September 22, Dr. Andrew Rawicz. School of Engineering Science Burnaby BC V5A 1S6. Re: ENSC Project Proposal for an NFC Smart Locker

Transcription

1 September 22, 2014 Dr. Andrew Rawicz School of Engineering Science Burnaby BC V5A 1S6 Re: ENSC Project Proposal for an NFC Smart Locker Dear Dr. Rawicz: The attached document, Proposal for an NFC Smart Locker, summarizes our Capstone Project for ENSC 305&440. Our team is committed to create a smart locker which is operated and controlled by a self-developed APP on smart phones via NFC (Near Field Communication). Moreover, all users information and locker identities will be recorded in database to increase the security. The purpose of this proposal is to provide a general view of our product, an overall introduction to design, risks and benefits involved in project, market analysis, budget and funding sources and milestones. Tap Lock Inc. consists of five intelligent, creative and motivated third and fourth-year engineering students: Wangyi Zhu, Yangyang Li, Kaiqi Li, Haishuo Zhang and Zheng Gao. Thank you for taking time to read our proposal. If you have any questions or concerns about our project, please feel free to contact me by phone at (604) or by at wangyiz@sfu.ca. Sincerely, Wangyi Zhu President and CEO Tap Lock Inc. TAP LOCK INC. 1

2 Proposal for an NFC Smart Locker Project Team: Contact Person: Submitted to: Issued date: Revision: Wangyi Zhu Yangyang Li Haishuo Zhang Kaiqi Li Zheng Gao Wangyi Zhu Dr. Andrew Rawicz ENSC 440 Steve Whitmore ENSC 305 School of Engineering Science Simon Fraser University September 22, TAP LOCK INC. 2

3 1 Exective Summary At the beginning of each semester in universities, such as SFU, students have to finish several steps to require a locker, by sending an at first. However, is this process efficient? How do we improve this experience and make the lockers become more secure? Since 2011, all smartphones with Android system are NFC built in. On September 9, 2014, the iphone 6 has been released with NFC built in as well. As one of the top smartphone manufacturer with 42.1% market share [1], Apple s decision has brought NFC to the next level in the coming years. Apple s decision to include NFC in its iphone 6 is a landmark for U.S. event producers, [1] and Apple has made NFC mainstream overnight [2] says Ivan Lazarev, President and CEO, ITN International. We believe that the NFC ecosystem will have a massive expansion in the future. One of the potential of our product is to foresee the application of NFC in future market. Nowadays, NFC has already been widely used in contactless payment, such as Google Wallet and Apple Pay; social networking such as sharing multi-medias; and gaming such as Nintendo s Amiibo toy. This document proposes to develop an electronic locker that can be operated through an App on smart phone via NFC. The users do not have to buy a physical locker and don t have to remember the password any more. Just by tapping two devices together, the locker will be opened and login information will be recorded in database for security issue. The Smart Locker is only a prototype, we hope to develop a more widely used electronic locking system via NFC and apply to various facilities in school campus, such as lab entrances and printers. Tap Lock Inc. is fund by five third and fourth-year engineering science students with experiences in embedded system design, database, mobile application development and signal processing. Moreover, our members have did co-op jobs in various high-tech companies, such as RIM and Ericsson. Different academic backgrounds and working experience provide our team with good innovation and technical skills. We propose that our final prototype will be finished on November 30, The developing process encompasses research, design, construction and finial testing. We hope to complete this project within the budget $300 and a variety funding sources are considered as well. TAP LOCK INC. 3

4 Contents 1 Exective Summary Introduction: Background: NFC (Near-Field Communication) RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Bluetooth Background (Continued): Table 1: Advantages comparison between NFC, RFID and Bluetooth System overview: Figure 1: System Overview of Locking System Possible Design Problems and Solutions: Different type of NFC Tags Emergency Power Outage Device lost or locked in locker Marketing: Competitors: Potential Risks: Budget: Table 2: Tentative Budget Benefits on Smartphone Application: Funding: Schedule: Table 3: Gantt chart of Major Process Table 4: Milestones Team Organization: Company Profile: Conclusion: Reference and citation: Other Sources: TAP LOCK INC. 4

