At last week’s RFID Journal LIVE! exhibition and conference, Zebra Technologies announced an RFID sled known as the RFD8500 that will enable users of smartphones and other mobile devices to read EPC ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags by connecting their Android or iOS devices to the reader via Bluetooth. Zebra has already tested and approved the RFD8500 for use with Apple‘s iPhone 6, iPad and iPod Touch, as well as Zebra’s Android-based mobile devices, such as the TC55 and MC40. The company also expects to eventually test and approve the RFD8500 for use with Android smartphones and tablets, according to Chris Schaefer, Zebra’s market-development senior director, following the RFD8500’s anticipated availability in September.
The RFD8500 sled, which comes with UHF RFID reader hardware developed by Zebra for this specific product, is designed to be light and ergonomically comfortable for use in indoor settings, the company reports. To operate the device, an individual could either attach a compatible phone to the RFD8500 by simply sliding it onto the sled’s top, or carry it on his or her person. The reader captures UHF RFID data from standard UHF tags when it comes within range of them, and that information is then transmitted to the user’s mobile phone or tablet that is paired to that reader, via a Bluetooth connection. If the user does not want to carry a phone or tablet at the time he or she is reading tags, the RFD8500 can automatically store the collected read data until it comes within range of the tablet or phone—about 10 meters (33 feet). The phone or tablet could then forward that information to a server via a Wi-Fi, cellular or Bluetooth connection.
A single sled will be compatible with both iOS and Android devices so that it could be used by multiple devices at a single site, such as a store, says Altaf Mulla, Zebra’s product management director for RFID and other data capture systems (DCS). The sled’s rechargeable battery has a full-shift (eight-hour) life range. It supports two mounting options—a custom adaptor and a quad-lock adaptor—to allow a range of Zebra computers, smartphones and third-party devices to be easily attached. Additionally, the RFD8500 will support select features of the EPC Gen2v2 standard, in order to provide retailers with additional protection of consumer privacy and against counterfeit products. The company plans to announce other details about the RFD8500, including its pricing and expected read range, sometime in July 2015.
Once it is commercially released five months from now, the RFD8500 will join several other already-available products designed to bring UHF RFID read capability to a smartphone or tablet, including devices from CipherLab, Technology Solutions Ltd. (TSL) and U Grok It. TSL’s 1128 Bluetooth UHF RFID reader is a sled designed to accommodate a variety of smartphones and other handheld devices, regardless of operating system platform (including iOS and Android, as well as Microsoft Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 8 and WinCE). The 1228 has a price of about $1,400 and a range of approximately 2 meters (6.6 feet). U Grok It sells a simpler sled-like product with a read range of up to 7 meters (23 feet), at a price of $500. The company is currently developing solutions with which the reader could be used. Though not a sled device, CipherLab’s recently released 1862 UHF RFID Bluetooth Reader is the latest in the 1860 series of handheld readers that pair with mobile devices via a Bluetooth connection. The 1862 is priced at $1,700 and offers a read range of up to 6 meters (19.7 feet).
The RFD8500 UHF RFID Bluetooth reader follows the 2013 release of Zebra’s RFD5500 sled, which works with the company’s MC55, MC65 and MC67 family of mobile computers based on the Windows Mobile operating system (see Motorola Sled Reader Adds Low-Cost RFID Functionality to Mobile Computers). The RFD5500 sled was Zebra’s first product for adding EPC UHF RFID functionality to its existing mobile computers.
“Since that time,” Mulla says, “we’ve continued looking at where we want to go with new products.” Zebra found that customers were also interested in adding RFID data-collection capabilities to other devices, such as Android-based phones and tablets, iPhones and iPads. He notes that companies—whether in retail or other markets—increasingly expect their employees to leverage tablets and phones to manage products or work processes. However, such devices generally are not integrated with RFID readers.
The companies that have shown the most initial interest in the product, Mulla reports, are large retailers that operate multiple stores at which workers need to track inventory on store shelves or in back rooms. The sled can also be used in warehouses or other indoor locations, such as at a health-care facility.
To manage the read data, Zebra has created demonstration applications that users could employ to, for instance, create inventory lists. However, Schaefer predicts, most users will want to leverage existing off-the-shelf applications from Zebra’s RFID solution provider partners. Customers or partners can also design their own application to manage the read data with the types of features that would be helpful, such as identifying when a product’s stock-keeping unit (SKU) needs to be reordered, or whether something needs to be moved from the back room to the sales floor.
The RFD8500 comes with the Zebra Easy Text Interface (ZETI), which allows integration of the read data to a user’s own applications. Several companies—primarily retailers—plan to pilot the sleds during the coming months, Schaefer says. Zebra expects the retailers to use the sleds for updating inventory counts, as well as for seeking missing products and identifying a counterfeit product if it has a UHF RFID anti-counterfeit tag.
The sled is not intended for use in industrial or outdoor environments in which users would want a more rugged solution, or would not want to go to the trouble of using a phone or tablet along with the reader. Instead, it is designed for indoor use by companies at which workers use smartphones or tablets to manage read data, and now require the ability to utilize those same devices for reading tags. According to the company, the RFD8500 is designed to be very simple to use; for instance, one button switches the device’s mode from bar-code scanning to RFID tag reading.
The device can also be placed in Geiger counter mode. A user would then input the product he or she was seeking, by using the software on his or her phone or tablet. That instruction would be forwarded to the sled, which would then seek a specific tag ID number and emit an audible tone when it comes within range of that tag.