board information. Hence, this will reduce the number of visitors to the museum.

To overcome this problem, a solution is proposed. The first solution is to provide

tour guides. A tour guide will guide the visitors to the exhibits in the museum and also give
a brief explanation about it. The translation service is also provided for foreign visitors.
Another problem arose as the tour guide only provided upon reservation.

Next, kiosk systems are implemented to increase people attraction to the museum.
The kiosk will deliver the information to the visitor in the digital form. It attracts the visitor
as the information on the kiosk can have interactive design and also multi-language
translation. However, it is not cost effective as there a lot of kiosks are needed around the
places. Due to this limited availability, visitor cannot get the information clearly.

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2.2

System Purpose

To solve the problem, we propose a solution create an interactive environment in the

museum. The proposed system is called Once Upon A Time (OUAT). This system consists
of an RFID reader package mounted on museum exhibits along with a wireless network
connecting these readers to dynamically generate Web pages. The visitors each carries a card
or wristband that embedded with RFIDs. The exhibit information is later available on a
personalized Web page and each visitor can access via the Internet. When a visitor carrying
an RF tag approaches the vicinity of a reader, the tag is read and its ID is sent over the mote
radio to a network base station. Similar to our system, a database is used to store triples of
time, exhibit ID, and ID tag. This system works by sending exhibits information effectively
and clearly to the visitor. Visitors will receive the information once the tag is scanned to the
RFID reader. Comparing this new system to the past, this system is not high in costs as the
tags are cheaper and it can be use repeatedly everyday with different visitors. This system is
easy to maintain the server and the database.

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Chapter 3: Project Management Plan

3.1

Project Scope

Types of
module

Function

Accessible by

Login

Manage usernames and password

Admin

RFID Reader

Reader sent the serial tag number to the server

Admin

Tag scanning

Museum
Visitors

Manage the data and information of the exhibits

Admin

Data Retrieval

Receive a RFID serial tag number for data pushing

Sent data and information of exhibits to the visitor with
paired tags.
Display
Information

The information is sent and display to the user mobile

devices through the paired RFID tags

Museum
Visitors

Table 1: Project Scope

3.2

System Capabilities

After the systems have been completely done, the system will be capable of:
1. Display the information on museum exhibits on mobile devices.

When the museum visitor touches the RFID tag to RFID reader that is placed
near to exhibit, RFID reader will send the information virtually to visitors
mobile device through the museums server.

2. Ensure data management and data security is secure.

Document management system will store all the information of

exhibits in computer database ensure the integrity of the information.

Provide cost-effective solution by cutting down the cost of storage

space for the records

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3. Bilingual

The system is implemented in bilingual, which is in Malay and English language.

This will help international visitors fully understand the information provided.

3.3

System Limitation
RFID reader
RFID readers have to be placed at every station in the museum to enable
visitor to experience interactivity using RFID system
Android version
Only mobile device with android version of 4.0 (Jellybean) compatible with
this system
Unable to implement wireless connection
Since Wi-Fi card not available, we are unable to implement any wireless
connection, send/receive signal via smartphones. Even though we cannot
implement it, we still use other alternative, which is use other platform to
present the data and information
Unable to keep record in database
Due to unavailable wireless module, the database cannot connect to the
webserver. To retrieve the information, we use other alternative by using the
USB host to connect RFID reader to Android.
Language
Bilingual language cannot be done due to time constraint and plan to do it in
future work.
Figure 2: System Limitation

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3.4

Project Management

3.4.1

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Figure 3: Project Management

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3.4.2 Work Schedule GANTT chart and milestone timelines

Figure 4: Gantt Chart (Phase 1)

Phase 1(Team Formation, Project planning, System Analysis, Documentation part 1)

Figure 5: Gantt Chart (Phase 2)

Phase 2 (Designing phase, Implementation and Testing, Maintenance, Documentation part 2

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Task
Project planning
1. Propose project title
Identifying modules and task
Estimating time scale
Work scale
Produce Gantt chart
System analysis
1. Study the current system
Define the problem
Define system requirement
Determine system functionalities
Identify system limitation
Documentation
1. Prepare the soft copy
Collect information
Objective and overview of project
Checking the documentation
Finalizing the documentation
Design
1. Designing the system
Implementation
1. Implementing design
2.
Implementing testing
Maintenance
1. Re-enhancing the features
Documentation Phase 2
1. Preparing final report
2.
Documenting design phases
3.
Documenting maintenance
Table 2: Work schedule table

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Figure 6: Activity Diagram

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3.4.3

SWOT Analysis

Strength

Weakness

Cost saving for long term period

Efficient system and easy to maintain

Information and documentation are

Implementation cost

well organized

Frequency and transmission of data can

Maintain the infrastructure (RFID-data

transmission, computer database)

be interrupted by present of metal and

water.

