Presented here are recent news announcements regarding the following organizations: HID Global, Omni-ID, Terso Solutions, Semtech, IQnexus, AT&T, Kigen, the Industrial Internet Consortium and Link Labs.
HID Global Acquires Omni-ID
HID Global, a provider of trusted identity solutions, has announced that it has acquired Omni-ID, a manufacturer of RFID tags and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) hardware devices for passive and active tagging, tracking, monitoring and alerting applications. The acquisition is intended to strengthen HID’s presence in India and China, according to the company.
“I am very pleased to welcome Omni-ID into the ASSA ABLOY Group and HID,” said Björn Lidefelt, the executive VP and head of HID Global, in a prepared statement. “Omni-ID is a strategic technological addition to HID and reinforces our current RFID and IoT offering. Expanding our sales and manufacturing footprint in India and in China with Omni-ID will further enhance HID’s ability to serve customers locally, while extending our industrial IoT technology into emerging markets.”
Omni-ID provides passive, rugged, long-range UHF RFID tags and labels in several form factors for various identification requirements. The company focuses on organizations in the industrial, oil and gas, and transportation markets that seek RFID solutions for use in challenging environmental conditions, such as heat, wind, dirt, explosives and other difficult scenarios.
Through the acquisition, Omni-ID will bring passive UHF temperature sensing to HID’s identification technologies portfolio, while increasing its expertise and capabilities in custom RFID design and personalization. Active tags and solutions from Omni-ID feature embedded technologies and protocols, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), LoRaWAN, GPS, Quuppa and Wirepas, which the company says will complement the HID Location Services offerings.
“The acquisition of Omni-ID supports HID’s Identification Technologies business strategy to power trusted identities,” explained Marc Bielmann, HID’s senior VP and head of identification technologies, in the prepared statement, “by optimizing our portfolio with a broader range of value-added RAIN RFID UHF components, active identification devices and more ways to deliver highly customized, feature-rich solutions to customers as a leading component supplier for RFID use cases and IoT applications.”
Terso Solutions Deploys RFID at a Thousand Healthcare Facilities
Terso Solutions has announced that its suite of RFID devices, designed to provide real-time visibility, have been integrated into nearly 1,000 hospitals’ enterprise resource planning systems through Terso’s cloud-based software. Its solutions include enclosures such as cold chain devices, as well as mobile devices and RFID read points. The devices’ integration at medical centers, VA hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, Terso says, reflects the continued need for technology that can streamline operations and provide visibility into supply chains across the healthcare industry.
“Today, the lack of inventory visibility and interoperability in the healthcare supply chain is creating inefficiencies, higher costs and compromised patient safety,” said Joe Pleshek, Terso Solutions’ president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “RAIN RFID is automatically providing real-time data to interconnected software systems that are enabling hospitals and medical device manufacturers to proactively ensure that critical supplies are at the right place at the right time and in the right condition.” Terso works in partnership with RFID and IoT company Impinj.
The demand for supply chain automation in healthcare, Terso reports, has increased due to the need for future resilience. “Other technologies require user compliance. RAIN RFID solutions enable workflow automation, allowing users to do the job they were hired to do with little or no interaction with the system itself,” said Jason Rosemurgy, Terso’s senior VP of sales and marketing, in the statement. “Because of the efficiencies RAIN RFID creates, its adoption in healthcare will continue its exponential growth.”
Semtech, IQnexus Collaborate on LoRaWAN IoT Air-Quality Sensors
Semtech, a supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and algorithms, has announced a collaboration with IQnexus, a provider of IoT solutions and integration. IQnexus’s Indoor Air (IAQ) and Environment Quality (IEQ) sensors will now be integrated with Semtech’s LoRa devices that operate via the LoRaWAN standard for building-automation systems. The IAQ sensors feature no ongoing cloud fees, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and are compliant with the WELL and RESET standards.
“When developing the new IAQ sensors, we decided to take on a completely different approach to how IoT can improve a building’s air quality,” said Michael Welzel, IQnexus’s chief technology officer, in a prepared statement. “For an easy, on-premise solution, we chose to implement Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN standard into the indoor sensor for building owners to accurately monitor their building’s indoor air quality all in real time. The growth of this market has been massive, and collaborating with Semtech was the ideal choice to better improve air quality for all our customers in many countries.”
Through the use and connectivity of LoRaWAN, the IAQ sensor can communicate via standard protocols like BACnet and ModBus to any building-automation or energy-management system, as well as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. According to IQnexus, a typical installation features a single IoT platform installed on an on-premise NBNANOs server, as well as approximately 20 to 30 gateways and 700 to 1,000 sensors for a 30- to 50-floor building. The sensors cover IAQ and IEQ, in addition to measuring heating, ventilation and air-conditioning zones.
“IQnexus’s implementation of our IoT solutions highlights how flexible and easy to deploy our LoRa solutions are in helping to maintain air quality for all within a building,” added Marc Pégulu, the VP of IoT product marketing and strategy for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group, in the statement. “Improving the quality of life for humankind and the environment showcases Semtech’s ongoing commitment to create a smarter and greener world through IoT technology.”
