The following are news announcements made during the week of Nov. 14.
IBM, Intermec Put Full Middleware Suite in IF5
According to IBM, Intermec Technologies has embedded the computer giant’s WebSphere Device Infrastructure (WRDI) into Intermec’s IF5 RFID reader. This enables the IF5 to process the routing and management of incoming data from RFID tags, rather than sending raw read data to an external middleware layer. It reduces network traffic and allows a user to send only pertinent RFID read data upstream to its application server. The IF5 can also route this processed data to an IBM RFID WebSphere Premises Server. The new WRDI-enabled IF5 acts as a controller of RFID printers, such as the Intermec PM4i, and other devices including motion detectors that can trigger the IF5 to search for tags. Previously, Intermec offered its IF5 with an embedded WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment, which let the reader filter and process data, but did not act as a controller of other devices. Also integrated into the WRDI framework is IBM’s WebSphere Everyplace Device Manager, which provides connectivity to the IBM Tivoli Systems Management suite to provide centralized device management. This gives users the ability to download new RFID applications or device software updates to readers installed in remote locations. The WRDI-enabled IF5 will be available in December, but Intermec will begin accepting orders next week. The price is approximately $2,000.
R and V Group Guarantees Gen 1 Labels, Drops Price
Chattanooga, Tenn., label manufacturer R and V Group has announced a 100 percent performance and delivery guarantee for its EPC Gen 1 RFID labels at the same time that it has dropped the threshold of its volume pricing. The company will now charge 19 cents per label on orders of 50,000 or more. Previously, this pricing had been limited to volumes of 100,000 to 150,000. According to the company, it will replace any nonfunctioning Gen 1 tag in kind at no charge to the end user. “Our intent with the 50K was to arrive at a reasonable volume to allow new users of RFID to begin without having to buy or commit to higher label volumes,” says Steve Van Fleet, president at R and V Group. The company’s self-adhesive printable RFID labels are embedded with EPC Class 1 96-bit inlays from Japanese supplier Omron. In August, Paxar, a White Plains, N.Y., supplier of RFID and bar code labeling systems, guaranteed its Monarch-brand Class 1 RFID labels and tags as long as they were encoded by the company’s own Monarch 9855 printer-encoder (see Paxar Giving 110 Percent).
Bearing Point Offering Bag Tracking Consultation
BearingPoint, a business consulting and systems integration company based in McLean, Va., has developed a methodology and toolset to help airlines and airports ascertain the business value and risk of deploying an RFID system to track baggage. It built the methodology based on an RFID feasibility trial conducted for Germany’s Hapagfly Airlines. To conduct the study, BearingPoint analyzed the results of technology trials airlines around the world have completed to test the technological issues surrounding the use of RFID for baggage tracking and interviewed a range of Hapagfly employees, such as operations managers, controllers, customer service representatives and bag handlers. Based on this study, BearingPoint created 14 areas of analysis, or benefit-generating mechanisms, which it will use to consult airlines and airports on their individual business case for or against the use of RFID. Jeff Meyer, BearingPoint senior manager, says his firm found that Hapagfly would not reap a quick return on RFID for baggage tracking, partly because it currently loses track of fewer bags than the industry average . For larger airlines that operate on a hub-and-spoke model, wherein flights are generally routed through hubs that require extra handling of bags between flights (during which bags are often mishandled), the business case is stronger.
Study Shows Little Change in Consumer Awareness of RFID
The latest results of RFID Buzz Research, an ongoing study tracking consumers’ awareness and understanding of RFID technology, show that such awareness may have plateaued. In June, 43.6 percent of surveyed consumers (adults 18 years and older) said they had heard of RFID. In the most recent survey, conducted in September, that percentage fell to 42.4 percent. The study is being conducted by Worthington, Ohio-based Big Research, in association with Fremont, Calif., research firm Artafact. When it began in September 2004, consumer awareness was at only 28.2 percent. It grew most dramatically late in 2004 and early in 2005, with levels peaking in June. The study also follows mainstream press coverage of RFID news , which appears to be waning, as well. In the first quarter of 2005, 22 general news articles in the top five U.S. newspapers mentioned RFID. This fell to 11 stories in the second quarter and only six this quarter. The full RFID Buzz Research reports are available on the Big Research web site. The price is $1,000 for single-quarter studies and $3,750 for a whole year’s worth.
