The following are news announcements made during the week of May 21.
Headwater Announces Watchdog Asset Tracker
Headwater Systems, a Minneapolis-based startup, has announced the release of its first RFID product, an asset-tracking platform called Watchdog Locating System. Watchdog employs 418 MHz active RFID tags and interrogators to enable users to locate mobile assets. The tags and readers communicate via a proprietary air-interface protocol, and the readers send tag data to proprietary software that identifies tags based on their unique ID numbers and determines their location. The platform utilizes signal strength to calculate the tag’s distance from an individual interrogator, employing a set of algorithms to resolve the tag’s location when it passes within the read range of two or more readers. Headwaters Systems CEO Alex Fjelstad says the product is available now, and that a few companies are currently piloting it to track valuable mobile assets. Fjelstad says the product is designed to be affordable for small and midsize firms, though he declines to reveal specific pricing.
Web Conferences on Open-Source RFID
The University of Arkansas’ RFID Research Center and Pramari, a company developing open-source RFID software, are launching a series of Web-based conferences to discuss open-source software development in the RFID industry. The groups are offering the Web conferences in response to what they describe as overwhelming interest in a similar session they provided at the RFID Journal LIVE! 2007 conference in early May. The hour-long sessions will provide an overview of the history, benefits and uses of open-source software; a discussion about the creating an Open Source RFID Community to support the development of open-source RFID software; a roadmap for next steps; and a question-and-answer period. The first Web conference will take place on Wednesday, May 30, at 9 a.m. EDT, and will be repeated on Friday, June 1, at noon EDT. This schedule will repeat each Wednesday and Friday, at those same times, until Friday, June 29. The organizers says the Web conferences are designed for executives, managers and system architects and administrators working for RFID end users and potential end users, as well as RFID developers and business analysts. For more information, visit www.rifidi.org/about_webinars.html.
Wi-Fi-based RFID Expected to Grow 100 Percent Annually
A new market study predicts an annual growth rate of 100 percent for Wi-Fi-based RFID technology, through 2010. Conducted by market research firm In-Stat, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., the study estimates 135,000 Wi-Fi-based RFID tags were shipped in 2006. It also predicts that figure to continue growing as more businesses increase their Wi-Fi coverage. In-Stat senior analyst Daryl Schoolar says that while a growth rate of 100 percent may seem high, growth rates can be misleading because the current market is very small. Wi-Fi-based RFID is gaining traction in a variety of industries, particularly in the health-care, manufacturing and transportation and logistics markets, which are using it mainly for tracking assets. One inhibitor to the technology’s growth, says Schoolar, has been short battery life, though advancements in technology are changing that. Chipmaker G2 Microsystems, for example, has made improvements to battery life, which can now extend beyond one year, he notes. Wi-Fi-based RFID tag costs haven’t been much of an issue in adoption rates, says Schoolar, who expects the current average cost of $45 to come down in the next few years. The In-Stat study reports that AeroScout shipped the most Wi-Fi-based RFID tags in 2006. Other major players include RF Technologies and Newbury Networks. Last year, market research firm Frost & Sullivan estimated that over the next five years, the worldwide real-time locating systems (RTLS) market—which includes Wi-Fi-based RFID—will have a 30 percent compound annual growth rate, jumping from about $245 million in annual sales today to $1.26 billion by 2011 (see RTLS Market to Grow 30 Percent Annually). The other chief RFID-based RTLS technology uses active 2.4 GHz based on the ISO 24730 standard, a relatively new standard championed by WhereNet.
Swedish Armed Forces to Deploy Savi’s Consignment Management Solution
Savi Technology says the Swedish Armed Forces will deploy the Savi Consignment Management Solution (CMS) to track in-transit military supplies. Savi designed CMS to interoperate with similar RFID-based, in-transit visibility networks the company has deployed for the U.S. Department of Defense, NATO and the defense forces of seven other countries. Sweden will use CMS specifically for tracking consignments for national and multi-national operations by its army, navy and air force. Savi’s CMS platform consists of its SmartChain supply network operating system software; its Site Manager middleware, which filters and aggregates RFID reads; and the SmartChain Consignment Management Application. The latter pulls RFID tag data into tools such as computer-generated maps, which show the location of consignments in the supply chain, and auditing applications using historical data to recount the journey of the consignment. CMS also processes real-time data transmissions from other types of automatic identification and data-collection technologies, such as bar codes, passive RFID and GPS satellite location systems.
PDC Settles IP Suit Against Proximities
Precision Dynamics Corp. (PDC), a maker of identification products in the form of RFID wristbands, says it has settled a lawsuit it filed in July 2006 against Proximities, a developer of RFID business solutions. The suit alleged that Proximities infringed on some PDC patents. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, PDC and Proximities have agreed to cross-license certain intellectual property related to the development of RFID wristbands and the option to supply each other with products. According to PDC, the companies view their respective products—PDC’s wristbands and Proximities’ RFID system solutions—as complementary, and see synergies in bringing RFID cashless payment to the leisure and entertainment market. Further terms of the settlement remain undisclosed.
Inova Technology Acquires RFID Company RightTag
Inova Technology (formerly Edgetech Services), an information security solutions provider specializing in RFID solutions, storage and security technology and IT professional services, says it has acquired RightTag, an RFID consultancy and manufacturer of handheld and desktop readers, printer-encoders, tags and other RFID equipment. Inova says the acquisition allows it to access RightTag’s proprietary RFID products, expertise and customers, and that it has already developed several new RFID solutions it plans to launch this year.
SkyeTek Expands European Distribution Network
SkyeTek, a Westminster, Colo., maker of embedded RFID reader technology, has added two European value-added resellers to its partner network, bringing the total number of European resellers to nine. Italian firm Softwork will distribute and support SkyeTek products in Italy, while Gamma Group will provide sales, systems integration and support in Poland and Russia. The new distribution partners will each carry SkyeTek’s full line of HF and UHF reader modules and ReaderWare software to respond to the growing demand for integrated RFID system applications in their respective regions. SkyeTek offers its technology to OEM customers or distributors as reader modules. Licensing provides customers with access to SkyeTek’s ReaderDNA reference designs, enabling them to integrate the technology directly into their product design. For a complete list of distributors, click here.