Altierre Sees Opportunity for Temperature Tags

Typically, a 60,000-square-foot location would require two Altierre interrogators to exchange data with the store's Altierre 2.4 GHz active RFID tags, via a proprietary air-interface protocol. The sensor tag, which measures 2.5 inches by 1.5 inches and is half an inch thick, can be placed directly inside a refrigerator or freezer. With a heating unit, such as one used to display roasted chickens, a temperature probe is placed within its heated interior and plugged into an RFID tag sitting outside of the unit. The tag continually measures the temperature, and interrogators capture its unique ID number, along with sensor data.

When installing a sensor tag, the retailer's staff uses a handheld interrogator to read its unique ID number. To link the tag with a specific heating or cooling unit being monitored, workers can utilize a bar-code scanner to scan a bar-coded identification label on that unit, or they can key in its ID number. The software can then be defined to send alerts based on predetermined data. If a unit's internal temperature changes by two degrees, for instance, a message could be transmitted to a store's manager and maintenance crew. If the temperature continues to change, a second alert could then be sent to the same individuals, as well as to a remote location (such as the company's headquarters) or to other employees on-site, thus indicating the problem has not yet been resolved.

Altierre's Sunit Saxena

According to Saxena, there are no other temperature-tracking solutions like this one (using active RFID tags in retail locations) currently available, though wireless temperature tracking is commonly managed in hospitals by such technologies as Wi-Fi- or ZigBee-based RFID tags (see RFID Helps St. Joseph's Keep an Eye on Cold Storage and Jackson Memorial Enlists Thousands of RFID Tags to Track Assets). However, he notes, Wi-Fi has limits in terms of the number of sensors that could be used, while a typical store might require hundreds or thousands of sensors.

"Going to thousands of devices would be difficult on Wi-Fi," Saxena explains. "Additionally, since we have a much lower power architecture, this could read and record at much more frequent intervals, while consuming much less power." Under normal operating conditions, he indicates, the tag's coin battery is expected to last five years.

Altierre's new product announcement comes a week after the United States' House Energy and Commerce Committee sent an amended version of the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (HR 2749) bill for a vote by the full House of Representatives. The bill would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to improve the safety of food in the global market, and direct the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take steps to reduce food-borne illnesses. If passed by the House, the bill would continue on to the Senate.