With Apple’s iAlien App, Users Can Manage Readers From an iPhone

Aug 21, 2012Turkish RFID company Teknopalas has teamed up with Alien Technology to develop an application enabling users to manage their RFID readers and view read activity from their Apple iPad or iPhone. With iAlien, a free app that can be downloaded from iTunes, anyone equipped with an Alien ALR 9900+ RFID reader and an iPhone or iPad will be able to view what that reader interrogates, and whether the reader and antennas are in operation, as well as change settings or passwords, or write data to tags.

Teknopalas conceived of the app in order to enable its customers, including the home and offices of Turkey's President, Abdullah Gül, to manage readers without having to carry around a laptop, or walk to a PC to view RFID read activity.

"We knew that it's not that easy to (expect) customers to use laptops for all RFID applications," says Fahrettin Oylum, Teknopalas' engineering services director. "We also know that the iPhone and iPad are very common, and many people use and carry the iPhones in their pockets."

Teknopalas' customers include those tracking assets or individuals, or monitoring inventory. One customer that has been testing the technology during its development is Gül's official presidential residence, which began testing the prototype solution in early 2010. Oylum declines to provide specifics regarding the installation, but reports that Alien readers are currently being used to track the movements of people within the facility, and that the iPhone app was being tested to manage those readers.

The solution, commercially released earlier this month, allows users to access the same data on the iPhone or iPad screen that would be available on a PC, explains Neil Mitchell, Alien Technology's director of marketing. In that way, he says, they can change settings, view RFID read data and e-mail that information to others.

Approximately 12 months ago, Alien began working with Teknopalas to develop the application for the ALR 9900+ readers. The app provides access to read activity, as well as the status of one or more ALR 9900+ readers in a network, and also provides steps enabling users to adjust settings. For example, if a problem occurs with a reader, a user can reboot that reader, or change IP settings. In addition, a user can view the speed of tag reads, along with signal strength, and instruct the interrogators to write data onto the tags or update passwords. Although the screens are small, Mitchell says, the app is designed to make interfacing simple and text easy to read.

Upon signing in, a user can view icons indicating all readers within the network, click on one of those icons and select options, such as "Tag Monitor" (to view the tags being read), "Tag Writer" (to write to an Electronic Product Code [EPC] tag) or "Reader Settings" (to configure the reader). Another option enables the user to change or view antenna settings—adjusting antenna power, for example, or activating or de-activating a selected antenna.

According to Mitchell, a variety of end users could benefit from utilizing the app—for instance, warehouse managers who need to view RFID read activity, but who cannot carry a laptop around the warehouse. Instead, he says, they can open the app on the phone and watch the readers in real time, viewing a list of RFID tags being interrogated as they scroll down the screen.

Alien Technology expects that the free app could generate new customer interest in its RFID products. The app is slated to be made available for Android-based phones in September 2012, Mitchell says.