Apr 07, 2006The following are news announcements made during the week of Apr. 3.
South Korea Makes Gains in the RFID Market
A report by ABI Research says South Korean RFID vendors are gaining footholds in the RFID marketplace, having boosted investments in RFID activities and tag production capacities since last year. The report indicates that the vendors are beginning to compete globally, especially in the UHF segment, which will likely soon overtake the HF in market share. Andy Bae, ABI Research analyst and the study's author, says the increasing tag-production capabilities of firms such as Samsung and LG are likely to have an impact on global tag pricing. "Competition among current overseas vendors, plus South Korean vendors' production volume, will decrease tag price more and more," he says. The report cites the South Korean government's initiative for technology development and national-scale RFID trial services as additional drivers of RFID technology in the region. End users in South Korea are beginning to deploy RFID applications for logistics, retailing, publishing and library services, health care, manufacturing operations, education, government and public services, consumer goods, defense, shipping and transport, and livestock. Of these, the report states, RFID-based applications for logistics and libraries demonstrate the highest adoption rates. In addition, the report looks at how South Korean vendors are working with the government to create an organization for pooling patents related to RFID. The 38-page report is available for download at the ABI Web site, priced at $4,000.
Certicom Releases Security Platform for Wireless Sensors
Certicom, a Mississauga, Ontario, provider of wireless information security solutions, has launched Certicom Security for Sensor Networks, a software module and hardware IP core, or chip component, designed to secure data stored on and transmitted between low-power, wireless sensor network nodes. The platform uses elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC), a form of public-key cryptography, to add a provable identity to sensor devices such as battery-powered RFID asset or sensor tags. This allows network gateways or readers to communicate only with devices assigned to a particular network. The product was designed for use in large sensor networks, in which nodes may be added and removed on a regular basis, used to track high-value assets or products that must be positively and securely identified, such as pharmaceuticals or mobile electronics. The platform would also be useful in applications where sensors store and send sensitive data. ECC cryptography provides an advantage over other forms of cryptography because it uses short digital keys. Long keys tax the limited memory and computing power of onboard wireless sensors. Crossbow Technology, a wireless sensor network provider based in San Jose, Calif., is partnering with Certicom to build the Security for Sensor Networks platform into a version of the Crossbow active sensor tag. The platform will reduce an end user's total cost of ownership by making nodes easy to authenticate and manage, Certicom claims. The company says it also believes a robust security application for wireless sensor networks will speed adoption of the technology.
U.S. Baseball Stadiums and Australian Bank Try PayPass
According to MasterCard, nine Major League Baseball stadiums are kicking off the season with RFID upgrades to merchant point-of-sale terminals, enabling fans to make purchases with MasterCard PayPass devices. Busch Stadium, Citizens Bank Park, Dodger Stadium, Fenway Park, Great American Ballpark, Petco Park, Shea Stadium, Turner Field and Yankee Stadium—homes of the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees, respectively—now accept PayPass. MasterCard also announced its first PayPass trial in Australia. The credit card company says 35,000 Commonwealth Bank customers in New South Wales (NSW) will receive PayPass credit cards, which have an embedded RFID tag used to make contactless transactions, and will be able to use the cards at local merchants, including 7-Eleven and Subway outlets. For purchases under AU$35 (US$26), trial participants will be able to make purchases without supplying a personal identification number. The trial will run for six months. MasterCard says 5 million PayPass cards have been issued so far, and that 25,000 merchants are currently accepting them around the world.
New, Expanded and Merged RFID Vendors Announced
Independent Professional Management (IPM), a Houston-based consultancy for supply chain and asset management applications, has added a business unit dedicated to implementing RFID-based solutions for its clients. The firm also offers Sarbanes-Oxley compliance services and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems integration services. Dulles, Va., systems integrator ODIN Technologies is opening an office in Budapest to serve the European RFID market. The office will open later this month and is a joint venture between ODIN Technologies, Swiss investment firm MTS and a Hungarian government agency that supports the development of technology in Hungary. In addition, Creative Concepts Software, a Foothill Ranch, Calif., firm that develops software for advanced data collection technology in the retail, health-care and telecommunications industries, has joined forces with Sentinel Business Solutions, a Shelton, Conn., firm that develops data collection and RFID solutions. The merged businesses will operate as Creative Concepts Holdings, and will serve both new and existing clients across the country.
