The inability to pinpoint the direction in which tagged pallets or cases are moving, and the issue of unwanted tag reads, particularly vexing in crowded areas such as manufacturing floors or warehouses, have been “major pain points” for radio frequency identification users, says Toby Rush, president of Rush Tracking Systems, a Lenexa, Kan.-based systems integrator specializing in RFID and other auto-identification technologies. If solving these problems has been on the top of your “wish list,” your wish may have been granted.
Tag direction detection and tag distance calculation are among the features being added to standards-based, off-the-shelf RFID interrogators, to provide more detailed location information about tagged goods and cut down on unwanted tag reads. These capabilities in readers increase the value of the RFID network, says Rush, because the data is more reliable and more specific.
One company that has an early lead in the area of tag direction detection is Seattle-based Impinj, which last October announced an upgrade to its UHF Gen 2 Speedway readers. With the upgrade, the company added an algorithm to its Octane firmware that can sense the direction in which pallets, crates or carts equipped with Gen 2 UHF tags are moving when they pass through an RFID portal. The interrogators sense the tags, and the algorithm calculates the direction in which up to 10 tags are moving at the same time. The algorithm reports tag direction via a Low-Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) response message. (LLRP is an EPCglobal standard that provides a common but extensible interface for linking EPC Gen 2-compliant readers to middleware or other types of networking software.) The algorithm running on the Speedway readers works with any compatible Gen 2 UHF tags and off-the-shelf Gen 2 reader antennas.
The ability to know tag direction creates a deeper level of information about the location of tagged assets, says Mendy Ouzillou, product line director for Impinj. For example, with that information, a retailer can track whether a pallet of goods has been moved from the stockroom to the retail floor. In a hospital, the medical staff can track whether carts of surgical equipment have been moved into the operating room. “This solves a real business problem,” Ouzillou says. “Data without tag direction is fine, but there’s not a lot that you can do with it.”
To date, Ouzillou says, companies deploying RFID systems have tried a variety of methods to achieve tag direction detection, with varying degrees of success and at a range of costs. Some have tried installing motion sensors at portal doors, while others have used phased antenna arrays, and some have even used a combination of active tags and GPS technology.
The firmware upgrade has been in beta testing in recent months and is scheduled for general availability in January. Impinj declined to disclose the names of customers that had tested the product. The company is continuing to refine the tag direction technology and expects future releases to be more powerful, with the capability of determining the direction of larger populations of tags. In addition, Ouzillou says several middleware vendors have expressed interest in integrating the tag direction functionality into their software.
Omron is another company that is taking steps to improve the quality of the data read by its interrogators. Last fall, the Tokyo-based company announced that it had developed the technology to measure the distance between EPC-compliant RFID tags and its V750 UHF readers, based on time-delay calculations. Omron’s intent is to cut down on unwanted tag reads by allowing its customers to set limits on the distance at which tags should be read, says Masa Kameyama, U.S. division manager for Omron.
According to Omron, the crowded environments in warehouses and manufacturing sites have made it difficult to implement UHF RFID systems. That’s because the long read range of the interrogators can lead to unintentional tag reading, which can compromise the quality of the data. Setting the parameters for tag reads should help eliminate unwanted reads on goods stacked near interrogators that are mounted on gates or in areas where tagged products are traveling on multiple conveyor belts, the company says.
Omron calculates the distance between the tag and the reader’s antenna based on the time lapse of the electromagnetic waves used in communication between readers and tags. The company says this time-delay calculation used in combination with its electronic-control scan-antenna technology, which debuted in late 2006, will allow users to specify where they want the tags to be read. The scan antenna, which has a very narrow directivity and moves horizontally, will set the lateral dimensions, and the distance measurement technology will control the depth to define the area for tag reads.
Omron’s efforts are a few steps away from being market-ready. The company says it has not yet started beta-testing the time-delay calculation feature with customers. Its goal is to make the technology available sometime in 2008, and it will probably be provided as firmware.
Impinj and Omron are expected to have increased competition from other RFID vendors in the coming months. The fact that manufacturers are looking to incorporate new features such as tag direction detection into their interrogators demonstrates that RFID technology is quickly maturing, Ouzillou says: “It’s a staggering amount of progress in a short amount of time.”
