RFID Journal, the leading source of news and in-depth information regarding radio frequency identification and its many business applications, has unveiled the finalists for its 2015 RFID Journal Awards. The winners will be announced at RFID Journal LIVE! 2015, the company’s 13th annual conference and exhibition, to be held at the San Diego Convention Center, in San Diego, Calif., on Apr. 15-17. All finalists in the end-user categories will be invited to speak at the event, and the winners, along with the other end-user finalists, will each receive a prestigious crystal award.
“The scope and complexity of the deployments in this year’s submissions were beyond anything we’ve seen in the past, which indicates that RFID has matured to the point that some companies are using it on a large scale and in core parts of their operation,” said Mark Roberti, RFID Journal’s founder and editor. “We’re excited to have the finalists come and speak so attendees can hear these case studies, and view the hardware, software and solutions featured in our Best New Product category.”
End-user companies were nominated in five categories:
Best RFID Implementation
• DIRECTV, for its use of RFID to track 200,000 pieces of broadcast equipment, dramatically reducing the amount of time required to perform inventory counts of these items (see DIRECTV Uses RFID to Cut Inventory Time From Years to Months)
• Interstate Batteries, for its use of RFID on racks to monitor inventory and streamline replenishment across a large number of retail locations (see RFID Brings Greater Efficiency, Product Visibility to Interstate Batteries)
• Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, for its use of an active RFID-based real-time location system across multiple applications (see New Cross Hospital Boosts Hand Hygiene, Efficiency via RTLS)
Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service
• Clarisonic, for its use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in the handle of its Clarisonic Smart Profile skin-cleansing device to interrogate the attached brush and set up specific treatment protocols dependent on brush type
• Kuehne+Nagel, for providing active and real-time temperature monitoring of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical and health-care products in transit during intercontinental transportation
• RSH Energy, for its use of RFID to enhance pipeline construction by identifying sections of pipe, their unique characteristics and their GPS location
Most Innovative Use of RFID
• Age Steel, for its use of an RFID-enabled drone to take inventory of steel products within a 65,000-square-meter yard (see RFID-Reading Drone Tracks Structural Steel Products in Storage Yard)
• The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, for its use of a passive RFID temperature sensor inside a urine processing unit, enabling it to recover the most amount of water possible
• TriggerSmart, for its use of RFID to create a smart gun that fires only when the owner is holding the weapon (see Keeping Guns Out of the Wrong Hands)
RFID Green Award
• Detroit Diesel Corp. (a Daimler company), for its use of a visual RFID tag that saves more than 7 million sheets of paper annually (see Omni-ID’s View 10 Tag Aims to Replace Paperwork at Detroit Diesel, Other Factories)
• Ambiente Brasil, for its use of RFID to reduce the illegal dumping of hazardous waste
• Sabesp, for its use of RFID to better manage and authenticate water meters, thus reducing the incidence of unauthorized consumption
Best NFC Deployment
• Free the Children, for its use of NFC-enabled bracelets during an 11-event We Day tour to enable attendees to check in via Facebook, post and share pictures on social media, enter contests, receive content by e-mail and more (see RFID Makes We Day’s Day)
• Skoubee, for its use of NFC-enabled pet tags to allow owners to find lost pets, socialize with other pet owners through the Skoubee platform and manage all pet medical information
• SM Prime Holdings, a mall operator in the Philippines, for its use of NFC in its e-PLUS Tap to Pay nationwide loyalty, e-payment and automatic fare collection (AFC) solution
This year, RFID Journal introduced a new award for the Best IoT Deployment, recognizing companies that are taking advantage of Internet of Things technologies to create business value or deliver value to customers. The finalists for 2015 are:
• Fukui Shell, for its use of IoT technologies to enable the pearl industry to track, trace and authenticate individual cultivated pearls (see Pearl Company Creates Authentication Solution)
• Turkish Technic (a division of Turkish Airlines), for its use of IoT technologies to link technicians, tools, parts and inventory, ground services equipment, aircraft, hangar slots and other resources to the Internet, so that all information about all of these individuals and assets can be accessed via a single software platform (see Turkish Technic Uses RFID, ZigBee and Other Auto-ID Technologies to Improve Efficiency)
• SteadyServ Technologies, for its use of IoT technologies to make beer kegs intelligent, providing big data to bar owners, distributors and brewers (see SteadyServ Launches RFID Solution That Keeps Beer Flowing)
The judges also selected 10 technology providers that were nominated for the Best New Product exhibited at this year’s LIVE! event. The finalists are:
• Farsens, for its battery-free RFID sensor tags capable of monitoring voltage levels in AC circuits
• Invengo, for its 24-hour, self-service library carousels, allowing libraries to serve patrons during off-hours or at remote locations
• NXP Semiconductors, for its passive EPC Gen2v2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID chip with 128-bit encryption
• Omni-ID, for its 433 MHz active RFID tag based on the open IEEE 802.15.4f-2012 standard
• Phase IV Engineering, for its passive UHF RFID strain sensor and battery-assisted strain/temperature sensor and logger
• RFMicron, for its Magnus S chip that enables the creation of low-cost moisture-sensing devices that are battery- and maintenance-free
• Siemens Industry Inc., for its SIMATIC line of UHF readers optimized for use in industrial settings
• Thin Film Electronics, for its adhesive printed electronic label that features memory, temperature-sensing, battery and display components
• Tyco Retail Solutions, for its UHF RFID antenna with beam-steering technology in a low-profile housing, designed for use in retail environments
• Zebra Technologies, for its athlete-tracking solution that provides coaches, teams, media and leagues with unprecedented performance and playing statistics
In addition, RFID Journal’s editors will present the 2015 Special Achievement Award to Carlo Nizam, head of Airbus‘ Value Chain Visibility and Auto-ID Program, for his outstanding leadership in helping Airbus to improve efficiencies by digitalizing business processes within its operations and across its value chain, and for promoting the importance of RFID within the aerospace industry.
LIVE! 2015 will feature eight industry-specific and how-to conference tracks, seven in-depth preconference seminars and workshops, four post-conference seminars, two co-located events (IEEE RFID 2015 and the Internet of Things Conference), fast-track training presented by RFID4U, the Coolest Demo Contest, RFID Professional Institute certification and more than 200 exhibitors showcasing the latest RFID products and solutions. For additional information regarding the conference and its co-located events, please visit www.rfidjournalevents.com/live.