Feb 06, 2014The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations: Xerafy, Omni-ID; Farsens; iBag; Meditek, Skytron; PiiComm, NeWave; Smartrac, and Avnet.
Xerafy, Omni-ID Resolve RFID Patent-Infringement Dispute
Xerafy and Omni-ID have announced that they have reached an amicable, out-of-court settlement in their year-long intellectual property (IP) dispute. Both Omni-ID and Xerafy manufacture rugged, read-on-metal EPC ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags. Under the terms of the confidential settlement agreement, Xerafy will continue to manufacture and sell its complete range of RFID tags, including high-performance, read-on-metal tags, in the United States and worldwide. In February 2013, Omni-ID filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Xerafy, as well as one of Xerafy's business partners, RFID TagSource (see Omni-ID Sues Xerafy and RFID TagSource). Omni-ID's complaint charged that Xerafy and RFID TagSource violated two of its patents, one for an "Electromagnetic Radiant Decoupler" (patent no. 7,768,400) and the other for "Electromagnetic Enhancement and Decoupling" (patent no. 7,880,619). For the past year, licenses for both patents have been available for purchase via the company's Omni Global Technology Licensing (OGTL) Program (see RFID News Roundup: Omni-ID Launches Global Technology Licensing Program). In a prepared statement, Dennis Khoo, Xerafy's founder and CEO, said that his company is happy with the resolution, adding that "IP disputes are common with emerging technologies, and we are pleased we could work with Omni-ID to come to a mutually beneficial agreement. We look forward to devoting all our energies to supporting our customers and continuing to develop new RFID products to solve business problems." In May 2013, Omni-ID announced that it had reached a settlement with RFID TagSource; under the terms of that agreement, RFID TagSource agreed not to make, use, sell or offer to sell or distribute Xerafy RFID products accused of infringement until the issues involved in the lawsuit were resolved. RFID TagSource also agreed to respect Omni-ID's patent rights, according to Omni-ID.
Farsens Unveils Titan Battery-Free RFID-operated Relay Switch
Farsens, a Spanish developer of RFID sensors, has announced the Titan, a passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID bistable relay tag. Because the Titan operates without a battery, Farsens says, it not only saves operational costs associated with battery replacement and maintenance, but also is ideal for areas that are not easily accessed or are restricted, as well as those in which the use of any batteries is not recommended. Battery-free relays are also a good fit for retrofitting in places where a high number of mechanical relays are being manually operated, according to Farsens. The Titan tag incorporates a G6CU-2114P-US bistable relay, from Japanese electronics manufacturer Omron. The Titan tag, compatible with commercial readers compliant with the EPC Gen 2 standard, can be wirelessly identified and then activated and deactivated, via its unique ID, using an RFID reader. The tag's relay maintains its latest status even when the reader is absent or turned off, the company reports. The relay's electrical contacts are composed of a silver alloy and support a maximum switching voltage of 380 volts AC and 125 volts DC, and a maximum switching current of 8 amperes. The Titan's RFID chip is compliant with the EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6C standards, and supports 96 bits of Electronic Product Code (EPC) memory, a 32-bit tag identifier (TID) and a password-protected kill command. Built in a PCB format, the tag is available in various sizes, including a T-shaped version measuring 135 millimeters by 56 millimeters (5.3 inches by 2.2 inches), with a dipole wideband antenna that operates in both the 868 MHz and 915 MHz frequency bands.
Credit Card Website Develops iBag—an RFID-enabled Purse to Curb Debt
Finder.com.au, an Australian credit card comparison website, has announced that it has developed the iBag, an RFID-enabled and programmable handbag designed to help combat out-of-control spending. The iBag includes an RFID system to track when a wallet is removed from the bag, a real-time clock that activates a motorized mechanism that locks the bag during vulnerable spending times of the day, a GSM module that sends an SMS text-message alert in the event that the iBag carrier enters a "danger spending zone," and a GPS chip that controls light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to warn a user if he or she enters such a zone. The iBag was designed to physically deter shoppers from accessing their credit cards while at their most vulnerable, according to Finder.com.au, which cites Australia's $49.7 billion credit card debt. The iBag, the company reports, is targeted at 4 million credit card accounts in Australia that are not paid off each month, and was created following results from a survey commissioned by Finder.com.au and conducted by global research provider Pureprofile. The survey found that almost half (45 percent) of those who fail to pay off their credit cards in full each month—potentially 1.7 million cards—make more than three impulsive purchases per month. The survey also found that about two out of three credit card holders (63 percent) spend at least $500 each month on their cards, and that those who make more unplanned purchases tend to spend more. Furthermore, the study found that emotional shopping and spending during a sale are two of the biggest behavioral factors leading to ballooning credit card debt, that rewards points programs offer the greatest incentive for people to use their credit card, that women tend to be more careless with their credit cards than men, and that members of Generation X (ages 35 to 54) are the least likely to pay off their balance in full on a monthly basis. Finder.com.au sees the iBag as a means to help these individuals with short-term debt relief, the company explains, by shutting them out during hours identified as their splurging times, as well as by flashing and sending an SMS message if they enter their danger spending zones. While the iBag is not yet commercially available, the company says that if enough people visit www.creditcardfinder.com.au/ibag and register their interest in buying the bag at a price of AU$199, the product will go into production.
