The following are news announcements made during the past week.
Alien Technology Adds Low-Level Reader Protocol Support to Interrogators
Alien Technology has announced a software update for its ALR-9900+ and ALR-9900+EMA RFID enterprise-class readers that supports Low-Level Reader Protocol (LLRP) Version 1.1. The LLRP specification, from EPCglobal, provides a common but extensible interface for linking EPC Gen 2-compliant readers to middleware or other types of networking software. LLRP’s goal is to simplify application development for end users, Alien Technology explains, thereby eliminating the need to conform to different proprietary communication protocols provided by each RFID vendor. Its support of LLRP in its enterprise-class readers, the company reports, enables users to more easily migrate between different readers. According to Alien Technology, the software release is specifically designed to let customers easilychange from one protocol to another, and the software update supports both LLRP and the Alien Reader Protocol (ARP). To access some of the advanced features, the firm is providing some additional LLRP extensions to higher-level, Alien-specific features. Examples include Dynamic Authentication and Read Locking of the user memory. However, the company notes, ARP enables the full set of Alien Enterprise Reader capabilities, including full Autonomous Mode and Alien’s advanced filtering that results in significantly less network traffic, reduced network infrastructure and smaller, less expensive servers. The LLRP/ARP code release is now available from Alien Technology’s Partner Portal.
Powercast Announces RF-based Chipset and RF Energy-Harvesting Reference
Powercast Corp., a provider of wireless power technology, has announced its RF-based wireless power chipset and reference design for embedded, low-power, wireless charging applications. The chipset and reference design, available for licensing, is designed to make it easier and more affordable for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to embed Powercast’s core RF energy-harvesting technology into their battery-less, or rechargeable battery-based devices, the company reports, enabling RF energy (radio waves) to perpetually power them. Powercast, based in Pittsburgh, was launched in 2003 to develop a system for harvesting wireless power over distances using RF technology. The solution was intended to enable a tag to receive a continuous RF signal from a dedicated RF transmitter or ambient source (such as a mobile phone), and to convert that RF energy into DC power. The receiving device can then simply utilize the battery’s stored energy for its own functionality, or transmit data and an ID number. Applications include wireless sensors for remote monitoring, portable electronic devices and other low-power devices. In May 2011, Powercast introduced a solution, known as the Lifetime Power Wireless Sensor System, for the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) sector, as well as other building-controls industries, that can acquire data from sensors for heating and air-conditioning, lighting controls, access controls or other building automation. That solution includes an RF transmitter that provides power signals to sensor tags, as well as a gateway that receives information transmitted by those tags (see Powercast Debuts Energy-Harvesting Wireless Sensor System). The new chipset and reference design enable OEMs to directly embed the same functionality provided by the company’s P1110 or P2110 Powerharvester receivers, Powercast reports, but with greater flexibility in terms of footprint and frequency selection, and at a lower cost. The energy-harvesting reference design converts RF energy to DC down to -12dBm of input power over a frequency range of 1 MHz to 6 GHz, and provides an output up to 5V to either trickle-charge batteries or battery-less devices. The chipset consists of Powercast’s three custom chips for RF-to-DC conversion and power management. The licensable reference design contains all design files necessary to embed the Powerharvester functionality, along with 100 sample chipsets for prototyping. Customers may use any 1 MHz to 6 GHz RF transmitter of sufficient power with a properly tuned Powerharvester receiver. For example, the P2110 design, coupled with a 6 dBi receiving antenna, receives power from up to 40 feet (12 meters) away from Powercast’s TX91501 3-watt RF transmitter. The reference design’s bill of material (BOM) cost, including the Powercast chipset, is estimated to be less than $2 per unit in high volumes, the company reports. The chipset, part number PCC210, is available through Powercast’s global network of distributors. The design of the firm’s TX91501 transmitter is also available for licensing.