5 2 Introduction: NFC (Near Field Communication) is a set of standards operates at a high frequency: 13.56M hertz and short range: within 20 centimeters. This system is built upon RFID system, establishing the radio communication between smart phones in a very short distance, which is one of the advantages of NFC. Due to the low power consumption and short-range-point-to-point connection, NFC is able to avoid connection from an unauthorized third party during data transition. The objective of our project is to create an electronic locker which has a build in NFC chip and the locker can be accessed through smartphones. In order to make the locker more intelligent, a relative application based on Android system will be developed as well. The whole system will allow the users to open the locker by tapping two devices together. The requests of locker and user rights are both applied and authorized automatically through the system. For example, SFU students will not have to write an request and wait for administrator s reply regarding to the availability of the locker. Moreover, all students information and locker identities are prerecorded in a database, so that every time a student is acquiring the locker, the system will decide whether to authorize access. This automatic process reduces the paper work and improves the efficiency. In addition, in order to improve security, we propose to add a build-in alarm inside the locker. If the locker is opened by unexpected force, the alarm system will make a sound to inform people around and report the warning information to database. Also, with NFC s advantage of shortdistance communication and its accessibility on almost every smartphones, we will design an application that allows students to share access to the same locker. For example, the owner of the locker can grant the locker access to his/her friends or lab partners by just tabbing the smartphones together. Then, the database will update and store information of this additional user. However, for security concern, one locker can only be shared by maximum of five users. Furthermore, users who are granted accesses by the original owner are recorded as secondary users, meaning they do not have the right to authorize locker access to a third person. The last security feature is to record all login information in a log inside database, enabling the owner to keep track of every person who has opened the locker in the past. Although this is just a locker s prototype, we can expand this idea into many other areas. For instance, the lab doors and printers can be accessed using NFC with our idea so that students do not have to bring many different cards with them every day. In this case, similar functionalities and authorizing features of smart locker can be applied. Therefore, the new electronic NFC system will help increase the efficiency and reduce the labor costs in many areas. This proposal illustrates an overview of our product, design considerations, financial and marketing concerns, project scheduling and company profile. TAP LOCK INC. 5

6 3 Background: In order to create an electronic locker instead of a regular locker, there are several different methods: reaching wireless communication through RFID or through Bluetooth, which are more matured and well-known technologies compare to NFC. However, after a detailed comparison (Table 1) among these technologies, we finally chose NFC chip over the other ones due to some concerns relate to costs and different advantages as discussed below. 3.1 NFC (Near-Field Communication) Nowadays, NFC is becoming more and more popular. Almost every smartphones are equipped with NFC now, such as Android, Windows and even iphone 6! There are 150 million NFC devices now. By 2014, there will be 300 million. Said by Reed Peterson, Head of Business & Market Development for the GSMA [4]. The tremendous potential of NFC can be foreseen in the market. NFC is actually a branch of highfrequency RFID, establishes a peer-to-peer communication between devices. One of the features of NFC is short-distance connection, usually smaller than 20 centimeters. Thus, NFC establishes a closed and private communication, which ensures the security. Moreover, NFC emphasizes on information exchange rather than read and identify, sets NFC apart from other wireless connection. One of the most important advantages of NFC is its cheapness since each costs only several dollars. 3.2 RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) RFID is a wireless connection of transferring data via electromagnetic field. RFID s frequency ranges from 120 KHz to 10 GHz and provides a connection distance range from 10cm to 200m. However, an RFID device can only act as either a reader or a tag. Unlike NFC device, being able to do both. RFID is popular used in tracking purpose, such as asset tracking and attendee tracking. 3.3 Bluetooth Bluetooth has a much faster transmission speed about 2.1 Mbit/s while NFC is about 424 Kbit/s. Consequently, Bluetooth consumes more power during usage. In addition, Bluetooth requires more time to establish the connection and need to be done manually. When in close proximity, several devices can be paired to one device, so Bluetooth may have a trouble dealing with interference. TAP LOCK INC. 6

7 4 Background (Continued): 4.1 Table 1: Advantages comparison between NFC, RFID and Bluetooth NFC Bluetooth Network type Peer-to-peer Peer-to-multi Distance 20cm 10m Speed 424 Kbit/s 2.1 Mbit/s Set-up time < 0.1s 6s Security Protected through hardware Protected through software Communication mode Active-Active/passive Active-Active Costs Low High 5 System overview: The smart locker consists of three main components, server component, software component and locker component. The server component contains a database storing all the authentication information of each locker and each user, the software component contains an android app that scans the locker tag and communicates with the server component to obtain permission to open the lock by sending a NDEF to the locker component, the locker component consist of a NFC tag, a NFC shield on an Arduino board, and a magnetic lock controlled by Arduino. 5.1 Figure 1: System Overview of Locking System TAP LOCK INC. 7