Opportunities

Threats

Waterfall effect Once the system

complete and implemented, other

museum will adopt the system as well

take quite some time to adopt.

to keep up with technological

If the server down, information cannot

be sent to mobile device.

advances.

New system in Malaysia. People will

People tend to reject the technology

First implemented in Malaysia using

due to conservative view on museum

RFID technology in visitor interactivity

system.

museum experience.

Figure 7: SWOT Analysis

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3.5

Start

Prototype Development Methodology

Requirement
gathering

Quick Design
(Sketching)

Building RFID
Reader Prototype

Final Product

Refining RFID
Reader Prototype

Testing RFID
Reader Prototype

Stop

Figure 8: Development Methodology

3.6

Detail requirement of new system

3.6.1

Information Gathering

We gather the information by doing research on RFID technology paper and

journal that had been done by other researchers. We also search more details about
this technology in internet to have better understanding.

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3.6.2

Requirement Modelling
Server

Figure 9: Use Case

The visitors scan the RFID tag to RFID reader places near exhibits. The RFID reader
sends the signal to server to retrieve information via USB port. The information then
displayed on visitors smart device. The museum management (administrator) can
update, delete and add the information.

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Chapter 4: System Design and Implementation

4.1

Requirements Specification

In order to implement Once Upon A Time? it has few requirements that need to be
prepared to carry out this project to ensure that this system will achieve the main objective of
this project. One of the most important requirements is the connection of network (Internet).
We try to implement Internet of Things (IoT) in our project as it becomes a demanding
technology nowadays, so the connection to the network is important to implement the system.
The best term to define IoT is everything can be done online as long as our devices are stay
connected with the internet connection. Other than that, we are focussing on RFID
technology to retrieve the information of the exhibit inside the museum. The RFID
technology become as sensoring medium to transmit the signal to database for data retrieval.

4.2

Hardware and Software Specifications

We have identified the hardware requirements and software requirements for our system. The
reasons choosing such hardware and software are listed below.
4.2.1

Hardware Requirement

1. Arduino UNO board

2. Electronic Components/Devices needed are:

i.

Breadboard

ii.

RFID module

iii.

RFID tags

iv.

Jumper wires

3. Wireless Module
4. IIS platform (Internet Information Services)
5. Desktop PC that has at least 1000GB hard disk space and 2GB RAM (for server)
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6. PC laptop that has at least 500GB hard disk space and 2GB RAM
7. Smart devices which have at least 4GB storage and 521KB RAM

The hardware above is identified for the application can run smoothly and efficiently. IIS
which formerly called Internet Information Server is a web server application. It provides a
secure, easy to manage, modular and extensible platform for websites. We need this
application in our system to ensure the security level of this system. Such hardware is chosen
to improve efficiency and to create innovation in the project. We chose Arduino UNO board
because we learn about it in our major classes. By using this board in this project, it can
improve our skills and knowledge as well as experience dealing with this hardware.
Furthermore, we also chose laptop PC with minimum 2GB RAM to achieve a better internet
surfing effect. Android mobile device is chosen because it is portable and it able to connect to
wireless internet.
4.2.2

Software Specification

1. Arduino 1.0.6 / Arduino 1.5.3

2. Eclipse Juno

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4.3

Application Architecture

After we analyze the detail requirement of the new system, we managed to move into design
phase. However, we may move back to analysis phase since we are adopting agile
development approach. This is because basically we merely understand the nature of the
problem and it may be changed in the future. This system is implemented in android based
application, database system and RFID system. Hence, there are 4 main components in this
system: database server, network server, users desktop and application server.

Server

Database

Data Retrieval System

using RFID

Smartphone

RFID Reader

The RFID Tag was

paired to the smart
device

RFID Tag
Figure 10: High-Level Design

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Based from the figure above, it is shown that RFID Module (reader) will store the serial ID of
the RFID tags after the tag was scanned. The Arduino UNO board will attach with the RFID
Module and store all the serial ID of RFID tag and send the ID to the server to fetch the
information. After the process has been done, the server will fetch the information by sending
a notification to the user through their android application.
There are two options to connect smartphone to Arduino board, either by using the USB
cable or by using WIFI card. If WIFI card was used then the data will sending by the server
which have been stored in the database while if using USB cable the information already
stored in RFID module (reader) and send the push notification of the information via USB
host.

