The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations:
Hero Ventures, Marvel Entertainment, NXP Semiconductors, Motorola, Poets Road;
Convergence Systems Ltd.;
Swirl Networks;
ADR;
HID Global, RFI Communications; and
Mühlbauer.
RFID Joins “The Marvel Experience: The World’s First Hyper-Reality Tour”
RFID technology will be part of “The Marvel Experience: The World’s First Hyper-Reality Tour,” a series of interactive and immersive events showcasing Marvel Entertainment‘s superheroes, including Spider-Man, the Hulk and Iron Man. Produced by Hero Ventures, a Los Angeles-based experiential entertainment company, each show will cover more than two acres. Guests will act as “recruits” and be able to interact, via virtual reality and other technology, with superheroes to fight the forces of Hydra.
Each event—the first four stops of the tour are in Phoenix, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco—will feature 360-degree, 3-D stereoscopic projection domes in which attendees can engage with Marvel’s heroes and villains. There will also be a 4-D motion ride, augmented reality, multi-person gaming and an RFID bracelet that lets guests track their progress in real time.
The ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID technology was provided by Los Angeles-based Poets Road (also a strategic partner of the tour) and includes Motorola Solutions EPC Gen 2 readers and reader antennas and NXP Semiconductors SL3S1203 chips embedded in the bracelets, known as Super Power Bands. According to the event’s creators, the goal of the RFID technology is to create a more immersive user experience, enabling attendees to participate without requiring constant logins or other obtrusive methods.
Each recruit receives a Super Power Band upon entry, and is given the option of then registering the RFID bracelet at a kiosk in the entry plaza and assigning a picture to the band. RFID reader antennas are installed at key locations, in order to allow a recruit’s Super Power Band to be tracked. If registered, that individual receives XP points and achievement badges that appear simultaneously at the event, on the website and on the mobile app. At any time during the experience, recruits can check in to see their progress, which helps them to identify what they have done and what else remains for them to experience. Agent ID cards will also be displayed at select interactive stations throughout the show. On the back end, the RFID bracelets are also used to manage pulsing (traffic) through the event, which is monitored via custom-created software that features the antenna locations and a real-time heat map of user traffic throughout the space, according to event creators.
The RFID technology’s concept and layout design were carried out by Mike Bundlie at Poet’s Road, along with support from Hero Ventures and Lexington Design + Fabrication (which integrated RFID antennas into physical set pieces). Ideez LLC, from Australia, designed the Super Power Band, which contains not only an RFID chip, but also an LED and a vibrating device that notifies users of when it is time to move on.
Produced by Hero Ventures founders Rick Licht, Doug Schaer and Jason Rosen, along with their partners, touring impresario Michael Cohl and PRG founder Jeremiah J. Harris, the hyper-reality touring Marvel adventure will preview in Phoenix from Dec. 12, 2014, to Jan. 3, 2015. The world premiere will take place in Dallas, with a red-carpet event scheduled for Jan. 9. Promoted by Cohl’s S2BN Entertainment, the first leg of the North American tour will also feature stops in San Diego and San Francisco before heading back toward the East Coast, and will remain in each market for approximately three weeks. Future markets will be announced on a rolling basis.
CSL Intros CS6821 High-Performance Passive UHF Access Card
Convergence Systems Ltd. (CSL), a global provider of passive radio frequency identification products and active real-time location system (RTLS) equipment, has announced a new product: the CS-6821 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID card. Like CSL’s other UHF ID cards, the CS-6821 is made with a tag that complies with the EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6C standards, and is specially tuned for the human body. It can be worn hanging from the neck, placed inside a front shirt pocket or a pants pocket, or in a handbag. The CS-6821 is designed for such applications as personnel monitoring, time and attendance tracking, the tracking of remote workers in industrial or hazardous environments, loyalty programs, and employee mustering and egress.
According to CSL, the CS-6821 offers a read range of up to 15 meters (49 feet) when worn hanging loosely from the neck, and up to 5 meters (16.4 feet) if worn close to the human body. It measures 85 millimeters by 54 millimeters by 0.8 millimeter (3.34 inches by 2.12 inches by 0.031 inch) and has an IP 68 rating, meaning it is waterproof and dustproof, and can withstand harsh chemical and environmental conditions. The ID tag can operate in temperatures ranging from –35 degrees to 50 degrees Celsius (-31 degrees to 122 degrees Fahrenheit). The new tag works with a variety of CSL RFID readers, including the CS101, CS203, CS208, CS461, CS468 and CS469.
Swirl Launches In-Store Mobile Ad Exchange that Uses iBeacon Technology
In-store mobile marketing company Swirl Networks has announced the Swirl Ad Exchange (SWx), a programmatic ad solution designed for proximity-based, in-store mobile marketing. Swirl’s platform is designed to help retailers and brands deliver content and offers to customers’ smartphones while they shop at participating retail locations nationwide. Swirl’s marketing platform leverages beacons—active RFID tags that use Bluetooth Smart technology, also known as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)—and can deliver content and offers based on customers’ specific in-store location and behavior. With SWx, Swirl reports, brand advertisers and retailers will be able to create digital exchanges so they can automatically engage with in-store mobile shoppers.