Rush agrees: “Twelve months ago I would have said this was physically impossible. It’s a significant step forward for the RFID industry.”
Who’s Who in Advanced RFID Interrogators
• Impinj
www.impinj.com
• Omron
www.omron.com
End Users’ Wish Lists
As more businesses, organizations and government agencies deploy RFID to streamline processes, improve supply-chain operations and track assets, they’re finding more ways they’d like to use the technology—if only… RFID Journal asked end users what product developments they’d like to see in 2008. Here are their wish lists.
Russell Skinner
VP of business integration
Recall
Last year, the Norcross, Ga., document storage company began deploying RFID in its warehouses to provide audit capabilities for its customers’ archived documents. The company plans to roll out the RFID system at its storage warehouses in 23 countries.
“On my wish list are common UHF frequencies and wattage across different countries, because the need to determine, test and commission different readers and antennae for each country is not a seamless process. A more practical wish is components that can handle a broader range of the different frequencies and power settings.”
Tom Bradshaw
VP of operations
Wayne Memorial Hospital
The Goldsboro, N.C., hospital has saved more than $300,00 by using an RFID real-time location system to track about 1,000 medical devices, such as infusion pumps, diagnostics machines, computers on wheels, blood warmers and wheelchairs.
“We’d like more utilization data. We’re not only interested in locating assets, but also in how much they’re being used. With RTLS and utilization data, you can better predict the quantity of equipment you need and take the guesswork out of planning. We’d also like to know the status of the device, whether it’s clean and ready to use, and an instant notice, so if an asset is in an area that it’s not supposed to be in, an alarm would go off. We’d also like to add patient-flow information, to know how long it takes to get from point A to point B.”
Carlo K. Nizam
Head of value-chain visibility and RFID
Airbus
The European jet maker has launched a company-wide RFID program that extends from tracking goods in its global supply chain to manufacturing and in-service operations.
“There are four items on our wish list: a low-cost, simple smart shelf; wearable multifrequency wrist readers; small active tags with two-year battery life that can be used in aerospace tools; and RFID part-marking printers.”
Marcelo Pandini
Manager of RFID and business development
Hewlett-Packard Brazil
HP Brazil is tagging and tracking individual printers to improve supply-chain visibility, as well as its manufacturing and distribution processes.
“On our wish list are tags that cost less than 5 cents; readers with Wi-Fi and GPRS [General Packet Radio Service] connections; RFID devices working in a plug-and-play mode; and improved interoperability among devices, tags and middleware.”
Patrick Richgels
IT specialist
Monsanto
The multinational provider of bioengineered agricultural products is testing the use of passive RFID to identify individual seed packets.
“Lower prices would be on my wish list. It’s always a challenge to come up with return on investment. The other things would be improved reliability and performance, especially with regard to density. We would be interested in the ability to detect the position of items within a container.”
Mark Pavuk
Service assets manager
Holt Cat
The heavy-equipment and service provider deployed RFID to track tools at its Irving, Texas, location.
“I’d like to see lower prices for RFID systems, and smaller, metal-friendly tags for tracking individual items in our tool rooms. To get the size [of the tags] down would be unbelievably helpful.”
In K. Mun
VP, research and development, North Florida division
Hospital Corporation of America
The organization is using RFID for asset and patient tracking.
“The first real issue is the cost of ownership. RFID is simply too expensive. The infrastructure costs are so high. Secondly, reliability of passive RFID needs to improve. On the active side, some development needs to be done on batteries. The tags are simply too big for some applications.”
Dave MacDonald
Director of information technology and registrar of voters
Alameda County, Calif.
The seventh-largest county in California is using EPC Gen 2 UHF tags to track election ballots. The RFID system promises to help ensure the ballots are collected and managed properly.
“Our biggest issue is the size of the passive tags. We’d like to see a smaller format. Another issue is pricing. I’d love to roll out RFID in other areas, but active tags are too expensive. I’d also like to find a bare-bones handheld reader that could wirelessly transmit data.”