Omron, a Japanese RFID technology company, says it has developed a new type of UHF interrogator antenna that improves read rates and limits unintentional tag reads. Interrogators can't control the signals generated by conventional antennas, so they create large read zones that can generate multipath interference if the signals reflect off objects in the interrogation zone. Omron says interrogators (readers) can control the new antenna electronically and target its interrogation zone to a specific point. This, the company says, thereby limits instances of interference and potentially reduces the number of unintentional reads and the amount of data the interrogator generates. The company reports that it is still verifying and evaluating the validity of the technology for potential applications, and that it hopes to commercialize and implement it into RFID readers by the second half of 2006.
University of Parma RFID Lab Wins UHF Spectrum License
The University of Parma says its new RFID research lab has been awarded a six-month renewable license from the Italian government to use UHF spectrum for its work. The lab was notified last week and says it expects the license to be issued next week. The license cleared by the Ministry of Defense, and slated to be issued by the Italian Ministry of Telecommunication, is believed to be the first in Italy. In that country, however, the 865 MHz to 868 MHz radio frequency band—chosen for RFID use across the majority of European Union nations—remains under the control of the Italian military. The site license will allow the Parma University RFID Lab to operate RFID appliances compliant with the ETSI 302 208 standard, in the band 865.6 to 867.6 MHz up to 2W ERP power. The license covers the lab's 150 m2 facility and was granted after the university's application detailed the equipment it planned to test, as well as its work in researching RFID for its industrial engineering and computer science faculties. The university says it also stressed its commitment to carry out tests for the Italian Ministry of Defense to determine if RFID will potentially interfere with military equipment. The RFID lab, located on the university's campus in Parma, is set to open early next month (see Italian RFID Lab to Open in May).
Singapore Expands RFID UHF Spectrum
Singapore's telecom regulator, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), is set to increase the spectrum allocated to UHF RFID systems. IDA says it will more than double UHF RFID bandwidth allocation in the 900 MHz band, which is currently set at 923 to 925 MHz and will be expanded to 920 to 925 MHz. There is no announced date for when the new rule will come into effect, but the additional spectrum is expected to clear by mid-2006. According to the agency, the move will help improve the performance of RFID technology in Singapore by enabling fewer errors when reading the RFID tags, as systems will be able to select from more channels to achieve less interference. The additional spectrum will also allow RFID readers to be deployed closer together to give more comprehensive coverage in warehouses and distribution centers. This will help avoid blind spots, the agency predicts. Singapore was the first Asian country to allocate RFID frequency (866.1 to 869 MHz and 924 to 925 MHz) in November 2004 (see Higher Power Limits and Wider Spectrum for Singapore's RFID). Prior to that, use of the RFID spectrum in Singapore was restricted to just 0.01 watt ERP. With that range and power limit, no meaningful RFID applications could be deployed. The IDA believes its support for RFID adoption in Singapore has spurred RFID use among logistics companies and other firms in the supply chain. Since 2004, the agency reports, it has funded projects that have resulted in RFID being used in supply chains carrying goods worth more than $900 million annually in the nation's manufacturing, logistics and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industries. In 2004, the IDA launched a S$10 million (US$6.2 million) RFID initiative, which it says has so far spurred a total of 27 companies to invest more than S$30 million (US$16.7 million) in RFID projects, with 380 professionals receiving RFID training. While available spectrum will more than double, power output limits will remain unchanged, at 2 watts ERP.
U.K. Hospital Deploys New Xtag Patient-Tracking System
The Darlington Memorial Hospital in the United Kingdom completed the first deployment of Xtag's redesigned RFID security system for patient tracking. The new system operates at 686.95 MHz. Its predecessor operated at 433 MHz (see Xtag Unveils Infant Security System). Xtag has added additional intelligence to ensure that readers respond only to alerts that come from tags within their control. The new tag features a strap design that makes the tags tamper-proof. Once the strap is fitted to a tag, a conductive polymer strip in the strap creates a loop that—should the strap be cut to remove a tag—causes the tag to send out an alert. According to the company, the tags send a signal to receivers every 1.4 seconds when activated, and have a continuous-use battery life of a year. Because they can enter a sleep mode when not attached to a patient, they have a useful life of up to three years.
