The following are news announcements made during the week of Dec. 3.
Reva Systems Ships New RFID Server That Networks Readers
RFID infrastructure provider Reva Systems has announced the availability of a new model of its Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP), a server designed to link a network of RFID readers into a company’s local area network (LAN). The Reva TAP 331 is an entry-level product designed for facilities operating one to eight RFID interrogators encompassing up to 32 read points per site. As with Reva’s older TAP 701 model, which supports up to 32 interrogators, the TAP 331 is fully compatible with Reva’s Management Console (RMC) software, which enables companies to deploy RFID infrastructure across numerous facilities while maintaining a single management solution for all RFID configuration and monitoring. The Chelmsford, Mass., company says TAP 331 is ideal for small sites with no IT support, such as retail outlets, transportation and logistics monitoring points, supplier shipping docks, branch offices, satellite processing centers and temporary operations.
IAITO InfoTech Introduces UHF Readers, Evaluation Kit in India
IAITO InfoTech, a two-year-old startup in Kanpur, India, has added ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID products that operate in the 860-950 MHz frequency range to its existing portfolio of high-frequency (HF), very high-frequency (VHF), microwave and electronic article surveillance (EAS) products. The RFID UHF Desktop Reader—a multiprotocol reader-encoder supporting EPC Class 1 Gen 1 and Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6 B/C tags, that includes serial and USB ports, a read range of 50 to 100 cm and desktop software to manage the interrogator—is available to distributors and resellers in India for about $850. A new UHF Evaluation kit, available now to distributors and resellers for about $1,350, is a plug-and-play system for testing RFID implementations. This month, the company plans to introduce additional multiprotocol UHF readers supporting EPC Class 1 Gen 1 and Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6 B/C tags—one with four antennas and one with eight. “The RFID market in India is still maturing, and the application base is more in a proof-of-concept [phase],” says Anand Shenoy, CEO of IAITO. However, he says, interest in RFID is growing in the transportation, manufacturing, automotive, retail and supply chain sectors. “Apart from India, we are getting lots of proposals from the U.S. and European markets for partnerships, reselling and distributorship of the products, and we are evaluating them.”
Foxwoods Resort Casino to Use RFID on Gaming Tables
Foxwoods Resort Casino, in southeastern Connecticut, is implementing high-frequency (HF) RFID technology to track, in real time, its entire stock of gaming chips and the movement of those chips throughout the resort’s newest casino, the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, opening May 2008. Owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Foxwoods is purchasing about 1 million gaming chips from Gaming Partners International embedded with 13.56 MHz RFID chips, that it will use with Progressive Gaming International‘s Chip Inventory System (CIS) table management system and Table iD. CIS is used to track and manage chips, and consists of RFID readers that can be positioned, for instance, at vaults and teller windows, as well as a centralized database server. The RFID technology uses the Phase Jitter Modulation (PJM) protocol, which complies with the ISO 18000 Part 3 Mode 2 standard, and is licensed by Progressive Gaming through its strategic partnership with Magellan Technology. Table iD can be installed on new or existing tables and consists of three modules—Table Manager, Chip Manager and Game Manager—to help track chips at individual gaming tables. Foxwoods plans to incorporate Table iD with full RFID functionality on about 250 tables over the next two years, and expects to have CIS implemented by May 2008.
Assa Abloy ITG and Soliton Japan Offer IT Security Solution
Assa Abloy Identification Technologies (Assa Abloy ITG) reports that it has teamed with IT security vendor Soliton Systems K.K. Japan to offer an RFID-enabled security system for desktops. The system combines Assa Abloy ITG’s Omnikey 5321 contactless smart card reader and Soliton’s SmartOn IT security management software; together, the products will help end users control access to Windows operating systems, networks, Web sites and applications. The Omnikey 5321 is a USB desktop device able to read and encode any passive 13.56 MHz RFID tag compliant with the ISO 14443 (A or B) or ISO 15693 standards, in addition to contact cards complying with the ISO 7816 standard. Such tags and cards are utilized by companies for building access, transit and cashless vending applications.
PCTS Unveils Upgraded Version of Its Patient- and Asset-Tracking Software
Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS), located in Mission Viejo, Calif., has announced the availability of an upgraded version of its software that, when combined with real-time location systems (RTLS), can be used to track patients, staff and assets in health-care facilities. The company says Amelior Tracker 2.0, which works with RTLS systems leveraging RFID, ultrasound, Wi-Fi access points and infrared sensors, features a new user interface that includes improved search and identification tools enabling caregivers to more easily locate resources using graphical maps and drill-down menus. More specifically, says Stephen Armstrong, PCTS’ VP of marketing, the user interface has been designed to be simpler, with new icons and the ability to distinguish between the different entities being tracked, such as medical equipment, supplies, personnel, patients or hospital visitors. Amelior Tracker 2.0 also provides analytical tools designed to help them better understand usage and inventory processes. The software is available on a standalone basis or as a module within PCTS’ recently released Amelior ORTracker, which is designed to track patients and staff within surgical departments, and incorporates rules and algorithms to monitor workflow, patient flow, surgical schedules and processes.
SkyeTek, Amtel Create RFID Security Test Kit
SkyeTek, a provider of embedded RFID reader technology, and Atmel, which develops and fabricates advanced semiconductor solutions, have partnered to create the CryptoRF Demonstration Kit, an RFID security tool featuring SkyeTek’s M2 SkyeModule and Atmel’s cryptographic RF tag assortment based on the CryptoRF product family. The CryptoRF Demonstration Kit is designed to let companies test the use of secure RFID technology in their applications or products, and is targeted at such applications as contactless payment, product authentication, patient safety and patron management. Based on the same security standards used by the U.S. Department of Defense and financial sectors, SkyeTek’s SkyeModule M2 reader provides support for industry standard security, including TDEA and AES encryption and SHA-1, SHA-2, and MD5 hashing, as well as proprietary security. Atmel’s CryptoRF tags provide enhanced security through the use of embedded cryptographic hardware to provide mutual authentication, data encryption, Message Authentication Codes (MAC) and encrypted passwords. The solution—the result of the two companies’ partnership announced in January 2007—is available now for $295 and will be sold exclusively through SkyeTek and Atmel sales channels.