Apr 27, 2007The following are news announcements made during the week of April 23.
EPCglobal Ratifies Reader Protocol
EPCglobal's board of governors has ratified the Low-Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) standard, which provides a common but extensible interface for linking EPC Gen 2-compliant readers to middleware or other types of networking software. The EPCglobal Reader Operations Working Group produced the standard, with input from more than 90 companies, including end users, RFID infrastructure vendors, middleware vendors, industry experts and networking professionals. In the absence of a standard interface, middleware providers have had to use application program interfaces from each reader manufacturer whose product they wished to support as part of their middleware offerings. If the LLRP is widely adopted by reader manufacturers, middleware providers will no longer need to support the custom interfaces. Instead, they will be able to deploy the LLRP to support any Gen 2 reader using the LLRP interface.
Impinj, Lowry Ink Distribution Agreement
Seattle-based UHF EPC Gen 2 RFID tag chip and reader supplier Impinj has completed a distribution agreement with Lowry Computer Products, a manufacturer and integrator of wireless, RFID, bar-code and data-collection solutions, to resell Impinj's GrandPrix products in North America. Those products include Monza EPC Gen 2 RFID chips and Speedway EPC Gen 2 interrogators. Impinj says the agreement expands its RFID product availability to Lowry's customers, which includes members of the automotive, government, food and drug industries, as well as a number of suppliers to Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense. EPCglobal has given its Gen 2 Compliance Certification and Interoperability Certification marks to both the Monza chip and the Speedway reader.
Blue Vector Adds Logic to Pharmaceutical RFID Implementations
Blue Vector Systems announced this week an RFID suite of products designed specifically for pharmaceutical companies. The suite includes new software that Blue Vector calls "blox," or applets, which extend business logic to the various RFID interrogators and appliances that make up Blue Vector's products. These include Edge Manager, an appliance device that collects RFID tag data from UHF (proprietary active or semi-active, and Gen 2 passive) or HF (ISO 15693/18000) readers; Network Manager, which controls the various Edge Managers installed at dock doors, gates and elsewhere, and also includes interfaces to back-end systems, such as SAP applications; and Global Manager, Web-based software that administrators can use to monitor and manage all the Edge Managers, as well as run reports detailing every tag read. The new RFID Platform for Pharmaceutical Industry contains a library of about 35 blox, says John Beans, Blue Vector's VP of marketing, and is derived from the company's experience working with a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors. The new suite incorporates blox specific to pharmaceutical environments. For example, there are blox that help companies create drug pedigrees, track item-level tags and leverage multiple frequencies—elements common to pharmaceutical companies but not necessarily required by other, more general manufacturers or distributors. The pedigree blox, for instance, could be installed in an Edge Manager set up at a distributor's returns section in a warehouse. When the Edge Manager collects tag scans, requests can be sent to a manufacturer's drug authentication system (such as SupplyScape's RxAuthentication system) to verify the drug's EPC number is valid. The RFID Platform for Pharmaceutical Industry is available now.
Starport Licensing KU-Tag Technology for Challenging Asset-Tracking Apps
Kansas City, Mo., startup RFID solutions provider Starport Technologies has licensed the right to manufacture and market RFID tags based on four pending technology patents developed at the Information & Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC) at the University of Kansas (KU). The passive tag, developed by Dan Deavours, an ITTC research assistant professor and principal inventor of the KU-Tag, is designed to perform well when placed on or near metal or conductive liquids. Such materials degrade the readability of conventional passive RFID tags. The KU-Tag is slightly thicker than a coin. In testing, tags made using the ITTC technology have been read from more than 30 feet away. Starport is developing two RFID tags that leverage the technology and are designed for asset-tracking applications, in environments where metal or liquids are present. Production samples of the products will be available for inspection next week at RFID Journal LIVE! 2007 in Orlando (booth 604). Commercial production quantities of the two tags are expected to ship in June. Earlier this year, Santa Monica, Calif., container manufacturer Container Technology announced it was leasing the KU-Tag technology (see Manufacturer Tests RFID to Track Industrial-Size Containers of Liquid). Starport Technologies managing partner Jeff Nedblake says his company will provide the tags to Container Technology.
This week, the California Senate approved SB 28, a bill that would prohibit the state's department of motor vehicles from embedding RFID inlays in driver's licenses until 2011. Last week, the senate approved Senate Bill (SB) 29, which would prohibit California public schools, school districts and county education offices from issuing any device to a pupil during the same timeframe that uses radio waves to transmit personal information, or to enable personal information to be viewed remotely to track attendance (see RFID News Roundup). The state's assembly has not yet voted on either bill.
Tyco Electronics Announces DOD RFID Kits
Tyco Electronics has announced three solution kits to help military suppliers meet the Department of Defense's RFID mandate. The DOD Mark-It kit includes Tyco Electronics' T412 RFID printer-encoder, PrintEasy software and 1,000 UHF EPC Gen 2 96-bit smart labels, available in a choice of label sizes: 4 inches by 2 inches, 4 inches by 6 inches, or 3 inches by 3 inches. The DOD Track-It kit includes all these components, as well as an RFID reader. The DOD Share-It kit adds to this package Tyco's DOD Compliance Software Suite, enabling users to create a product catalog and DOD address book for all products that require RFID tags, as well as create tags, enter DOD orders manually using the software's user interface, print RFID-encoded labels, perform verification of RFID-enabled shipments and create an order detail file that can be uploaded to the DOD's Wide-Area Workflow (WAWF) database. Each kit also includes extensive DOD compliance information, such as background, official policy, a supplier implementation plan and a guide answering frequently asked questions.
Kennedy Group Acquires NCR's RFID Converting Equipment
The Kennedy Group, a Cleveland-based producer of labels, packaging and identification systems, has purchased RFID label converting and testing equipment from NCR's Systemedia Division. The NCR converting equipment matches the type The Kennedy Group already employs, says Pat Kennedy, the company's vice president of marketing and sales, boosting its production capacity of RFID labels and cards significantly. The Kennedy Group completed the transaction on March 23, Kennedy notes, and the equipment has been installed at its production facility. This equipment, capable of converting UHF or HF cards and labels, supports a range of protocols. "This additional equipment will let us increase our output and gives us more flexibility to respond to our customer's requests," he says, "by enabling faster order turn-around time."
RFID Journal LIVE! Conference Attendees Can Earn CompTIA Cert
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), a provider of certification programs for technology professionals, says it will offer fast-track training and testing for its CompTIA RFID+ certification on site at next week's RFID Journal LIVE! 2007 conference, running April 30 to May 2 in Orlando, Fla. RFID4U, a provider of RFID training courses, is providing the training and testing service across the two days of the conference. The fast-track course includes intensive instructor-led training using state-of-the-art RFID equipment. Training is scheduled for Monday, April 30, with certification testing available on Tuesday, May 1, and Wednesday, May 2. RFID Journal LIVE! attendees unable to take the exam during the conference will receive a voucher allowing them to take it at a later date. When purchased with a full conference pass, the course costs $2,199. Other purchase options are also available. For more information, visit www.rfidjournalevents.com/live/registration_options.php.
