Apr 10, 2014At the RFID Journal LIVE! 2014 conference and exhibition, held this week in Orlando, Fla., RFID Journal announced the winners of its eighth annual RFID Journal Awards. Also announced was the winner of this year's Coolest Demo Contest.
The top honors went to the following companies:
Best RFID Implementation: Marks & Spencer, for its use of item-level RFID to improve on-shelf availability at all of its store locations (see Marks & Spencer Rolls Out RFID to All Its Stores), and Bechtel, for its use of thousands of active RFID tags to manage materials for the construction of three mega-size industrial projects off the coast of Western Australia (see How Is RFID Being Applied in the Mining Sector?)
Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service: Hy-Vee, for its deployment of RFID sensors that monitor all temperature-sensitive goods at its supermarkets, enabling the retailer to deliver the highest-quality products to its customers
Most Innovative Use of RFID: Skyview High School, for its use of a real-time location system (RTLS) and location-based messaging to improve the safety of school children in the event of an emergency (see Idaho School Installs RTLS to Make Students Safer)
RFID Green Award: The Taiwan Fiscal Information Agency, for an RFID-based solution that eliminated more than 4 billion paper invoices annually
Best NFC Deployment: Post Foods, for its use of NFC cards to engage customers and generate brand loyalty at a summer concert series (see At Miami Concert, NFC RFID Helps Post Foods Market Its Products)
Best In Show: NXP Semiconductors, for its NTAG I2C (NFC Connected Tag), which offers both an NFC interface and an I2C connected interface, allowing the tag to communicate with the microcontrollers of other electronic devices, such as washing machines, refrigerators and sensors
In addition, RFID Journal's editors will present the 2014 RFID Special Achievement Award to Joe Andraski, the former president and CEO of the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions Association (VICS)—which merged with GS1 US in 2012 (see GS1 and VICS to Merge)—for his support for and commitment to promoting RFID adoption at the item level in retail (see The RFID Industry Owes a Big Thanks to Joe Andraski)
Finally, Q-Track won this year's Coolest Demo Contest, by putting its new lightweight QT-701 tag on a radio-controlled Parrot AR Drone miniature aircraft, and then using Q-Track's real-time location system to track the drone's whereabouts as it was flown thrown the exhibit hall.
