This study investigated the factors, best practice, advantages and disadvantages that influence the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) self-help circulation services for service delivery by South African academic libraries with specific emphasis on the University of South Africa (Unisa) Library. Unisa Library Services is the only library service in South Africa that has implemented a fully-fledged RFID self-help circulation service. There must therefore be reasons why other libraries in South Africa have not implemented this type of service. Accordingly, a need was identified to investigate the aspects that should be considered before a library decides to implement such a circulation service. There was also a need to identify the factors, best practice, advantages and disadvantages that influence the use of RFID self-help circulation services. The study gives a brief overview of RFID technology and its use in libraries internationally with specific emphasis on its use for self-help circulation purposes. Through a literature study, certain factors, best practice, advantages and disadvantages that influence the use of RFID self-help circulation services were identified. The identified factors, best practice, advantages and disadvantages were subsequently used to compile questionnaires to obtain information from Unisa library users (students and staff). Only Unisa staff and students who were situated close to Unisa campuses with RFID self-help circulation services were included in the study. During the analysis of the data collected additional factors, best practice, advantages and disadvantages were identified. Recommendations were compiled regarding the factors, best practice, advantages and disadvantages that influence the use of RFID self-help circulation services. These recommendations are meant as a guide for South African libraries when making decisions on the possible implementation and use of RFID self-help circulation services. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a new technology which allows people to identify objects automatically but there is a suspicion that, if people are tracked, their privacy may be infringed. This raises questions about how far this technology is acceptable and how privacy should be protected. It is also initiated a discussion involving a wide range of technical, philosophical, political, social, cultural, and economical aspects. There is also a need to consider the ethical and theological perspectives. This dissertation takes all its relevant directions from a Judeo-Christian theological perspective. On one side the use of technology is considered, and on the other side the value of privacy, its infringements and protection are investigated. According to Jewish and Christian understanding human dignity has to be respected including the right to privacy. As a consequence of this RFID may only used for applications that do not infringe this right. This conclusion, however, is not limited to RFID; it will be relevant for other, future surveillance technologies as well. / Philosophy and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological ethics)

A utilização de etiquetas RFID UHF passivas para localização indoor vem sendo amplamente estudada devido ao seu baixo custo. Porém ainda existe uma grande dificuldade em obter bons resultados, principalmente devido à variação de rádio frequência em ambientes que possuem materiais reflexivos, como por exemplo, metais e vidros. Esta pesquisa propõe uma arquitetura de localização para ambientes indoor utilizando etiquetas RFID UHF passivas e técnicas de mineração de dados. Com a aplicação da arquitetura em ambiente real foi possível identificar a posição exata de objetos com a precisão de aproximadamente cinco centímetros e em tempo real. A arquitetura se demonstrou uma eficiente alternativa para implantação de sistemas de localização indoor, além de apresentar uma técnica de derivação de atributos diretos que contribui efetivamente para os resultados finais. / The use of passive UHF RFID tags for indoor location has been widely studied due to its low cost. However, there is still a great difficulty to reach good results, mainly due the radio frequency variation in environments that have materials with reflective surfaces, such as metal and glass. This research proposes a localization architecture for indoor environments using passive UHF RFID tags and data mining techniques. With the application of the architecture in real environment, it was possible to identify the exact position of objects with the precision of approximately five centimeters and in real time. The architecture has demonstrated an efficient alternative for the implantation of indoor localization systems, besides presenting a derivation technique of direct attributes that contributes effectively to the final results.

A utilização de etiquetas RFID UHF passivas para localização indoor vem sendo amplamente estudada devido ao seu baixo custo. Porém ainda existe uma grande dificuldade em obter bons resultados, principalmente devido à variação de rádio frequência em ambientes que possuem materiais reflexivos, como por exemplo, metais e vidros. Esta pesquisa propõe uma arquitetura de localização para ambientes indoor utilizando etiquetas RFID UHF passivas e técnicas de mineração de dados. Com a aplicação da arquitetura em ambiente real foi possível identificar a posição exata de objetos com a precisão de aproximadamente cinco centímetros e em tempo real. A arquitetura se demonstrou uma eficiente alternativa para implantação de sistemas de localização indoor, além de apresentar uma técnica de derivação de atributos diretos que contribui efetivamente para os resultados finais. / The use of passive UHF RFID tags for indoor location has been widely studied due to its low cost. However, there is still a great difficulty to reach good results, mainly due the radio frequency variation in environments that have materials with reflective surfaces, such as metal and glass. This research proposes a localization architecture for indoor environments using passive UHF RFID tags and data mining techniques. With the application of the architecture in real environment, it was possible to identify the exact position of objects with the precision of approximately five centimeters and in real time. The architecture has demonstrated an efficient alternative for the implantation of indoor localization systems, besides presenting a derivation technique of direct attributes that contributes effectively to the final results.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. João Henrique Kleinschmidt / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia da Informação, Santo André, 2018. / Em 2006 o governo brasileiro instituiu o sistema nacional de identificação automática de veículos (SINIAV), cujo objetivo principal é fiscalizar todos os veículos através da tecnologia de identificação por rádio frequência (RFID). Entretanto, esse projeto tem um grande desafio tecnológico com relação a conectividade e transmissão de dados quando aplicado dentro das cidades, o que pode dificultar sua escalabilidade. Por isso, o objetivo dessa dissertação é estudar a viabilidade técnica do uso do LoRa para a transmissão dos dados provenientes da fiscalização eletrônica de veículos através de RFID. Então, uma análise de desempenho de um sistema composto por uma antena RFID, para realizar as leituras das tags, e um transmissor LoRa, para enviar essas leituras a um gateway conectado à internet, foi realizado e as métricas de taxa de perda de pacotes (PER) e taxa de envio de pacotes (throughput) da transmissão do LoRa foram medidas. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que em determinados cenários é possível obter uma taxa de perda de pacotes abaixo de 20% e uma taxa de envio de pacotes acima de 60 envios por minuto, o que torna o uso do LoRa uma tecnologia viável para essa aplicação de fiscalização e outras aplicações relacionadas à sistemas inteligentes de transporte (ITS). / In 2006, the Brazilian government instituted the national system of automatic vehicle identification (SINIAV), whose main objective is to control all vehicles through radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. However, this project has a great technological challenge regarding connectivity and data transmission when applied within cities, which may hinder its scalability. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation is to study the technical feasibility of the use of LoRa for the transmission of data from the electronic surveillance of vehicles through RFID. Then, a performance analysis of a system composed of an RFID antenna to perform the readings of the tags and a LoRa transmitter to send those readings to a gateway connected to the Internet was performed and the packet loss rate metrics (PER) and LoRa transmission throughput rates were measured. The results show that in certain scenarios it is possible to obtain a packet loss rate of less than 20% and a packet sending rate of more than 60 packets per minute, which makes the use of LoRa a viable technology for this enforcement application and other applications related to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).