Meditek Adds New Skytron SkyTrac Smart Cabinets to Product Portfolio
Meditek, a Canada-based provider of health-care products, has announced that it has added RFID-enabled smart cabinets from Skytron to its product lineup. First announced in August 2013 (see RFID News Roundup: Skytron Unveils RFID-enabled Smart Cabinets for Tracking Health-care Products), Skytron's SkyTrac cabinets are designed to help health-care facilities automatically track such consumable items as sutures, stents and implants used for patient care. The smart cabinets feature RFID technology from WaveMark, which includes 13.56 MHz RFID readers compliant with the ISO 15693 standard, as well as reader antennas. In addition to allowing hospital personnel to spend less time on inventory control, the cabinets are also able to issue alerts for recalled or expired products. The associated data-collection and -analysis benefits, Meditek reports, help hospitals avoid under- and over-stocking, and capture critical product use data for patient records to improve efficiency and patient safety. According to Meditek, WaveMark has reported that individual hospital departments have saved more than 500 staff hours thanks to its RFID technology, as well as reducing on-hand inventory by as much as 30 percent and experiencing annual savings of $350,000 to $750,000. Some examples of the benefits of using SkyTrac smart cabinets include automatic RFID data-collection reads in the cabinets every 30 minutes, integration with such technologies as a hospital information system (HIS), an electronic medical record (EMR) system and an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Several designs and sizes are available, including a five-shelf cabinet (model HF1000) measuring 80 inches tall (with wheels), 44.5 inches wide and 21 inches deep. There is also a smart cabinet for guiding catheters and other long products stored on hangers (model HFH1000), a tabletop smart cabinet (model HFT1500) for small assets, and a four-shelf mobile cart that can be easily transported from a storage room to a procedure room (model HFM1500).
PiiComm, NeWave Partner on RFID-enabled Medical Inventory-Management Solution
PiiComm, a Canadian provider of managed mobility services, and NeWave Sensor Solutions, a supplier of item-level RFID tracking technologies, have announced a partnership to deliver to the Canadian market an automated inventory-management solution for tracking valuable medical supplies at hospitals and clinics. According to PiiComm, the two companies are combining their technologies into a Smart Inventory Management System (SIMS) to help hospitals and other health-care organizations more effectively manage medical supplies, valuable assets and staff compliance. PiiComm is responsible for the sale, implementation, integration and support of the SIMS solution, the components of which include NeWave Sensor Solutions' patented Wave antenna system, fixed RFID readers, software, professional services and ongoing support. Unlike a patch antenna that radiates a single beam in a given direction, NeWave's antennas are designed to uniformly illuminate a volume of space, PiiComm explains. PiiComm supplies EPC Gen 2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) passive RFID tags from many vendors, including Omni-ID, Metalcraft and Avery Dennison, and deploys readers from Motorola Solutions (the FX series) and Intermec by Honeywell (the IF series). Featuring bins to house medical products, the SIMS solution can automatically monitor the state of a hospital's inventory and the locations of all items. An RFID tag is attached to each end of the bin, which is divided in half, forming "primary" and "safety" stock sides, so that as an item's primary supply is depleted, the bin can simply be reversed on the shelf to expose the safety stock side. SIMS continually monitors and reports which of the two possible positions each product bin is in (primary or safety), and the change data is consolidated in the SIMS Web-based software portal. The SIMS solution, PiiComm says, provides both a health-care facility and its medical products supplier with real-time visibility and continual updates regarding each inventoried item's stock position, as well as a complete stock order report. The solution is designed to eliminate the need for kanban and card-based systems that require staff members to pull stock cards or take action to ensure accurate inventory. According to PiiComm, the SIMS solution can, in many situations, be retrofitted to existing shelving systems, and is scalable to meet a customer's particular needs. PiiComm offers multiple software options to suit specific customer requirements, including the SIMS Sky Eye or custom applications and integration software developed by PiiComm Professional Services. SIMS Sky Eye is cloud-based software with customizable reports to allow a user to quickly view an accurate stock status by product, as well as what that company needs to order. SIMS is delivered to the Canadian market by PiiComm, and elsewhere by other NeWave-certified systems integration partners, according to PiiComm. It is marketed globally by NeWave Sensor Solutions and in Canada, exclusively by Avenue RFID Inc.
Smartrac, Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas Enter Distribution Agreement
Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas, a division of electronic-components distributor Avnet, has announced that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Smartrac, an RFID inlay supplier headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The distribution agreement focuses on Near Field Communication (NFC) and ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID products. Avnet now offers Smartrac's solutions that are used in access control, contactless payment cards, automated fare collection, border control, RFID-based car immobilizers, asset tracking, baggage handling, industry and manufacturing, inventory management, logistics, supply chain management and other applications. The two companies will also collaborate on offering design-in support and services, Avnet reports, as well as developing customized solutions for customers. Corey Wilson, Smartrac's global director of consumer experience, added in the statement that the "partnership will provide a dedicated focus on delivering proven high-quality RFID tags and inlays targeting a variety of applications and use cases."