MET Labs Completes First Round of Medical-Device RFID Susceptibility Testing
MET Labs has announced that it has completed testing on the first product to be submitted to the Medical Device RFID Susceptibility Program. The program, designed to help medical-device manufacturers determine whether their electronic medical devices are susceptible to any potential adverse events of RFID emissions, was developed in cooperation with AIM Global‘s AIM Healthcare Initiative (HCI) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (see RFID News Roundup: MET Labs Announces Program to Test Medical Devices for Susceptibility to RFID Interference). The first device tested—a patient-worn, battery-operated vital-sign monitor—underwent testing at MET’s laboratory in Santa Clara, Calif. It passed six of seven tests, MET Labs reports, demonstrating a hard fault when subjected to 860 to 960 MHz frequency RFID at 54 V/m, as specified in the ISO/IEC 18000-6 Type C standard. Testing was performed using the RF parameters that emit the minimum and maximum occupied bandwidth. The testing ranged from 134.2 kHz at 160 A/m to 2.45 GHz at 54 V/m. In a prepared statement, Ted Osinski, MET Labs’ RFID program manager, said the device, along with others scheduled for testing, are subjected to worst-case scenarios. “The vendor now has the benefit to mitigate the problem and make the device safer,” Osinski said. Interested medical device manufacturers that have not expressed interest in the past are still eligible to participate in the program. Eligible medical devices are those covered by the IEC 60601 family of standards—the product safety standard for electrical medical equipment, which covers everything from defibrillators to electrocardiogram (EKG) machines. Submitted equipment is tested at several different RFID frequency bands, and participants receive confidential test reports. If equipment is found to be susceptible to RF interference, MET Labs will assist manufacturers in formulating strategies for minimizing or eliminating interference effects.
Libelium Debuts New Wi-Fi Sensors for Web-enabled Servers, iPhone, Android Devices
Libelium, a Spanish wireless sensor hardware provider, has launched a new Wi-Fi based module for its Waspmote sensor platform. Libelium’s platform consists of various sensors, or Waspmotes, that include a ZigBee 2.4 GHz 802.15.4 radio transmitter and an antenna, enclosed in a PVC container. According to the company, the new radio module adds an extra layer of intelligence to the nodes, allowing them to send the collected data to Web servers. The Wi-Fi sensor nodes can also transmit data to nearby Apple iPhone or Android devices, the company reports, by creating direct links with them via existing Wi-Fi networks. Now, sensor nodes can connect directly to cloud servers via a standard protocol, such as HTTP, said David Gascón, Libelium’s CTO, in a prepared statement. The new Wi-Fi sensors can also leverage the secure version of the standard Web protocol, HTTPS, which is designed to protect and ensure the privacy of the information sent. The Wi-Fi sensors can create TCP and UDP connections, enabling developers to design their own communication framework between the sensors and servers, according to the company. Libelium provides an open-source application programming interface (API), along with complete documentation with examples, in order to help developers easily start working with the platform. Demonstration applications for iPhone and Android are also available for free, enabling customers to test the new Wi-Fi sensor capabilities from any smartphone.
New NFC Products, Partnerships and Services Announced
A number of vendors have announced Near Field Communication services and products this week, just in time for the Mobile World Congress 2012 conference, held in Barcelona. Among the announcements:
• NXP Semiconductors has announced its PN547 Near Field Communication (NFC) radio controller with multi-application support, including full Mifare family compatibility (Classic 1K, Classic 4K, DESFire and Plus), as well as native reader device mode functionality for expanded NFC use cases, such as secure, mobile contactless point-of-sale (POS) applications and mobile ticketing. Designed for mobile network operators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the PN547 is available with multiple interfaces to secure elements. According to the company, it features a 50 percent smaller footprint, a longer battery life via a 50 percent reduction in power consumption, and twice the RF operating range. NXP also announced that it has designed an SWP-SIM secure element that incorporates SmartMX2 technology. The firm says it can now offer its multi-application security architecture in all form factors (embedded, microSD and SWP-SIM) to the entire mobile market, regardless of form-factor preference. The considerably higher security requirements of the SWP-SIM secure element will demand such advanced solutions because, relative to the traditional non-secure SIM, SWP-SIM becomes a tamper-resistant vault for sensitive data, essential for securely executing critical applications, such as mobile payments. Thus, the firm reports, NXP’s latest mobile-transactions product provides security and enables trust between all parties within an ecosystem, while also protecting consumer data and paving the way for accelerated mobile transactions industry growth and deployment of NFC technology. NXP says it will work with the key SIM OS players to deliver this product into the market.
• Isis, a mobile-commerce joint venture created by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless (see Mobile Carriers Launch Venture to Aid Adoption of NFC in Phones), has announced that Chase, Capital One and Barclaycard have entered into agreements with Isis enabling their credit, debit and prepaid cards to be placed into the Isis Mobile Wallet. Starting in mid-2012, Isis reports, consumers will be able to load their eligible Chase, Capital One and Barclaycard cards into their Isis Mobile Wallet and shop at participating merchants. The Isis Mobile Wallet will initially launch in mid-2012, in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas, with a national rollout expected to follow.
