Here's an interesting question, potentially too early to answer since
Visors seem to be hard to come by, but..
I'm looking at deploying 1000+ Palm OS devices in a factory environment.
These will be attractive to certain people and may "walk" if we don't
protect the asset somehow. We've talked about many different ways to
keep the devices inside the four walls of the factory. Here's the
suggestion that has risen to the top internally. I'm interested in comments.
The idea was to create a springboard module for a Visor that, if
missing, would disable the device. The module would incorporate an RF
tag that would trigger an alarm if it were carried outside the building.
This function is similar to the protection schemes used by department
stores to protect merchandise. The Visor would not function without the
springboard module inserted, thus making it less likely to be "borrowed"
and taken home.
Since we would order in large quantities, we would also try to get the
devices made with a custom case - imprinted with "Property of Fairchild
Semiconductor" or something equally annoying to carry with you - as a deterrent.
It is my understanding that the Visor is not flashable, so I would not
be able to replace the standard ROM image with my own, but if I could,
the drill would be to replace the ROM image with one that held only the
application we would use in the factory, would not run at all without
seeing the springboard/rf-tag module, and would not allow itself to be
re-flashed. A custom ROM would also be possible, but we would need to
maintain the ability to replace this ROM image when the application
needed to be upgraded.
Does it make any sense to any of you to continue down this path?
Options include having Palm or Handspring or another licensee,
manufacture a custom device that meets our needs, however the closer we
can stay to a production device, the lower our total costs, and the more
attractive the option to deploy the device in the first place.
Thanks for your opinions.
-Tim
--
Tim Hewitt
Principal Software Engineer
Fairchild Semiconductor
