The following are news announcements made during the past week.
Mercedes-Benz Installs RFID-enabled MyDealerLot at New Factory Store
MyDealerLot, which provides real-time location systems (RTLS) to car dealers so they can pinpoint the locations of specific vehicles on their lots, has been implemented at the new Mercedes-Benz dealership at 770 11th Avenue in Manhattan, which just opened this month. The new dealership is the only factory store in the United States owned by Mercedes-Benz, and is one of the most technologically advanced stores in the country, according to George Cresto, MyDealerLot’s founder and CEO. The 333,000-square-foot facility features a repair shop with 72 service bays, visible from the customer lounge area through floor-to-ceiling windows. There are nine Alien Technology readers installed throughout the facility at various chokepoints—eight ALR-9900+ models and one ALR-9650 interrogator. MyDealerLot provides Automated Client Recognition and Messaging Systems (ACRMS) using passive EPC Class 1 Gen 2 RFID tags, and consists of Service Drive Concierge, Zonal Location Concierge and Porter Dispatch functions, designed to help dealerships create new sales opportunities, enhance the customer experience, manage inventory and streamline operations with its Web-based client recognition technologies. The system installed at the new Mercedes-Benz dealership consists of both the Service Drive Concierge and Zonal Location Concierge applications. The first employs radio frequency identification to provide automated customer-arrival information; antennas positioned over two service lanes capture the unique ID number of an RFID sticker affixed to the back of an automobile’s rearview mirror. The stickers are affixed when the dealership receives and stocks the cars; customers who have not purchased their vehicles from that dealer but bring them in for service will receive stickers at that time. When the unique IDs number are captured, the system references each ID with the customer information, causing a large plasma monitor to automatically welcome the individual by name. The system also relays the customer arrival information to the appropriate dealership personnel, as well as targeted messaging to anyone within the facility. In addition, Service Drive Concierge has the ability to automatically send a message when a vehicle completes a key process, such as leaving a facility’s carwash, or passing through an entry or exit. Zonal Location Concierge is designed to assist dealers in tracking and locating vehicles automatically, and in reporting those vehicles’ locations via a Web-based interface. MyDealerLot’s RTLS is used in a number of other dealerships as well. At this point, Cresto says, the system is in place at more than 40 stores throughout 14 U.S. states, supporting 11 different automobile brands. Over the years, MyDealerLot has refined its system, which now supports passive RFID; earlier versions supported active tags (see Atlanta Mercedes Dealership to Adopt RFID at New Location and RFID Delivers Personal Service for Atlanta Car Dealer).
Identec Solutions Intros RFID Solution Standard for Oil, Gas and Mining
Identec Solutions, a provider of active RFID and wireless sensor network-based solutions, has announced its new certification program, entitled IndustrySmart. The program is designed to clearly articulate to customers that Identec’s personnel-safety products have been prescreened and evaluated to ensure they’ve met certifications as part of the European Union’s ATEX directives to protect employees from explosion risk in areas with an explosive atmosphere, as well as other certification standards set forth by the oil, gas, mining and tunneling industries. All certified Identec products will bear an IndustrySmart designation. According to the company, the IndustrySmart program’s overall goal is to enhance the quality of applications and services within Identec’s Watcherseries personnel-safety solutions. The solutions offer unique systems for customer mustering, as well as for monitoring lone workers, voice communication and access control, and typically employ RFID and sensor technologies. For example, the Watcheroffshore system—a personnel-tracking safety solution for offshore oil rigs—uses Identec’s SensorSmart software and active ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID hardware to track the number of personnel on a particular oil rig at any given time, as well as their identities, based on reads of their RFID-enabled ID badges, and, in some cases, pinpointing each staff member’s location. The system has an emergency function enabling oil-rig management and emergency responders to ensure that all personnel are accounted for in the event that something goes wrong, such as a fire or explosion (see Active UHF RFID Tags Muster Support for Oil Rigs).
Ascendent ID Announces RFID Wireless Encryption Option
Ascendent ID, a provider of long-range RFID systems for automatic vehicle identification (AVI), has announced a wireless encryption option for its family of readers and tags. The new feature ensures that transmission between a reader and a tag remains secure, to prevent the unauthorized cloning of tags and the eavesdropping of sensitive data. According to the company, the feature is designed for such uses as military base access control, stored value transactions, and shipping container tracking and security. The secure tag-identification and -validation system utilizes Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption to access the tag memory, and utilizes the memory’s contents to authenticate the tag. The readers are programmed and configured with user-defined AES keys. The encryption option is compatible with all models of Ascendent ID’s readers and tags. For multiple-layer security applications, the tags can be used to grant vehicle access into the first checkpoint, with additional validation of photo identification and personal credentials at subsequent checkpoints. An optional tag-security feature prevents unauthorized use of the tag, by clearing all data in the event that the tag is stolen from the inside of the windshield. All readers and tags support Ascendent ID’s advanced reader-to-tag protocol for precise control of gate triggering, elimination of false reads, and support of systems incorporating anti-passback. For applications requiring that additional data be stored in the tag memory, the encryption option helps ensure that this information remains secure and is only accessible by authorized personnel. The company claims that its new encryption option opens up a new set of potential applications by addressing security concerns for customers who want the convenience of long-range RFID but can not afford to risk data being compromised due to unsecured reader-to-tag communication.