4.3 System Interface

This is the system interface of Once Upon A Time system.
The main four categories of this system is :

Android application
Arduino UNO R3 board
RFID reader
RFID tag

(Arduino UNO Board)

tag)

(RFID reader)

(RFID reader and

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Chapter 5: System Testing and Evaluation

5.1

Testing Strategy

Once Upon A time are basically the data retrieval system which will retrieve data from the
server that is being stored in databases by a push notification via our smart devices. Before that,
RIFD Module (reader) will store the serial ID of RFID tags that have been read by the reader.
Then, the RFID Module (reader) will send the serial ID to the server to push the data from the
server databases. Only the Serial ID of the RFID tags that already set in the system that can
retrieve information via smartphone.

RFID Reader stores the

serial Id of the RFID tags
that have been read.

RFID Tags

RFID Module (reader)

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5.2 Test result

Below was the test result by displaying information on mobile devices when RFID tag is scan
to the reader.
The RFID reader is placed with the
prototype as the exhibit. Then, when a
RFID tag was scanned to the reader, the
information of the exhibit will be sent to
the mobile devices via USB port.

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5.3 Critical evaluation

There are advantages when developing this project; first of all we learn how to build
an android application and how to connect it with a microcontroller board (Arduino UNO).
We also learn new thing and exposed to a microcontroller board technology and what can be
done by using it.
The disadvantage part in our project is we need to spend some money to develop our
data retrieval system. This project objective is to provide interactive activities between user
and information in the system by sending information to the visitor smartphone. But then, it
is a worth invest in the new technology to be explored ad experience.
When develop this project we faces with some limitation, where without an Internet
access and WIFI card, the data cannot be retrieved from the server databases. But then this
problem can be solved by using the USB host to connect RFID reader to Android.

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Chapter 6: Conclusion and Future Work

6.1

Conclusion
To conclude the objective of the project, we managed to find a solution to the

conservative style of museum-visiting and spark the innovative of RFID in the museum
sector. The primary goal of this project was to design a personalize museum visitor
experiences system using RFID technology. An important component of the system was the
ability to display information to museum visitors mobile devices using RFID technology.
The initial system prototype was a basic version of the system, which was designed to test the
effectiveness of RFID technology for in order to push information to the museum visitors
mobile devices. The information about the exhibit that was sent to museum visitors mobile
devices was found to be accurate when the RFID tag was scan to the reader and gives
accurate information to the museum visitors mobile devices which suggests that it is a useful
and effective technology for implementing such a system.
We plan our work using work breakdown structure and according that, we made the
Gantt Chart where we are able to get a clear view of what needs to be done at times and
which one should be prioritized. In this newly invented system, the requirements were
identified by doing research as well as facts finding using internet tools. In requirement
specification, we are able to identify the weakness of the current system. Schedule feasibility
was done in order to make ease of work. The proposed design was identified in detail to focus
on user-centric approach which is the user friendliness of the system as well as implementing
a new technology to replace the past system in order to make it more interactive, interesting
and cost-saving.

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6.2

Future Work

The WiFi-Module basically we need in enhancing our system prototype by adding more
information to the database. We also will enhance more of the Once Upon A Time mobile
component is a means of improving user and system interaction, offering an alternate means
of giving information to the user. The information displayed by the screen is simple due to
the screens limited space. Future improvements to this could include more detailed
information being displayed to the user. This could perhaps be achieved using a larger screen
or by a means of scrolling text across the current screen. Currently users do not have any
control over what information is displayed to them through the built in display. Future
enhancements to the Once Upon A Time system could include incorporating control buttons
into the mobile component. These buttons could perhaps be used to select specific
information, such as website link information about a specific exhibits.

References

https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/ee476/FinalProjects/s2010/jjs367_ky238/index.html
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?3435
http://www.effectiva.cz/en/rfid-server
http://allaboutee.com/2011/12/31/arduino-adk-board-how-send-data-from-the-boardto-the-android-device/

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Appendices
Screenshot of the GUI in visitor mobile device

Main menu of Once Upon A Time android

Application.

Demo video on how to use the

application for user

Explore interface. Information of exhibit

is popped out to the screen. User can
choose to read the information later by
ckicking Read It Later button

Read It Later button will navigate

user to Journey History interface.
The exhibits informations are
stored according to the section in
museum
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User can review the information

of exhibits that has been choose
to read later.

Figure 11 : Schematic diagram of RFID reader conncetion to Arduino

UNO microcontoller

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Figure 12 : Arduino part programming

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