E-Chieves
E‑Chieves.
Take the checkout out of checking out a book.
Sri Lanka's public libraries still run on manual, barcode-era systems — software like Koha, where a barcode needs line-of-sight, a staff member, and a queue. Pick a book off a shelf and the system has no idea it moved.
E-Chieves (originally "Intelligent Rack") reimagined the library as an Amazon Go-style space: RFID-tagged books on smart, sensor-equipped racks that know who picked up what. You check in with a QR code, grab the books you want, and walk out — the system builds your borrowing cart automatically. A four-person second-year group project; I worked on the experience, concept and front-ends.
The library experience is full of small frictions that add up — for readers and for staff alike.
Barcodes need a human and a queue
Lost & stolen books are hard to track
Bags at the door, manual stock-takes
What if a library worked like Amazon Go — no till, no queue, just grab the books and go?
The state of library tech.
Most libraries — including the public libraries we studied in Sri Lanka — rely on barcodes. A barcode must be scanned one at a time, in line-of-sight, by a person at a desk.
RFID changes the physics. A single reader can sense around 40 tags at once, through shelves and bags, with no line-of-sight — so the shelf itself can know its contents in real time. That's the unlock that makes grab-and-go possible.
What if the shelf was the system?
From paper cards to grab-and-go.
Manual cards
Hand-written ledgers and date stamps — every loan logged by a librarian.
Barcodes & Koha
Faster, but still one-at-a-time, line-of-sight, and tied to a staffed desk.
RFID grab-and-go
The shelf senses everything; the reader just walks out. ← this project.
How the intelligent rack works.
RFID readers and antennas live in each rack; every book carries an RFID/GPS sticker. When a book leaves or returns to the shelf, the reader registers it instantly.
Pressure sensors on the shelf surface confirm a pick by sensing the weight change, and cameras act as a backup if a tag isn't read. An Arduino board bridges the hardware to the cloud, which syncs to the reader app and the librarian admin panel.
For readers who want…
+No queue
Skip the checkout desk entirely — grab and go.
+Find books fast
An in-app route map guides you to the shelf you need.
+Their history
Every loan, return and fine saved to a cloud account.
+Hands free
No leaving bags at the door, no juggling at the counter.
+Fair fines
Return on time, pay nothing; late, the card is charged automatically.
+Trust it's tracked
Books are located and secured by RFID, not honour systems.
The everyday public-library reader
A student or working reader who borrows a handful of books a week and resents the queue, the bag check and the paperwork. Wants to walk in, find what they need, and leave — with their borrowing history, due dates and fines simply handled in an app rather than at a desk.
An autonomous library: RFID racks, a virtual cart, and zero checkout.
Five steps, no counter.
Check in
Scan your QR code at the door — the app signs you in.
Grab
Take any book off the smart rack. The shelf senses it.
Detected
RFID + sensors add it to your virtual cart automatically.
Walk out
No till. The books move to your borrowed list as you leave.
Settle
Return on time and pay nothing; late returns auto-charge the card.
Try it: pick a book off the shelf.
This is the heart of E-Chieves. Click a book — watch the RFID detection fire and the book drop into your virtual cart. Then walk out.
My Cart
The prototype, screen by screen.
A reader app for grab-and-go, and a librarian admin panel behind it. Click any to view.
What this taught me.
E-Chieves was a concept and prototype, not a deployed system — and that's where the honest learning is.
Hardware is the hard part
The real next step is a physical RFID + sensor pilot on one rack. The flow only proves out once tags, readers and edge-cases meet a real shelf.
Tracking people needs care
Locating readers by QR raises real privacy questions. A deployed version would need consent, data minimisation and clear retention rules.
Test with real readers
The front-ends leaned on web templates; the priority now is usability testing of the grab-and-go flow with actual library members.
Designing as a team
My biggest takeaway: turning a bold reference (Amazon Go) into a scoped, buildable system with three other people — and owning the experience end of it.