If you own, or are interested in purchasing, one of WJ Communications' compact UHF RFID readers, the MPR5000, 6000, or 7000, and want to control them from a UNIX-type platform, you can download the source code for a simple graphical user interface for these products from the links below. The interface is written in Python, so it is reasonably platform-independent. You need to have pyserial (for talking to the serial port) and Tkinter (for the graphical user interface) available in your Python implementation. I have run the interface on a Mac under OS 10.3 (in which Python is included by default). The program should also run under Windows, though there are also GUI's available directly from WJ Communications and from integralRFID if you have a Windows platform. Note that Tkinter files like this cannot be run within IDE or PythonIDE as the interfaces conflict. To run these on a Mac with MacPython 2.3, make sure all the relevant files are in your search path, and then drag MPRGUI_6.0.py onto PythonLauncher, or launch using a Terminal window. I've also made things work using a Keyspan USB-to-serial converter to an MIB-1000.
Release 6 includes support for EPCglobal Class 1 Generation 2 tag inventories, as well as Class 1 Gen 1 and Class 0. A very brief user's manual and programmer's manual is included as an Acrobat file.
These files are distributed open-source for your free use and modification, with two provisos: please retain my name-company credits in the comments, and if you make improvements in the code (it could use them!) please send a copy to me. Comments and questions are also welcome.
.SIT version (Mac OS compression)
.ZIP version (Windows compression)