RFID Helps Malaysian Museums Track Artifacts

In the first phase of the project, CBS is training DMM staff how to tag weapons. The staff is currently in the process of applying the high-frequency tags, which are made of flexible plastic, come from various makers and conform to the ISO 15693 standard. The staff hangs them on weapons using custom-designed string that won't harm the artifacts. Each type of string is approved for a specific weapon. When plastic tags are used, the string cannot break through the hole as easily as it does with cardboard. All interrogators in the project come from Omron.

Ken Lee

To tag an artifact, a staff member sits at a desk and employs a stationary RFID interrogator to register the item in the database and encode information to its tag. The artifact's ID number, type, owner and storage location are all encoded to the tag. When a relic is returned to the proper storage shelf, an employee uses a handheld reader to scan the item's tag, then links it, within the database, to the proper shelf number, indicated on the shelf tag.

When the National Museum receives a loan request from another institution, it notes the request in its computer system, which indicates the location and tag number of the shelf on which the item is stored. A staff member then goes to the specific shelf with a handheld RFID interrogator, reading all items in the area upon arrival. In the past, since many relics look the same, the process of locating a specific item could take up to two hours.

Once it identifies the proper relic, the interrogator beeps and the worker takes the object to a staging area, where a manager approves the loan on the computer system. The item is packed for shipping, and its tag is interrogated again before it leaves the premises, via a desktop reader near the exit. The computer system notes the date when the item was shipped, as well as the museum to which it was sent.

Upon the object's return to the National Museum, workers interrogate the tag once more before returning it to storage. Lee says the DMM has not calculated an ROI for the project, but that the RFID-based system will increase productivity and enhanced efficiency.