Research firm In-Stat has released the 2007 update to its annual report on the market for WiFi-based real-time location systems (RTLS) of the sort used to track medical assets in hospitals, heavy equipment in mines, and parcels for express delivery services. This article highlights the report’s key findings.
The retailer has told its top suppliers they will need to put RFID tags on all pallets shipped to 180 Metro locations within Germany starting Oct. 1.
The Florida facility will implant RFID chips in 200 volunteers this summer to test the VeriMed system’s ability to identity patients and their medical histories.
Vicaima, a maker of wooden doors and doorframes, is using passive UHF tags to monitor production at its manufacturing facility in Portugal.
The company is using active 2.4 GHz RFID tags to pinpoint miners working in a 3.5-mile series of tunnels.
Headwater announces Watchdog asset tracker; Web conferences on open-source RFID; Wi-Fi-based RFID expected to grow 100 percent annually; Swedish armed forces to deploy Savi’s Consignment Management Solution; PDC settles IP suit against Proximities; Inova Technology acquires RFID company RightTag; SkyeTek expands European distribution network.
At last week’s CardTech 2007 payments industry conference, Visa, MasterCard and American Express provided updates on their RFID-enabled payments rollouts.
WhereNet announced an active RTLS tag that supports ISO 24730 and WiFi technology. The company says its new WhereTag IV is the first dual-mode RTLS tag, which will enable customers to create RTLS systems that integrate multiple technologies to provide the best performance in different environments.
The retailer’s new Tag It Easy program with Checkpoint Systems will enable 30 Chinese suppliers to tag goods bound for Metro stores in Germany.
The project, which is being conducted by the university, consumer goods associations and a major retailer, will explore how tagging individual goods with RFID can improve retail processes.
Researchers at Finland’s Tampere University of Technology found that a fractal UHF RFID handheld reader antenna performed better than four traditional antenna designs.
It’s been more than 14 months since Pfizer went live with its pilot to tag all of Viagra trade items with RFID technology for the U.S. market. This article is a contribution from Pfizer itself discussing findings and data revealed by more than one year of piloting RFID at the item-, case-, and pallet-level.