RFID Weekly News Roundup April 23, 2009

By Admin

There were several major product launches and project deployments announced this week, and a slew of smaller ones. The week's highlights also include new industry sales projections and outlooks for researchers and analysts and highlights of consumer-oriented marketing projects.

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Apr 23, 2009This article was originally published by RFID Update.

April 23, 2009—There were several major product launches and project deployments announced this week, and a slew of smaller ones. The week's highlights also include new industry sales projections and outlooks for researchers and analysts and highlights of consumer-oriented marketing projects.

  • Worldwide RFID sales will grow to $5.6 billion this year, up from $5.25 billion in 2008, according to RFID Market Forecasts 2009-2019, the newest report from industry research and consulting firm IDTechEx.
     
  • Participants in the RFID Talk online discussion forums will have their RFID-related questions answered by an RFID expert within two business days as part of a new partnership agreement announced by RFID Update and RFID Wizards. RFID Recruiters becomes the official site sponsor for RFID Talk.
     
  • House Bill 1011 - 2009-10 was signed into law in the state of Washington. The bill places restrictions on the business uses of RFID, but contains many exceptions that weren't in the original version that make it more practical to use RFID for retail transactions and other activity.
     
  • Motorola announced that Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has awarded it a contract to supply as many as 70 million RFID tags for baggage tracking over a three-year period. Motorola has been working with HKIA on the deployment, one of the world's pioneering baggage tagging implementations, since 2005 when it was designed and originally installed. Avery Dennison will supply inlays for the baggage tags, which are provided by Print-O-Tape. For more information about HKIA's usage of RFID, click here.
     
  • UPM Raflatac has announced that its tags will be embedded in the latest issue of Amusement magazine. The tags are NFC tags and work with a consumer NFC reader from Violet that connects to a computer via USB. When the user brings the tagged magazine page near the reader, special online content is loaded on the computer screen. Read more about the application here.
     
  • UPM Raflatac also partnered with Seeonic, a Minneapolis firm that develops real time information systems for retail inventory management, and Alliance, a developer of retail promotional management systems, to announce MAXRPM, which uses RFID to provide item-level information about retail promotion activity. The solution includes RFID-enabled retail displays with smart shelves that monitor inventory and provide reports to retailers and manufacturers.
     
  • PC World reports an NFC-enabled interactive marketing program has launched in the Tokyo subway system. Users present their NFC-enabled cell phones to LCD panels, which display maps and promotions for nearby restaurants and attractions.
     
  • PolyIC reported its printable 13.56 MHz chips were publicly tested for the first time. The chips were printed on tickets used for several events in Germany in tests organized as part of the PRISMA project, a government-funded research initiative.
     
  • New Jersey's Atlantic and Mercer counties will deploy VeriChip's VeriTrace implantable RFID patient-tracking system in emergency management situations, the company announced.
     
  • Redpine Signals, a San Jose, California design engineering firm focused on low-power chips, announced it has released an 802.11n-standard RTLS module for use on WiFi networks. Redpine's new Find-IT module can be used to create RTLS tags, and the company says it is the first 802.11n tag to meet Cisco Systems' Cisco Compatible Extensions (CCX) requirements.
     
  • OMNITROL Supplier Visibility (OSV) is a new offering from Omnitrol Networks that gives manufacturers visibility into their suppliers' production operations using a combination of Omnitrol's software and RFID and other sensor input. See the announcement.
     
  • UK-based active RFID solutions provider Wavetrend has secured $5 million in funding. The company also completed a management buyout.
     
  • IBM has enhanced the data center resource management solution it markets with passive UHF RFID technology from Omni-ID to automatically track blade servers, racks, cables and other data center assets. The companies estimate using wireless tracking produces annual savings of $10 per asset, according to the announcement.
     
  • Ultra-wideband RTLS solution provider Ubisense has announced Aston Martin and BMW as the latest two automotive manufacturers to use its technology for visibility and monitoring during the car manufacturing process.
     
  • Balluff, an industrial automation equipment manufacturer in Florence, Kentucky, released the M-M ID System, a line of high frequency RFID tags and readers developed for use in assembly and closed-loop logistics environments.
     
  • Barcoding Inc. announced that its CaptureTech RFID Interpreter, which plugs into the USB port on a PC or other device and formats RFID data for use in Windows applications, now supports low frequency technology.
     
  • The 156-bed WakeMed Cary Hospital in Cary, North Carolina, has deployed its first system to track and trace hospital assets and equipment, RTLS vendor RadarFind announced.
     
  • The Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center in South Carolina has deployed a solution using RFID readers from ThingMagic attached to industrial portals from Jamison Door to ensure that expensive surgical instruments are not accidentally discarded when bed linens and scrubs are sent to the laundry or trash. The "loss prevention" portals sound an alarm if they detect a tagged instrument, thereby alerting the personnel to retrieve the instrument from the linen pile. This will save the hospital hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, according to the announcement.
     
  • Rush Tracking Systems has added optical positioning to its RFID-enabled VisiblEdge lift truck solution. The company indicates that the integration of optical positioning will enable location accuracy to within one foot.
     
  • RFID Global Solution and RFID Revolution have partnered to provide online RFID training for organizations in the aerospace, defense and commercial sectors. See the announcement.
     
  • RFID training provider OTA Training has launched RFID Jobing, a placement service for RFID-related employment.
     
  • RFID reader manufacturer and automation systems designer Element ID has introduced two new reader products, the HF1 and HF1-B, which the company designed for automation applications like work-in-process manufacturing and tote tracking.
     
  • RFID tag designer and manufacturer Confidex has announced the latest addition to its tag product portfolio, the SteelWING. The Gen2 passive label is designed for on-metal asset tracking applications. The tag can be applied directly to metal surfaces and still perform without any spacer material between it and the metal surface, according to the company.
     
  • Sunflower Systems, an asset management software developer, announced a partnership with RF Code to support the latter's active RFID technology in its platform.
     
  • Evigia, an Ann Arbor, Michigan company that integrates sensors and active RFID tags, announced it has been included as a contractor in the previously announced RFID III contract to provide active RFID technology to the US military.

Earlier this week RFID Update covered:

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