8 6 Possible Design Problems and Solutions: 6.1 Different type of NFC Tags Problem: There are four different type of NFC tags. Type 1 and 2 have a big difference to type 3 and type 4. For example, they have different memory capacity and makeup. Accordingly, it is expected that there is likely to be very little overlap. Solution: At first, a universal library or four different libraries need to be written for all types of tag. Secondly, the NFC reader should recognize the tag type and read it properly. 6.2 Emergency Power Outage Problem: Because the locker is powered by 110V power supply and sometimes it will face irregular power outage. Solution: For the security reason, the normal state for lockers will be locked (with or without power). The only way to open the locker is that NFC reader gets an open lock signal from app and the locker is powered. In this case the electrical magnetic will work and the lock will be open. Moreover, Arduino will maintain the function because the code written in Arduino will not lost after power outage. 6.3 Device lost or locked in locker Problem: User may lose his/her smart phone or locked the phone inside the locker accidentally. Solution: To use the app to unlock the locker, user need login first, so even somebody takes the phone, they still cannot open the locker. With the login feature, user can use anyone's device to open their locker by downloading app and login with his or her own user name and password. Therefore, even user loss or lock his or her own device, he or she still can open the locker by using his or her friends' devices. TAP LOCK INC. 8

9 7 Marketing: 7.1 Competitors: Since NFC becomes more and more popular in the world, we found some companies have already produced some creative products during our research. For example, in the market, we have some competitors who have developed a locking system via NFC: VECOS VECOS is a company that established in 1986 and they started some projects related to lockers and personal access. Now, VECOS has developed two different locking systems based on NFC. One system has its card reader mounted in the terminal and the other gives the lock its own card reader. The similarity between our product and VECOS s is generating a locking system via NFC. However, our product has a different locker-open method. Instead of using a card reader, we develop a powerful smartphone application which can do various tasks. For example, this app allows users to share access and provides a more convenient way for access control. In addition to the powerful functionalities, our product reduces the capital costs so that the customers do not have to spend money on lots of card readers any more. Moreover, our target customers can be schools and gyms while VECOS s systems seem to be more suitable for Hotels. Also, comparing to VECOS, our Smart Locker is more intelligent and more secure. We are confident that our product is going to be competitive in the market. 7.2 Potential Risks: During the research, we also found that NFS is becoming more and more popular among IT companies particularly. However, many people still concern about the security of this new technology. This is because that most of the individuals doesn t have the concept of knowing how the system works and there s not enough related products in the market yet. However, we believe that with the development of the technology, when NFC becomes more common in daily life, people will finally realized the convenience and advantages of NFC. As mentioned previously, NFC has various advantages such as low costs, close privacy and better efficiency. Tap Lock Inc. believe that our product is welcomed and will bring a new generation of locking system. Furthermore, this is also the best timing to enter the market, because we are ahead of the times! To some extent, immature market brings the risks of promotion but also comes with tremendous benefits. TAP LOCK INC. 9

10 8 Budget: Table 2 outlines a tentative budget for our electronic locking system. Most of the components are bought online, so we get a competitive price. One of the reason we choose NFC is because of the low price and can be easily reached. Moreover, the application development is a software-based process, so we can use our own smartphones to do the implementation and testing, which saves a lot of money on devices. We set the budget to $300 Canadian dollars for the locking system. 8.1 Table 2: Tentative Budget Equipment Estimated Cost NFC Shield 2 $ Arduino UNO Rev3 2 $ 60 NFC tags $ 10 Mailing Fee $ 70 Physical Locker Body $ 30 Single door magnetic lock with 60Kg holding $ 60 force 2 Total Cost $ Benefits on Smartphone Application: Since our product is an electronic locking system consists both hardware (locker) and software (App), the initial costs are came from the hardware system. We look forward to promote our App through Google Play Store and Apple Store in the future, so that revenues are mostly from the software. We suppose the average costs of each App to be $0.99, the total revenues would be huge due to the large amount of users. Except for the value of locking system itself, we can expect for the increases of earning in smartphone applications in the future. 9 Funding: There are several sources of funding, such as ESSEF (Engineering Science Student Endowment Fund) and Wighton Fund. ESSEF supports and assists SFU undergraduate engineers on innovative projects. The submitted projects will be divided into 4 categories with different funding plans. Wighton Fund also funds projects on a competition basis. Except for funding, we browse a lot of online resources such as EBay, Amazon and Digikey. We are doing our best to save the budget. TAP LOCK INC. 10

11 10 Schedule: Table 3 shows the expected time need for different procedure of our project. Table 4 shows the milestones we expected to achieve. Further changes may be applied if project encounter serious problems Table 3: Gantt chart of Major Process TAP LOCK INC. 11