AT&T, Kigen Add SIM Flexibility to Cellular IoT Devices
AT&T and Kigen have announced a collaboration to help customers streamline their supply chains and reduce time to market for enterprises looking to leverage SIM, embedded SIM and integrated SIM secured connectivity deep in their IoT devices. Kigen’s SIM OS, data-generation and key-management services will allow AT&T to offer a broader selection for integrated SIM solutions, the companies report. Manufacturers will be able to source their AT&T SIM at the stage of the device manufacturing process that best suits a particular customer, such as at the point of contract manufacturing, during module supply or at the chipset level.
The firms hope this will attract new customers undertaking cellular IoT transformation, as well as those accelerating the adoption of secure connected goods. Previously, the firms explain, device manufacturers had to purchase multiple SIM SKUs for each end-customer or market, which complicated global product rollouts. Access to a cache of SIMs compatible with cellular chipsets and secure IC vendors, the partners note, allows supply chain optimization and simplifies the manufacturing process by enabling suppliers, OEMs and licensees to identify the appropriate SIM solution earlier in the design process.
Kigen’s SIM OS, data-generation and key-management services will provide access to AT&T’s network across LTE, LTE-M and NB-IoT technologies, enabling new entrants and established players to adopt cellular IoT in their devices, while futureproofing them with 5G readiness. “By working with Kigen, we can help enable device manufacturers to streamline their IoT device development and manufacturing,” said William Stovall, AT&T’s VP of mobility, IoT and 5G, in a prepared statement. “This collaboration will also offer AT&T customers the ability to bring more innovative and secure features to market sooner.”
“Scale is both cellular IoT’s most significant opportunity and hurdle,” added Vincent Korstanje, Kigen’s CEO, in the statement. “Removing the complications of placing security at the heart of IoT devices so that businesses can focus on accelerating their products is key. The combination of Kigen’s solutions across all types of SIM from our ecosystem with AT&T’s connectivity simplifies how businesses choose the right type of security, tuned to their manufacturing needs, offering trusted IoT that scales.”
Industrial Internet Consortium Changes Name, Focus
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has announced that it will now be called the Industry IoT Consortium. The organization works to transform business and society by accelerating the adoption of the Industrial IoT, and to bring transformative business value to organizations, industry and society by promoting trustworthy IoT systems.
The IIC’s new focus, the organization reports, will drive technology innovation to foster business transformation so organizations can realize a return on their IoT investments. The consortium says it will continue its work on best-practice frameworks, innovative testbeds and standards requirements, as well as target IT networks, manufacturing, energy, utilities, healthcare, academia and research.
“We recognized the need to focus on technology deployments to solve technical problems,” said Dr. Richard Soley, the IIC’s executive director, in a prepared statement. “We’re applying technology to address customer pain points and improve business results. Industry organizations and technology providers turn to IIC and its members for IoT support and guidance. Now we’ll guide them on the application of IoT technology and digital transformation enablers to achieve positive business outcomes.”
The new direction is expected to strengthen the IIC’s ecosystem by unifying members around successful IoT deployment outcomes. New programs, combining multiple approaches to digital transformation, will identify customer pain points, improve go-to-market abilities and enhance business outcomes, the organization reports. Existing programs will change to reflect this focus, and new initiatives will emerge to help members reach more of their customers.
Link Labs Boosts Battery Life, Location Accuracy for BLE IoT Tags
Link Labs, which offers an IoT platform for locating, managing and monitoring equipment, supplies and assets, has announced the release of its Xtreme Low Energy (XLE) technology for IoT asset tracking. The patented wireless communication method is designed to extend the battery life of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags by more than 400 percent, the company reports, while improving accuracy in asset location to within 1 meter (3.3 feet). XLE is offered exclusively in Link Labs’ AirFinder OnSite IoT asset-tracking platform, launched in March 2021.
“With XLE, we’ve engineered a better version of Bluetooth LE that delivers an even greater capability to conserve power consumption while providing even more accurate location measurements to a tagged asset,” said Bob Proctor, Link Labs’ CEO, in a prepared statement. “By building on industry-standard, off-the-shelf Bluetooth LE tags with our proprietary firmware, XLE is a great option for companies looking to track assets more precisely across a broad and open indoor area. It’s ideal for manufacturing or warehousing and distribution environments where you need to find assets several times a day with near-exact location without straining the battery life of the IoT components.”
BLE is a wireless communication technology that enables IoT devices to connect and communicate with each other. Because it transfers a small amount of data at a time, Link Labs explains, it consumes a low level of power while increasing transmission speed and accuracy in determining an asset’s location. In an asset-management system, the company reports, this can positively impact costs since business will no longer need to replace batteries frequently in hundreds or thousands of IoT devices.
The XLE technology conserves battery life in an asset’s BLE tag via phase-ranging, which identifies an asset’s location to within 1 meter. When tags and beacons communicate with one another using XLE, a phase measurement provides a precise location by triangulating a tag’s location from at least three beacons. Tags in an AirFinder OnSite system measure ranges to known points, in order to quickly and precisely calculate their own x/y/z coordinates. Using this method, XLE battery tags can last for up to seven years, Link Labs says, whereas traditional BLE tags typically last for around three years.
With XLE, Link Labs reports, companies can track millions of high-value assets in campus-based environments with a high degree of accuracy and power efficiency. XLE can cover a large area, though it can also be scaled down based on specific business needs, or to only where coverage is needed.