ASK Selected to Supply Contactless RFID in Portugal’s Electric Car Initiative
ASK, a French manufacturer of contactless microprocessor smart cards, contactless cards, paper tickets, and RFID smart paper labels, has announced that Portugal’s government has selected its CPL108 13.56 MHz RFID reader printed circuit board (PCB) to be integrated into all recharging points of the Mobi.E initiative to establish an electrical-vehicle charging network throughout Portugal. An agreement to establish the charging network was signed in December 2010, and according to ASK, Portugal will be the first country to implement such a system. The charging stations will be accessible to all users and compatible with all manufacturers of electric vehicles. ASK’s reader PCBs will be integrated into all of the charging points to serve as contactless payment systems, and users will be able to employ a Mobi.E contactless payment card to pay for the recharging of their vehicle’s battery. In other words, says Claire Boyer, an ASK spokeswoman, a driver can pull up to a charging point, wave his or her card in front of the reader and recharge the car’s battery. The CPL108, based on ASK’s UCM108 contactless reader module, complies with the latest standards and specifications, including ISO14443 A/B, FeliCa, ISO 18092 (Near Field Communication), Mifare and Mifare Plus. During charging, users will be able to utilize a cell phone to access their online Mobi.E account and monitor the charging process in real time, as well as configure a wide range of automatic reports and status alerts. When the charging process is complete, the user will be notified via SMS text message, e-mail or other preferred communications, and his or her user account will then be automatically updated, including electricity cost, charging service and a residual Mobi.E fee. In addition, full information will be provided online regarding historical charging activities and recent transactions. Starting in July 2011, all costs incurred within the Mobi.E network will be fully integrated into a single (monthly, for example) invoice for user convenience. The systems architecture and development of the integrated high-level management platform for the Mobi.E project are being implemented by Novabase, a Portuguese company providing IT business solutions, and one of ASK’s long-term customers.
Hyatt Regency Montreal Installs KABA’s RFID Door Locks and System
KABA, which provides Saflok and ILCO electronic locks, has announced the installation of its RFID-based Saflok RT networked door-locking system at the Hyatt Regency Montreal. The new Saflok Messenger wireless-communication system complies with the ZigBee standard, based on the 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, and allows Web-based monitoring of electronic door locks and keys for the hotel’s 605 guest rooms. as well as 200 back-of-the-house doors to mechanical areas, service areas and storerooms. Each door lock uses Messenger software via a wireless network to communicate its status to the property security staff, KABA reports. By logging onto the security terminal, employees can track when each room has been accessed, and by whom, and the company thus know if doors are ajar. The Messenger system also tracks keys, displaying where each has been used without interrogating individual door locks. In addition, the network system lets Hyatt Regency staff members log into Messenger and signal all locks to ignore a lost master key’s code, rather than having to manually rekey all property locks in the event that a master key is lost or stolen. The RT lock system signals when batteries of individual locks are low, thereby allowing Hyatt Regency Montreal’s engineers to replace them on an as-needed basis. “The cost savings on the manpower and batteries for our 805 door locks is an instant operational savings, and it will contribute to the payback for the new RFID system,” said Sergio Santori, Hyatt Regency Montreal’s director of engineering, in a prepared statement. “In the past, we had to change all door batteries at once periodically, and many of the batteries may not have needed replacement.” The system’s implementation took three weeks, he noted, including troubleshooting and training.
Dash7 Alliance Offers Free Membership to University Students
The Dash7 Alliance, a coalition of organizations promoting the use of RFID solutions compliant with the ISO 18000-7 (Dash7) standard for active 433 MHz tags and readers, has announced the availability of special memberships for qualified, full-time university students wishing to participate in open-source software development. Formed in March 2009, the alliance aims to facilitate the adoption of ISO 18000-7 RFID technology, currently used primarily in the defense industry (see Dash7 Alliance Forms to Advance Active RFID Standard). Patrick Burns, the Dash7 Alliance’s president, reports that the organization had been rethinking membership prices for startups, and saw the need to respond to a growing list of inquiries from university students. “With everything from textbooks to beer going up in price,” he said in a prepared statement, “we want to help ease the burden of Dash7 Alliance membership for students that are committed to Dash7 but would rather not ask mom or dad for the money to cover an associate membership fee.” Under the terms of the program, students may apply by clicking here and answering questions about their interest in Dash7 technologies, particularly in regard to collaborating on OpenTag, the open-source firmware library developed within the Dash7 Alliance. Students who commit to working on OpenTag may be selected to receive an associate membership at no cost, providing access to approved Dash7 specifications. Interested students may also e-mail Paul Ritchie, the alliance’s executive director, at
[email protected].