12 10.2 Table 4: Milestones project start Arduino testing smartphone app prototype testing 02-Sep 30-Sep 15-Oct 31-Oct 31-Oct 20-Nov 30-Nov 07-Dec physical locker database hardware/software integration project finished 11 Team Organization: Tab Lock Inc. consists of five senior engineering students: Nick Zhu, Yangyang Li, Kaiqi Li, Haishuo Zhang and Zheng Gao. We all have different expertise and working experiences. Each member is dedicated and self-motivated. We hope to contribute our specific skills to the company. The core mission of our company is Innovation and Cooperation. Each member has their specific roles in the company. Wangyi Zhu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), is in charge of the project progress and team management. Yangyang Li, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), is responsible for financial issues and budget control, as well as marketing analysis. Haishuo Zhang, the Vice President of Operations, is in charge of technical operations of the project and plays a role as QA engineer who resolves hardware-related problems. Zheng Gao, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), is our software developer and deals with software-related issues of the project. Kaiqi Li, the Chief Operating Officer (COO), is involved in integration and verification of both hardware and software designs. General meeting is held once a week and mainly includes discussion on difficulties encountered by each department and progress reporting. Kaiqi Li will be the secretary that records the problems and solutions into journal. Extra meeting will be arranged if needed to make sure task is done efficiently. Sometimes, a Skype meeting is encouraged. TAP LOCK INC. 12

13 12 Company Profile: Wangyi Zhu Chief Executive Officer (CEO) My name is Wangyi Zhu and I am an Electronics Engineering student at Simon Fraser University. I have finished several courses which related with embedded system design and I have done a coop term which related with Arduino. I have learned a lot from that experience and it becomes the key point of our lock. Although I have done several projects but this is the first time to be the leader of a group of five. But I m fully confident about our project because we have the best team members. Everybody have different strengths in different area and the whole team can work as one. We have faith in our project and we will make our product become a success. Yangyang Li Chief Finance Officer (CFO) I am a fourth-year Electronics Engineering student at Simon Fraser University. Throughout school projects, I ve gained experience with embedded system programming, analog circuit design and financial knowledge. My 8-moths co-op experience in Telecon teaches me how to become an OSP engineer and provides me skills in 3D CAD drawing, such as SolidWorks and MicroStation. I ve also worked as a QA engineer in RICOH, be responsible for trouble-shooting and debugging. These experiences are helpful during project design and implementation. In addition, I m a self-motivated and easy-going person, being able to work in various environment. Haishuo Zhang Vice President of Operations I am a fifth-year Electronics Engineering student at Simon Fraser University. From many lab experiments, I gained good understanding of electronic circuit design and hardware description language such as VHDL and C. I can use that knowledge in our project design and programming. From my co-op experience, I gained good knowledge of networking protocol such as TCP/IP and OSI. This knowledge can help me to easily understand the communication between two NFC devices or between NFC device and NFC tag. Also I am a quick learner and can work under pressure. Kaiqi Li Chief Operations Officer (COO) With 8 months work experience at Ericsson, I am a proven responsible teammate equipped with perseverance, detail oriented and exceptional communication skills. My job is to help start up automation using Ruby in Integrated and Verification Team. From this experience, I have gained appreciation for working independently and have the ability to solve problem with patience and careful examination. From three years lab experience at SFU, I have developed many important lab skills, such as analog circuit design, IC design, internal behavior analysis of semiconductors and dealing with various electronic equipment. For instance, I have done projects to design and simulated Butterworth Filter using LT-SPICE, and have also explored the characteristics of BJT, MOSFET and diode using SPA machine and electronic devices. Moreover, I have completed many programming projects including successfully implemented VGA protocol using VHDL on Altera DE2-115 board and image processing algorithms using C++. TAP LOCK INC. 13

14 Zheng Gao Chief Technology Officer (CTO) I am a fifth-year Computer Engineering student at Simon Fraser University. In my school projects and Co-op experience I gained a wide variety of software and hardware skills including Java, Python, C/C++, VHDL and digital circuit design. In this project I will mainly be responsible for designing and implementing the android app for our locker. 13 Conclusion: The core mission of Tap Lock Inc. is: Simple and Efficient. We are committed to simplify the existing access system in schools via the latest technology. Comparing to traditional locking system, our Smart Locker is a time-saver but cheap-to-buy. Also, it makes the registration process more convenient and efficient since students can order a locker anywhere with Internet and get the access immediately. The short-distance communication feature increases privacy as well as security of the locker. Our initial goal is to create a powerful locker system to simplify students daily life, but in the near future, we believe our project can even influence people in greater area and become well-known in the market. TAP LOCK INC. 14

15 14 Reference and citation: [1] Lella, A. (2014, August 6). Smartphone Subscriber Market Share. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from US-Smartphone-Subscriber-Market-Share [2] B, J. (2014, September 11). ITN International CEO Says NFC in New iphone a Landmark for U.S. Event Producers. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from [3] B, J. (2014, September 11). ITN International CEO Says NFC in New iphone a Landmark for U.S. Event Producers. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from [4] Thrasher, J. (2013, October 11). RFID versus NFC. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from 15 Other Sources: VECOS: TAP LOCK INC. 15