RFID Gives Sports Memorabilia Stamp of Authenticity

Once the tags were affixed to the items, the collectors visited the athletes, including former NFL stars Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Gayle Sayers, Earl Campbell and Thurman Thomas. After having an item autographed, each collector moved along to another Prova employee stationed nearby, who witnessed the signings. That employee used a handheld RFID interrogator from Sirit to read each tag, documenting its unique ID number, then wrote the date and time on the tag's chip and locked it so its data could not be changed.

At the end of the day, Prova downloaded all data from the handheld devices into its database, then posted the authentication information (such as the date of the autograph and the name of the signer) on its Web site. Collectors can access the information by entering their name and a password.

The Web site provides the collector with electronic proof that the autograph on an item in their possession was obtained legitimately, says Daniel Werner, Prova's marketing and business VP. "Prova decided early on to create a system that works at the moment of the signing," Werner says, "that would put authentication in a database and lock that information onto an RFID tag."

Prova's RFID-enabled autograph-certification system was available to collectors at previous Football Spectacular Shows in New Jersey, but this year's Dallas event was the largest Prova has been involved with, Werner says. The company is now in discussion to participate in similar events in other parts of the country in 2008.

The Dallas event provided Prova with an opportunity to improve its service, Werner says. "We want to find ways to do an even easier registration," he states. "We want to make the process seamless for the sports fan." For instance, the company is researching ways to capture a collector's name, address and other information without having to manually enter it into the system.