RFlogy, a startup RFID integration firm based in Turkey, has developed a comprehensive system designed for health clubs. Club members can use the system, known as GymLogy, to gain entrance, make purchases within the facility, secure lockers and track workouts. “We knew what RFID was capable of, and just started to think about it and develop a complete system,” says Altug Yanas, RFlogy’s business development manager.
To date, two health clubs in Turkey are implementing the solution. The Thalen & Thales Sports club deployed the system two months ago, and has issued new high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz passive RFID-enabled cards to its 1,000 members.
In the past, the facility issued low-frequency (LF) passive RFID-based member ID cards, but they had limited usability—the LF cards contained a passive inlay that could store only enough data to contain a unique ID. Members held the card up to locked turnstiles at the club entrance. An interrogator inside each turnstile transmitted the card’s encoded serial number to a database, which would trigger the turnstile to open and allow a member to enter if the account linked to that serial number was in good standing.
At present, this step is exactly the same for members. But embedded in the new cards is a high-frequency RFID inlay containing a different type of integrated circuit—NXP‘s Mifare Ultralight—capable of storing up to 512 bits of data. RFlogy had to replace the turnstile readers to be able to interrogate these new cards.
The company also installed Mifare card readers at sales terminals within the club’s café and equipment shop. Members can load value to their account, then pay for goods or food in the club by holding their member cards up to one of the readers. The interrogator forwards the card ID to RFlogy software, which links the account database to the point-of-sale (POS) system. To process a debit transaction, the software deducts the purchase amount from the value stored on the account, then sends a message to the POS system that the transaction is complete.
In addition, RFlogy installed small RFID reader modules in each of Thalen & Thales’ 100 lockers. To use one, a member approaches a locker with an ajar door, fills it with belongings, then closes the door and presents the card to the locker’s interrogator. The reader stores the inlay’s ID number in its memory and triggers the door’s mechanical lock to engage.
Upon later returning to the locker, the member once more presents the card to the reader, which compares the ID to that stored in its memory. If there is a match, the door unlocks. The next time the locker is closed and locked, the reader overwrites the ID stored in its memory with that of the newly presented card, thereby ensuring it will only open for the member using the locker at that particular time.
Moreover, the club also offers its members the ability to utilize the RFID cards to manage workouts. A member first sets up an online account, including a login and password, on the club’s Web site. The RFlogy software links that person’s online account to the card’s ID. Once the online profile is established, that member can select or set up a workout regime on the Web site. Later, at the club, he or she can present the card to a reader, attached to a computer monitor and installed near workout machinery, to call up that day’s predetermined workout routine. Thus, the member need not print out and carry around a hard copy of the schedule.
According to Yanas, the readers in the turnstiles, sales terminals and workout areas are networked together using the RFlogy software, which the vendor wrote utilizing the C Sharp programming language and SQL databases. This enables club managers to track the number of members entering the club at any particular time, and also to gain a sense for how often the cards are employed for purchases and for tracking workouts. The readers in the lockers, however, are offline.
A second health club, GalaSpor, is currently in the process of deploying the GymLogy system as well, Yanas says. The club plans to deploy all elements of the system except for the RFID-enabled locker.
RFlogy is also working on a number of other projects that Yanas says he hopes to announce soon. These are outside of the health-club sector, however, and involve not just passive but also active RFID tags.