VRF Offering Dynamic Price Tags

By Mary Catherine O'Connor

May 6, 2008—Of all the benefits the retail sector stands to reap from RFID technology, the automation of product price markdowns receives far less attention than other applications, such as product tracking. That's because retailers lack a means of easily communicating sale prices to consumers, via RFID tags, as they browse through items in a store. But a startup company known as VRF-Holding may have developed a way to make it easier for stores to execute markdowns and communicate them to customers.

VRF-Holding announced and demonstrated dynamic item-level markdown tags at last month's RFID Journal LIVE! 2008 conference in Las Vegas. The company has developed three prototype battery-assisted passive (BAP) or active tags, each containing dynamic electronic paper (e-paper) displays. The tags, VRF claims, can be utilized for automatic markdowns, as well as for inventory and theft control within retail settings.

VRF-Holding's item-level markdown tags can be utilized for automatic markdowns, as well as for inventory and theft control within retail settings.

E-paper is the technology employed in some electronic book readers, such as Amazon's Kindle, released in late 2007. Whereas conventional displays incorporate a backlight and require a steady power supply, e-paper is illuminated by external ambient light. Once text or an image is set on the display, it remains there indefinitely, without drawing electricity, until altered through a user's input.

"The e-paper is also very durable, as there is no glass used in the display, and it is able to withstand up to 1,200 pounds per square inch of pressure, and a 6-foot drop," says Ed Holcomb, a managing partner of VRF Holding. "The display technology is really cool, but updating the display with RF is where the patents come into play. We have worldwide exclusive rights for bistable displays [such as e-paper] using wireless communications for item-level hangtags."

The screens of the VRF tags will be set to show a product's original and current prices, as well as the amount saved, or they could be customized to meet a retailer's specific requirements. One version, made for VRF by tag maker Intelleflex, contains an EPC Gen 2 UHF chip and a battery used to extend the tag's read range to as much as 100 feet, and to power its display. The tag complies with the EPCglobal candidate Class 3 specification for a BAP tag.

According to Holcomb, another prototype, produced by wireless-sensor manufacturer Jennic, complies with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard—the same specification on which the ZigBee protocol is based—and has a read range of approximately 900 feet. A third model, he says—currently in development—is based on a low-power Wi-Fi chipset and should offer a communication range of up to 1,000 feet.

The EPC Gen 2 and ZigBee prototypes measure 3.5 inches long by 1.7 inches wide, and are roughly an eighth of an inch thick. The prototype Wi-Fi tag will be a bit thinner, Holcomb says, adding that VRF hopes to downsize all three tags to about 3 by 1.25 inches, and to as thin as one-eighteenth of an inch.