Plitek Giving Inlays the Third Degree
Plitek, a Chicago-based converter of RFID smart labels, is using software developed by Richland, Wash., systems integrator Integral RFID to weed out poorly performing RFID inlays. Doing so has improved the quality of the converter’s product, according to Jeff Kusiciel, Plitek’s RFID product manager. “Our customers are currently reporting 99.5 percent yields and above,” says Kusiciel, referring to the percentage of smart labels that are successfully encoded and verified as functioning on goods prior to being shipped. The Integral RFID software is used in combination with controllers that move the roll of smart labels through the converting process and RFID antennas and readers. After each label is converted, the strength of the inlay’s signal is measured as the power of the antenna is turned down, simulating less-than-perfect reading conditions. The software directs the controllers to remove labels whose inlays do not pass this test. Previously, Plitek tested inlays based only on whether each functioned under optimal conditions. As a result, fewer performed well for end users in the real world. Integral RFID’s president, Chris Parkinson, says manufacturers have expressed interest in using the Java-based software for testing inlays that would be integrated into product packaging.
Cogiscan Offering RFID for Electronics Manufacturing
Cogiscan develops RFID systems for electronics manufacturing systems used by contract manufacturers’ circuit boards for the telecom, datacom, aerospace and defense industries. The company has released two new RFID-enabled products. Its RFID Smart Feeder retrofit kit consists of 125 kHz tags and interrogators that can be integrated with the feeder trays of manufacturing systems to ensure the proper components are put into the manufacturing process at all times. This can replace manual approaches to such quality control processes involving scanning bar codes. The company has also released an RFID-enabled feeder cart system, which allows manufacturers to track and trace the storage carts in which parts feeders are kept.
OTI Shipping 10 Million RFID Cards in 2005
On Track Innovations (OTI), of Fort Lee, N.J., provides RFID-based smart card solutions for homeland security payments, petroleum payments and other applications. OTI says it will deliver more than 10 million RFID-enabled payment cards to the payment market in the United States, including Visa, MasterCard and American Express, by the end of the year. This indicates a strong demand for RFID payment devices. OTI’s tags and readers used for payments comply with the ISO 14333A and 14333B standards. Other hardware providers contributing hardware to the RFID payments market include Axalto, CPI Card Group, Hypercom, Ingenico, Verifone and ViVOtech.
Macau Casino Ordering 600,000 RFID Gaming Pieces
Gaming Partners International, based in Las Vegas, says it recently secured a major contract to supply RFID chips to the new Rio and Grand Waldo casinos in Macau, which Galaxy Resorts is opening early next year. The order includes more than 600,000 gaming chips and other gambling tokens with embedded 125 kHz RFID tags. This is the largest order for RFID-enabled gaming products the company has received in the 10 years it has been selling them. By adding RFID tags to the chips and other gambling tokens, casinos can then track their movements and perform speedy and accurate inventory counts.
CISC Creates Products to Simulate and Measure Portals
CISC Semiconductor, an Austrian designer of embedded microelectronic systems, has developed software to simulate the performance of different RFID portal and tagging designs, as well as a way to measure actual performance. The company has developed its CISC ASD (Application and System Design) software to formulate RFID packaging and portals. The CISC RFID field recorder is a handheld device that can measure the radio field within and around an RFID portal. CISC ASD includes a software library that holds detailed data on the EPCglobal Class 1 Gen 2 standard and other protocols specifying the way tags communicate with interrogators and other behavioral characteristics required for performance simulation. The CISC RFID field recorder allows for evaluation of the best use of all the multiple options provided by the standards. These options include selection of data rates, sessions and identification loops for anticollision. CISC’s equipment is currently being used at the Metro Group RFID Innovation Center in Germany, to help model pallets loaded with RFID tagged cases and trace their movement through an UHF RFID portal. The CISC ASD, available commercially now, is priced at €10,000 per license. The RFID field reader will not be available commercially until January; CISC estimates the cost of the reader will be in the thousands of euros. So far, the company has developed versions of its ASD software and field recorder suitable only for testing in the European-sanctioned 868 MHz UHF range. However, CISC says versions for other frequencies and regions can be made available as demand dictates.
USDA Offers Grant Program for NAIS Trials, Research
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says it will award $3 million in grants to state and tribal agencies to fund research in developing or testing potential solutions for animal identification and automated data collection. This award will be granted in support of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), a program intended to identify specific animals in the United States and record their movements over the course of their life span. NAIS will support state and federal animal disease monitoring and surveillance through the rapid tracing of infected and exposed animals during animal disease outbreaks. RFID technology is being studied and tested for use as a means of identifying and tracking livestock. Funding application packages are available on the APHIS Web site. The deadline for application is Dec. 30. Applications can be submitted electronically to
Neil E. Hammerschmidt or through Grants.gov.