Aug 22, 2013The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations: NXP Semiconductors; RFIDdirect, CAEN RFID; Star Systems International; Nedap Retail; Wooshping, GameLayer; and Microsoft.
NXP's Free Online Antenna-Designing Tool Helps Electronics Manufacturers Embed UHF Tags in Their Products
NXP Semiconductors has unveiled a new software application designed to help electronics manufacturers more easily embed an ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) range (840 to 960 MHz) RFID tag in their products. The RFID–PCB Antenna Designer helps manufacturers implement antennas on a printed circuit board (PCB). According to NXP, UHF antenna design is more complex than that of a typical high-frequency (HF) antenna, and requires an expert understanding of the electronic design constraints. For example, small changes have a big impact on performance and UHF antenna design is full of compromises, NXP reports in a blog written about the new design software. One size does not fit all, the company notes, and requirements must be traded off against each other in order to achieve something that functions in the desired way. There are also challenges involving size and form factor, NXP adds, particularly when integrating RFID functionality into consumer electronics that are becoming increasingly smaller, leaving little room on the PCBs. A good UHF antenna, the company says, needs a lot of board space, or else the designer must shorten it by twisting and turning the design. To create a turnkey UHF antenna design for a specific application, users can visit the RFID-PCB Antenna Designer Web page and input such parameters as the RFID chip being used (the tool supports only the following NXP chips: the Ucode I2C in the SOT902 package, the Ucode G2iL in the SOT886 package, and the Ucode G2iM in the SOT886 package), the space available on the PCB, the target performance, the board materials and the target frequency range (based on the region of the world in which the device will be sold and used). Additionally, NXP reports, the tool offers an overview of all features of the Ucode portfolio, thus enabling designers to select the proper Ucode product for their particular application. An easy-to-use interface helps non-RFID experts design high-performance antennas, according to the company, and the software supports customized and application-specific antenna design. Available now, the software was produced with support from Computer Simulation Technology (CST), a developer of high-performance software for the simulation of electromagnetic fields in all frequency bands, as well as Transim Technology, which delivers cloud application engineering solutions for online design support in the electronics industry.
RFIDdirect Intros Automated Temperature Logging for Cold Chain Processes
RFIDdirect has announced its Log 2.0 system, designed for tracking and tracing temperature-sensitive and perishable items while they are being transported and stored. The system is composed of two main components: RFIDdirect's Log 2.0 software and a CAEN RFID semi-passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) temperature-logging RFID tag (either the RT0005 or A9272 model). To use the system, a customer would employ an RFID reader (such as CAEN's qID Bluetooth UHF handheld scanner or Slate UHF USB desktop reader), and the device would forward that data to RFIDdirect's Log 2.0 software, operating in the cloud. The Log 2.0 software would then analyze the RFID and temperature data and generate reports, and/or transmit that information to the user's back-end software system. The semi-passive temperature tags can be programmed to conduct temperature reads at intervals that suit product requirements. Temperature thresholds can also be set on each tag—which, when exceeded, will trigger an onscreen alert via the Log 2.0 software. The tags are re-useable, last up to three years and feature a memory capacity capable of storing up to 8,000 temperature measurements. The Log 2.0 software records items' temperatures at every stage, RFIDdirect indicates, and provides the history of product temperature throughout the cold-chain processes used by food manufacturers and distributors, pharmaceutical companies, chemicals companies, biomedical companies and more. According RFIDdirect, the current cold-chain systems leverage manual, visual checks for "spoilage," a method that is limiting and often inaccurate. Log 2.0 automates checks so that it is easier to prevent spoilage, the company adds. What is unique about Log 2.0, according to Frits Van Calker, RFIDdirect's managing director, is that the system can be personalized from tag requirements down to report generation.