• Visa has announced a new service that it says provides financial institutions and mobile network operators with a one-stop solution to securely download payment account information to smartphones enabled with NFC technology. The new service was developed in cooperation with Oberthur Technologies, a provider of software and platforms used to manage the provisioning and activation of payment accounts on cards and mobile devices. The service delivers Visa payWave, the company’s contactless payment technology, and other payment applications “over the air” to a consumer’s NFC-equipped smartphone, along with the secure credentials required to authenticate a consumer. For shoppers, the service will include support for Visa and non-Visa payments, as well as loyalty or mass-transit applications on their smartphone. In a prepared statement from research and consulting firm Ovum, Catherine Haslam, an Ovum analyst, said the announcement potentially fills a significant hole in the current payments ecosystem. “A major barrier for many operators is the need to build a relationship with one or several financial institutions in order to offer services,” she explained. “Such negotiations are typically long and complicated and this would replace it with a simple contract with Visa.” Visa’s support for non-Visa payments, she added, indicates that the company recognizes ubiquity as being the key to success in mobile money systems. But Visa does face some challenges and competition from international financial hub systems, Haslam noted, such as the M-wallet and HomeSend services, offered by international carrier BICS. “A bigger barrier, at least in the short to medium term, is that the system relies on the NFC in the consumer device and POS, and that is a long way from critical mass.” Visa has also announced that it will work with Vodafone to develop a Vodafone-branded payment service for Vodafone’s consumer mobile wallet. The service will be enabled by Visa’s payment network, product suite and brand, and will initially be launched in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom over the coming fiscal year. Other countries within Vodafone’s global portfolio will follow. In addition to the Vodafone-branded stored value account inside the mobile wallet, Vodafone and Visa plan to work together to enable Visa Issuers for mobile payments globally.
• Inside Secure and Sunward Telecom have announced a new NFC upgrade solution that fits within a standard-size subscriber identity module (SIM) card. The two companies demonstrated the solution this week at Mobile World Congress 2012; the demo simulated a MasterCard PayPass payment transaction, illustrating how non-NFC mobile phones can be upgraded to perform payment and other transactions, simply by inserting a new SIM card. According to the two companies, the NFC SIM card product, developed by Sunward Telecom, uses core technology from Inside Secure, designed to reduce the effects of the metals and electrical noise typically found within mobile phones and other mobile devices. When inserted into a phone, the NFC SIM card can communicate with contactless readers compliant with the ISO 14443 and EMVCo standards at a distance of 4 centimeters (1.6 inches). Sunward Telecom expects to begin shipping the NFC SIM card products during the fourth quarter of this year.
• VeriFone Systems has announced its Paymedia Universal Acceptance Platform (UAP), a suite of services and software aimed at helping mobile network operators to manage mobile wallet acceptance at merchant systems. The platform is designed to ensure that mobile wallet transactions will be processed smoothly, VeriFone reports, and allows wallet providers to expand the variety of services and applications offered though their wallets. Paymedia UAP includes the Paymedia Network Services, Estate Management software, and VeriFone’s NFC App Manager, built into all VeriFone NFC acceptance platforms. In addition, VeriFone adds, the Paymedia UAP platform provides open API common interface standards, to ensure that value-added wallet data not traditionally supported will flow seamlessly through merchant systems without disruption.
• SecureRF has announced Veridify, its authentication and anti-counterfeiting solution based on NFC technology that validates products through an easy-to-use smartphone application. Secure NFC tags enable consumers and commercial users to confirm an item’s identity, and to optionally retrieve or collect additional data from Veridify’s cloud-computing platform, using only a smartphone. The solution incorporates Public Key cryptographic methods, embedded in the NFC tag and in the smartphone application, to provide a full range of highly secure identification and authentication functions. Initial markets for the Veridify solution include pharmaceuticals, electronics, liquors and luxury fashion goods that are often the targets of counterfeiters, SecureRF reports. The Veridify application currently operates on the Android platform, and the company plans to port it to other systems as well, as vendors announce NFC-enabled models. According to SecureRF, consumers can launch the Veridify application, tap their phone to the Veridify logo on a product, and observe their screen as immediate and secure authentication is provided—assuming the product is genuine. If a product cannot be verified, the user is then notified via an appropriate message. Additional features employ wireless connectivity for retrieving product information or related offers from the Veridify cloud.