The following are news announcements made during the week of Nov. 26.
RFID Patent Pool Gets New Members, Requests Review by U.S. Justice Dept.
Two years after its formation, the RFID Consortium has announced four new members—Hewlett-Packard, France Telecom, LG Electronics and Motorola—each holding essential ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID patents. The group has also announced that it is preparing a business plan that it will submit for review to the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department has agreed to the organization’s request to review the legality of its proposed business, with regard to antitrust laws. Upon completion of that review, the RFID Consortium expects to begin offering licenses to firms interested in manufacturing, using or selling UHF RFID readers, labels or chips utilized in labels. The group—essentially a patent pool—was formed in 2005 to address the intellectual property (IP) licensing needs of RFID technology vendors (see RFID Vendors to Launch Patent Pool and RFID Consortium Names Patent-Pool Administrator). The four new members join three others that also hold essential UHF RFID patents: ThingMagic, 3M and Zebra Technologies.
Canadian Companies Band Together to Offer RFID Compliance Kit
An alliance of companies, led by Banyan Commerce, has unveiled an RFID compliance solution costing $5,000, designed to help small and midsize companies comply with RFID requirements from Wal-Mart Stores, Target and the U.S. Department of Defense. The alliance also includes RFID supplier GAO RFID and Toshiba TEC Canada, a manufacturer of retail point-of-sale equipment and bar-code and RFID printers. Announced at this week’s RFID Journal Live! Canada 2007 conference in Toronto, the Banyan RFID Express kit incorporates GAO RFID’s GenTop Standalone RFID reader-writer that supports both EPC Class1 Gen 1 and Gen 2 protocols operating in the UHF 860-960 MHz band; Toshiba TEC’s rugged B-SX4 RFID label printer-encoders; and Banyan Commerce’s SAAS (software as a service) application framework. Banyan RFID Express includes round-the-clock support and a guaranteed uptime of 99.99 percent. Currently available in North America, the kit is also expected to be offered in Europe and Asia in the near future.
Ubisense Teams With NCR on RTLS Initiatives
Ubisense, a supplier of ultra-wideband (UWB) real-time location systems (RTLS) headquartered in Cambridge, England, has partnered with NCR to market an asset-management and analysis system for the manufacturing industry. The two companies will combine Ubisense’s RTLS with NCR’s TransitionWorks automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) software. TransitionWorks is designed to deliver asset information and historical performance data so manufacturers can more easily conduct operations audits and track inventory. An automotive parts manufacturer, which the companies declined to name, will employ the Ubisense-NCR solution to track more than 2,500 assets on 15 production lines to a precision of 1 foot.
Advanced ID Intros 500 Series UHF RFID Reader
Advanced ID has unveiled its 500 Series RFID interrogator, a weatherproof device that complies with both European (ETSI) and U.S. (FCC) regulations and supports multiple tag protocols, including ISO 18000-6B and EPC Class 1 Gen 2. Customers had requested a UHF reader costing less than $1,000, according to Advanced ID’s president and CEO, Dan Finch. The 500 Series reader costs $800, which Finch claims is considerably lower than similar readers on the market. A Portuguese company, which he says he is not at liberty to name, recently placed an order for 66 units, to be delivered by year’s end for use as part of an asset-management system. In addition, he claims, other current Advanced ID customers have indicated plans to purchase the readers as well. One European tire manufacturer plans to test the interrogator in its operations, for instance, and a pharmaceutical distributor is also testing the reader as part of its e-pedigree initiative.
OATSystems’ RFID Products Get AJAXed
RFID solutions provider OATSystems has tapped Inkriti, a technology consulting company and provider of Web 2.0 solutions for e-businesses, to help it incorporate AJAX into its RFID systems, thus making it easier for companies to access and leverage RFID data. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a set of scripting languages used to create browser-based applications that behave more like software applications. OATSystems, headquartered in Waltham, Mass., decided to leverage AJAX to help improve how the volume of RFID data gets represented. Inkriti, based in Boston, delivered several AJAX-based widgets (components in a graphical user interface) to display, for example, time-based events, as well as to automatically refresh the interface with the most updated information. These widgets were built, customized and deployed by a team of experienced AJAX developers working in Inkriti’s technology center in India.
Omron to Provide V750 UHF RFID Readers Worldwide
Omron, headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, reports that it is expanding its V750 UHF RFID interrogator product line to include versions for use in China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Mexico and Brazil. According to Omron executives, many of the company’s customers are Wal-Mart suppliers with manufacturing sites located in Latin America and Asia, which has spurred RFID use in those regions. The V750 is a fixed-position interrogator that incorporates such features as an auto-tuning facility that self-adjusts read parameters according to tag density. Omron released versions of the V750 for North America in October 2006, Japan in December 2006 and South Korea in February 2007, and expects to begin offering the product to Singapore early next month, China in January 2008, Mexico in early February 2008, Brazil in late February 2008, and in Thailand, Malaysia and Australia sometime between January and March.
Sirit Strikes Reseller Deal With Japanese Systems Integrator
RFID technology provider Sirit, headquartered in Toronto, has forged a reseller agreement with IT systems integrator Japan Information System Co. Ltd. (JIS). Under the terms of the agreement, JIS will begin selling a custom version of Sirit’s Infinity 510 RFID reader in Japan in early 2008, and has agreed to make the Sirit interrogator its primary UHF tag reader. The JIS version will incorporate all of Sirit’s proprietary tag-acquisition algorithms, a reader-management tool kit and documentation. As part of the agreement, JIS will obtain and maintain all necessary regulatory approvals in Japan, in addition to providing local support tools.
OTA Offers RFID Training in China’s Pearl River Delta
Dallas-based OTA Training has teamed up with standards organization GS1 Hong Kong to offer hands-on RFID training and education in China’s Pearl River Delta region. The training sessions are being held at Hong Kong’s Supply Chain Innovation Center, established in February. According to the partners, students will have the opportunity to conduct exercises and develop an understanding of how to implement RFID. In addition to the training, the students will also be given the opportunity to become CompTIA RFID+ certified upon completion of the course. The first session was held Nov. 19-22, according to a spokesman for OTA Training, with 12 students participating. Other sessions are now being planned for the coming year, he said.