Star Systems International Announces Secure Headlamp Tags for Tolling and AVI Applications
Star Systems International, an RFID hardware provider and value-added distributor, has announced the availability of a new RFID tag designed specifically for automatic vehicle identification (AVI) applications, such as toll collection, electronic vehicle registration, parking, secure access and fleet management. According to Star Systems, the Aries tag, compliant with the ISO 18000-6C and EPC Gen 2 standards, is tuned to work while affixed to a vehicle's headlights, thereby providing an alternative for scenarios in which a tag cannot be used due to a windshield's metallic content, or for aesthetic reasons. Designed specifically for vehicle-identification applications, the tag features a patented Break-On-Removal anti-theft technology that, according to the company, protects users by rendering the tag useless when removed. The small, clear tag is constructed to withstand extreme weather and harsh driving environments, Star Systems reports, and the Aries' IC offers read-lock and/or write-lock features on 64-bit blocks, allowing it to support a variety of public or private usage models. The IC also features a factory-programmed and permanently locked 64-bit serial number that cannot be altered. In conjunction with the Electronic Product Code (EPC) data and optional uniquely generated access codes, the tag provides a high-level of security for every tagged vehicle and its collected data, according to Star Systems. Sometimes, says Chris Cheung, Star Systems' senior applications manager, an RFID tag cannot be placed on a windshield due to how the vehicle is configured—and in the case of motorcycles and motor scooters, there might not even be a windshield present. The Aries tag was designed as a solution for such situations, Cheung says, and can be read consistently on vehicles driving at high speeds and in harsh environments.
French Sports Retailer Rolls Out Nedap Retail's RFID-enabled EAS Systems to Hundreds of Stores Worldwide
Nedap Retail has announced a contract with a French sports retailer to upgrade its existing RF-enabled electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems to hybrid EAS-RFID systems. At more than 400 of the retailer's 570-plus stores, Nedap Retail is upgrading existing gates featuring 8.2 MHz RF EAS antennas to include passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) EPC Gen 2-compliant antennas, as part of the EAS systems located at the stores' front entrances and exits. Nedap Retail has also equipped approximately half of the retailer's new stores with dual EAS-RFID gate antennas, and plans to install the dual technology at any new locations the retailer may open in the future. The French retailer, which declines to be identified—or to identify the exact product categories and/or percentage of goods being tagged—is applying RFID tags to clothing and shoes. The rollout is scheduled to be completed by March 2014. Nedap Retail's RFID-enabled EAS !D (the 8.2 MHz RF EAS version being upgraded is the EAS !Fast) consists of a product portfolio with floor-mounted, ceiling-mounted and point-of-sale (POS) antennas. EAS !D features Advanced Tag Filtering (ATF) technology designed to reduce false alarms and minimize body shielding, according to Nedap Retail. The system provides a reading speed of hundreds of RFID tags and labels per second, the company reports, and includes an online capability that can be monitored around the clock via Nedap Retail's Cube—a Web-based platform that allows retailers to remotely monitor, compare and benchmark store operations. "Using RFID-only or hybrid EAS-RFID antennas at the exit for loss-prevention purposes is a solution that gets more and more attention from retailers as it broadens the business case," says Rob Schuurman, Nedap Retail's managing director. "Both from a time and cost perspective, it simply makes sense to make the EAS system RFID-ready at some point—either before, during or after the introduction of RFID labels in the supply chain. Once a significant percentage of the merchandise is RFID-labeled, you might as well use the same technology for both loss-prevention and inventory-accuracy purposes." Nedap Retail's RFID solutions, which also include RFID-enabled inventory applications, have been installed at other retailers' operations as well. Dutch shoe retailer De Wolky Shop, for example, is tagging all of its shoeboxes with RFID labels, and is utilizing handheld readers to conduct inventory counts for its online and brick-and-mortar stores (see De Wolky Shop Reduces Stock-Outs, Boosts Sales With RFID).
