RFID Journal today announced the winner of its second annual Coolest Demo Contest. The winner, honored at the RFID Journal LIVE! 2013 conference and exhibition, held last month in Orlando, Fla., was Keonn Technologies. The company won for the second year in a row (see RFID Journal Announces Winner of Its First Coolest Demo Contest and Coolest Demo Contest Winner: Keonn Technologies), for its “RFID-enabled Robot for Performing Automatic Inventory” demonstration.
The demo consisted of the AdvanRobot, comprising a mobile platform, a navigation system, batteries and a radio frequency identification subsystem. When placed within a given space, such as a retail store, the AdvanRobot moves across that space and reads the RFID tags of all tagged items, without human intervention. The robot avoids collisions with objects or people, thanks to its onboard sensors. The device provides not only inventory data, but also each tag’s location. The main benefits, according to Keonn Technologies, are higher inventory accuracy, tag location information, lower costs from performing inventory counts, and fewer human errors.
“This has been our second year exhibiting at RFID Journal LIVE!, and the results have been great,” says Ramir De Porrata-Doria, Keonn Technologies’ CEO. “We are very happy at having again received the Coolest Demo award. This is a great initiative that encourages exhibitors to bring attractive and live demos to the show.”
Attendees at the conference were encouraged to view all participating demonstrations and vote for the one they considered the coolest. RFID Journal‘s editors made the final choice, based on the vote totals and their own judgment. The main criterion for judging was the “wow” factor—whether a creative demo impressed judges and lured more attendees to a booth. Other contenders for this year’s Coolest Demo award included companies that showed off tags able to withstand severe punishment and extreme temperatures, software applications for tracking assets and mobile apps for smartphones equipped with RFID and Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality.
“There were a lot of great demos throughout the hall, and there was a great deal of buzz about them throughout the event,” says Mark Roberti, RFID Journal‘s founder and editor. “Keonn Technologies has clearly shown a flair for innovation, and we’re proud to have them exhibiting at the conference. I can’t wait to see what the company—and our other exhibitors—come up with for next year.”