Building a product which implements RFID

[DangerousLlama]

For my product design class, I'm making a keyholder (with hooks) for the wall in a hallway. It's mahogany, a lot of woodwork involved (artisanry, not allowed to use many modern manufacturing techniques), but I have to find a way to implement modern technology. So I plan to make (or buy and create a wood cover for) some RFID tags and have an RFID sensor somewhere on the holder so you can press a button and cause an alarm to go off one the missing key.

The RFID sensor can't be attatched to the board, because it would have to have a fixed range then, and if the key is out of this range then you're screwed. So I'm making a drawer at the bottom of the key holder for the sensor, with instructions.

But firstly I'm going to share some of my resources for anyone who is interested in them or does not know much about them:

http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/RFID/what_is_rfid.asp

This was the first thing I looked at. Gives some great and simple explanation of how they work, as well as some uses. Doesn't explain much about its use in products though

https://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/s2006/cjr37/Website/index.htm

Some lads made a Proximity based security system with use of RFID. This link is outdated but it goes into hardcore detail about how it works and it's very interesting to read.

If there is anyone here who knows a lot about RFID and they have any advice then this would be very useful. I am no hardware expert, and not at University yet. My last project was a horseshoe.

[Kulverstukas]

I'm not a hardware wizard, but wouldn't radiowave, like bluetooth or something be better for this? RFID is a very short-range thing and you would need to be very close to your box.

[DangerousLlama]

I'm not a hardware wizard, but wouldn't radiowave, like bluetooth or something be better for this? RFID is a very short-range thing and you would need to be very close to your box.

Well the sensor for the tags would go in the drawer at the base of the keyhanger, so you can take it out and move it wherever.

I had originally planned some kind of app to find the keys with bluetooth*. But the course manager said it wasn't relevant, and the kind of people who would buy the product wouldn't be the kind of people who owned smartphones. As it has an old style.

* [size=78%]http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/13/06/2012/53883/bluetooth-tag-finds-your-keys.htm[/size] like this

And I will go and research into different types radiowaves now, Cheers.