Wooshping Partners With GameLayer on NFC-based Gamification Solutions
Wooshping, a provider of Near Field Communication (NFC) cloud-based customer-engagement solutions, has announced that it is partnering with GameLayer to create and offer to its customers a complete NFC-based gamification solution. Gamification uses game-thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users. The two companies have teamed up to "optimize the interaction between NFC and the gamification logic, to ensure that customers received the great insights into the campaigns they run, and consumers got the most optimal experience," says Rupert Englander, Wooshping's founder and managing director. Formerly called Tagonic (see RFID News Roundup: Tagonic Kicks Off Contest for NFC-Driven Interactive Campaigns), the firm was rebranded as Wooshping in March 2013. The Wooshping platform provides a cloud-based campaign-management platform that customers can use to set up and program campaigns (and tags) virtually and instantly, as well as real-time campaign analytics and reporting showing customers how many interactions a particular campaign has achieved, the type of mobile devices used and other data. The platform also provides non-gamification campaign logic, Englander explains—for example, checking in to Facebook, or directing people to a Web destination. Wooshping also provides customers with standards-based NFC tags (sourced from multiple providers), and will recommend specific tags based on the requirements of a given customer and project. GameLayer is providing the NFC technology and cloud-based platform to enable customized real-world challenges and games, involving a simple tap on an NFC tag. For example, the two companies explain, a music festival could offer a challenge for visitors to find and unlock all artists performing on a particular day or stage, and then to enter a competition to meet the headlining act, or perhaps hidden codes providing access to VIP areas. Or a local tourist trail could utilize the platform to provide timely and spontaneous commentary and extra information along the trail. Wooshping and GameLayer are "ready to engage with customers on requirements now," Englander states. "Given the custom requirements of customers, we have created example scenarios, but there is no 'off-the-shelf' product." Prior to founding Tagonic, he was employed by Nokia, at which time he worked with the Museum of London to create an NFC application employing NFC RFID tags and NFC-enabled smartphones to provide visitors with additional exhibit information, as well as access to social-networking Web sites and vouchers (see London History Museum Adopts Technology of Future). Wooshping began working on a permanent deployment for the museum after that trial concluded.
Microsoft Researchers Develop 'Acoustic NFC' Technology for non-RFID Phones
Researchers at Microsoft India have developed what they describe as an acoustics-based Near Field Communication (NFC) system—known as Dhwani—that is designed to use the microphone and speakers on a mobile phone to communicate over very short ranges, thus eliminating the need for any specialized NFC RFID hardware or complex network configuration efforts. Those challenges may have attributed to the low levels of penetration of NFC RFID hardware, the researchers report, and Dhwani addresses the challenge of enabling NFC-like capability on the existing base of mobile phones. According to the researchers, experiments using the new system show that Dhwani can achieve data rates of up to 2.4 kilobits per second, which they claim is sufficient for most existing NFC applications. The team's research paper, titled "Dhwani : Secure Peer-to-Peer Acoustic NFC," explains that acoustic communication in Dhwani is confined to a short range (a few centimeters) and so enables the "association by proximity" functionality necessary for such applications as peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers and contactless payments. However, the paper notes, "a key advantage of Dhwani over conventional NFC is that it is a purely software-based solution that can run on legacy phones, including feature phones, so long as they have a speaker and a microphone. Consequently, much of the installed base of phones today could use Dhwani to perform P2P NFC communication." But unlike conventional RFID-based NFC, the paper adds, the use of acoustic communication means that Dhwani is not amenable to implementation in passive tags. Another advantage over conventional NFC, according to the report, is in terms of information-theoretic, physical-layer security. Dhwani's security model assumes that the devices seeking to communicate are trusted and immune to tampering. In their midst, however, might be one or more eavesdroppers; to combat this problem, Dhwani uses a self-jamming technique, called JamSecure, at the physical layer, enabling the receiver to intentionally jam the signal it is attempting to receive, thereby stymieing eavesdroppers, and then uses self-interference cancellation to successfully decode the incoming message. According to the paper, conventional NFC does not incorporate any security at the physical or media access control (MAC) layers, since the short communication range is presumed to offer a degree of protection. But the researchers say they have been able to demonstrate that it is possible to snoop on NFC communications from a distance of 20 to 30 centimeters (7.9 to 11.8 inches) using an oscilloscope and a standard tag antenna, and they conjecture that with a more sophisticated sniffer antenna, such snooping should be possible from a distance of a meter or more. Because Dhwani is a research project at the Microsoft Research India lab, the team is not currently in a position to comment on the prospects for commercializing the technology, according to Venkat Padmanabhan, Microsoft Research's principal researcher and research manager, and one of the Dhwani paper's authors.