SWx offers a suite of proximity-based mobile-marketing capabilities, and retailers can establish their own secure, private ad exchanges, granting select brand advertisers permission to engage with shoppers through Swirl’s beacon network. It also lets retailers package and sell premium in-aisle mobile-advertising opportunities to their brand partners via a self-service platform. With SWx, Swirl explains, retailers can create and control access to in-store mobile-marketing opportunities, while brand advertisers are able to programmatically discover, purchase and manage campaigns at beacons located in specific departments or aisles of retailers nationwide.
SWx can be configured to deliver mobile content wherever beacons are deployed. Swirl plans to add support for Near Field Communication (NFC) and other mobile-engagement technologies in future releases. SWx has been integrated with the company’s existing proximity-based mobile-marketing platforms, Swirl for Retailers and Swirl for Publishers.
ADR Announces New Installations of Its RFID-enabled Workforce Monitor
ADR Software has announced new installations of its Workforce Monitor service at three sites in the Washington, D.C., metro area. ADR’s Workforce Monitor service leverages EPC Gen 2 passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID technology and is designed to track the number of workers at construction sites. ADR leverages adhesive-backed Alien Technology Squiggle or Short tags for attachment to hard hats, ID badges and/or safety gear, in conjunction with reader portals made with Alien’s ALR-9900+ readers and Laird Technologies‘ reader antennas.
The first new site is at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, located in Fairfax, Va., with Shapiro & Duncan Mechanical Contractors. Shapiro & Duncan is using Workforce Monitor’s bi-directional entry portal that reads tags attached to the hard hats to more efficiently record the comings and goings of all employees on the job site. The second site at which ADR has installed its Workforce Monitor service is Ballou High School, in Washington, D.C., with Hess Construction. This is ADR’s first project with Hess, according to ADR. The third site is using the solution, with an interior RFID portal, for a renovation project at 1800 K St., NW, in Washington, D.C., with Forrester Construction Co.
In a prepared statement, Aubrey Shapiro, a project engineer with Shapiro & Duncan, said ADR’s Workforce Monitor System provided several advantages, including improving productivity. “Previously, with the old time card system, our 150 employees would be waiting in a 5-15 minute line to clock in and the same amount of time to clock out,” Shapiro said. “This was costing us about $1,500 a day, not including the loss in productivity. With ADR’s Workforce Monitor, we immediately saw a significant savings in our bottom line while eliminating the line and gaining online access to our labor information in real time.”
Hess Construction is using the solution to track all traffic on the job, in order to improve the safety of individuals working onsite, along with the project’s local community. As part of the solution, ADR installed a display screen in a Hess field trailer to display the site’s dashboard of its real-time labor counts by subcontractor, in order to help Hess manage its day-to-day operations. Forrester Construction is employing an interior portal for real-time visibility into the project’s labor, ADR says, to help ensure that the project will finish on time and under budget.
HID Global, RFI Carry Out HID Mobile Access Pilot at Netflix
HID Global has announced the completion of another pilot featuring its new HID Mobile Access, a Bluetooth Smart solution designed to enable secure access and identity management using smartphones and other mobile devices and operating systems, including iOS and Android, by turning them into trusted credentials.
The latest pilot was conducted with RFI Communications & Security Systems at Netflix‘s headquarters. Pilot participants used the HID Mobile Access solution on a variety of Samsung and Apple smartphones with Bluetooth Smart communications channels, and utilized HID Global’s patented “Twist and Go” gesture technology that lets users unlock doors and open gates while driving or walking up to a mobile-enabled reader by simply rotating the smartphone. The solution also incorporates HID Global’s Seos technology, first revealed in 2011.
A key element of the this Netflix pilot was the use of Bluetooth Smart, HID Global reports, whereas NFC was the only short-range communication technology available for mobile access control during a 2012 Netflix pilot.
According to Adrian Noriega, the RFI field project manager who installed HID Mobile Access for the Netflix pilot, the HID Mobile Access Configuration Application was used to configure the Bluetooth Smart portion of the iClass SE reader so that users could either tap their smartphone to it or rotate (twist) the device as they approached it. Installing the HID Mobile Access App on participants’ phones was also quick and trouble-free.
HID Global recently announced the completion of a HID Mobile Access pilot at Vanderbilt University, where approximately 15 participants were able to use smartphones to open doors and garage parking gates (see RFID News Roundup: HID Global Intros HID Mobile Access, Enabling Smartphone-Based Access Control). The pilot included HID Global’s iClass SE readers, configured to work with existing iClass smart cards, and with HID Mobile Access technology, installed at six campus entry points, including one parking garage. Participants used their own smartphones during the pilot, including Apple iPhone 4S, 5, 5C and 5S devices and Android-based Samsung Galaxy S4 and Mini 3S handsets.
Mühlbauer Opens Second Production Plant in Asia
The Mühlbauer Group has announced the opening of its second Asian production plant in Wuxi, in the Jiangsu Province of China. The company claims that the production plant will help it meet accelerating demands for RFID in Asia.
The 11,000-square-meter (118,400-square-foot) plant will provide engineering support, local production capacity, improved technical training capabilities and a significantly expanded spare stock to Asian markets—especially in China, where Mühlbauer says it has established strong, long-term partnerships since it opened a sales and service office in Shanghai ten years ago. The new plant is equipped with RFID, semiconductor, document and solution machinery, the company reports, adding that the new facility will enable it to better support clients and partners in shortening turnaround times. Currently, more than 60 employees are stationed in Wuxi, and the company says it expects to expand that number to more than 200 workers during the coming years.