Sep 12, 2013The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations: New York Comic Con; Ekahau; LogiTag Systems; Versus Technology; Kassel-Calden Airport; and the Central College Nottingham.
New York Comic Con Adopts RFID to Control Counterfeiting
Next month, regular attendees of New York Comic Con (NYCC), a pop-culture and comic-book convention held at the Javits Center in midtown Manhattan, will notice something new: RFID-enabled badges. The event's organizer, ReedPOP, made the switch from paper tickets to the RFID badges in order to thwart the use of counterfeit tickets—a problem that has plagued the exposition for some time—as well as better monitor and control traffic. "Our core reason for doing this is for safety and security," says Randy Field, VP of the customer success group and operations technology at Reed Exhibitions (ReedPOP's parent company). "We feel that, in the past, a lot of people have used counterfeit tickets." The badges are made of plastic, each containing an NXP Semiconductors Mifare Near Field Communication (NFC) chip embedded in it. The event's Web site indicates that the badges' RFID chips are designed to ensure that "pesky counterfeiters can't sell you a crappy, wannabe NYCC Badge. If you're caught with a counterfeit Badge you'll be asked to leave NYCC 2013 immediately. It sounds harsh, but we're cracking down on the crooks to make your experience 100x cooler!" NYCC staff members will be issued Google Nexus 7 tablets, which come with built-in NFC RFID readers. The workers will use the devices to check badges at all the entrances and exits, as well as while patrolling the Javits Center throughout the convention. When entering or exiting the building, attendees will be required to tap the Nexus 7 tablets with their NYCC ID badges. ReedPOP notes, on the event's Web site, that each RFID chip contains only a unique ID number associated with a particular user profile that each registrant provides during the badge-activation process, and that a badge's RFID tag will not be encoded with the badge-holder's name or any other personal information. The data collected through the RFID technology includes such things as the quantity of people entering NYCC, the date and time of each visit, the number of times the badge-holder entered and exited, and which entrances or exits were used, according to ReedPOP. All of the NYCC ID badges are being mailed to attendees, the Web site explains, and upon receipt, badge holders can activate their badges online to access special features, show exclusives and contests, as well as to link their badges with their social-media profiles. Online registration is not required, but only those that are registered will be replaced if a badge is lost, damaged or stolen. ReedPOP is also considering the use of NFC-enabled kiosks positioned at various places on the show floor; attendees would then be able to tap their badges to check in and share experiences with their social-media profiles, Field explains. Some exhibitors may also have the ability to scan badges, he adds, if attendees choose to tap their badges at those locations.
Virginia High School Installs Ekahau's RFID Solution to Bolster Emergency Responses
Ekahau has announced that Patrick Henry High School, located in Glade Spring, Va., is employing Ekahau's RFID-over-Wi-Fi real-time location system (RTLS). The high school is using the solution to support its school safety and emergency response procedures and practices. The solution consists of Ekahau's Wi-Fi-based RFID tags, infrared (IR) beacons to make location data more granular and Ekahau's Vision software. The school initially tested the system over a span of three days, beginning in late August. Now, Ekahau reports, the school has 60 Ekahau B4 badges for faculty members, including administrators, teachers (39 of whom have received the badges to date), janitors, cafeteria staff and the nurse. The B4 badge can be tracked and located via the Ekahau RTLS solution over any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network, according to the company, and can typically achieve room-level accuracy using Wi-Fi as the location method. The badge tag transmits a unique ID number linked to an employee's identification information stored in the Vision software. School employees wear the Ekahau RFID badges on lanyards and, in the event of a medical, disciplinary or other emergency, they can pull down on the badge's safety switch in order to alert co-workers and police dispatchers of the emergency. If an alert is issued, Ekahau's Vision software captures and interprets the location and other information. Within seconds, the software transmits a message directly to the appropriate badges within the facility, thereby informing other personnel regarding the emergency's nature and where it is occurring. The B4 badge features three call buttons and an alarm switch, all of which can be programmed to address different calls initiated by a user. For instance, a button press can signify a call for basic assistance, whereas the alarm switch can be used to summon nearby co-workers to help with a life-threatening situation. The Ekahau Vision software also allows school officials and dispatchers to send mass notifications to teachers' badges, displayed as text messages on the badge's LED screen, according to the company. In the event of a school lock-down, e-mails can be sent to county school officials, notifying them of this action. In addition, the Ekahau system automatically records and time-stamps all emergency events, including where they occurred, who responded, whether they were resolved—and, if so, how—for use and review by school boards and local police departments. The Virginia high school has also installed Ekahau temperature tags in some areas, so temperatures can be monitored during summers, holidays, weekends and after hours. The tags monitor a large walk-in refrigerator and walk-in freeze in the cafeteria, Ekahau reports. In the past a person would have to enter to check on the units manually. Ekahau's RTLS is typically used in hospitals and other health-care facilities (see RFID News Roundup: German Senior Citizens Home Implements Ekahau Wi-Fi RTLS and RFID News Roundup: Australia's Dandenong Hospital Selects Wi-Fi RTLS From Ekahau for Emergency Department), but schools are now beginning to implement the technology as well. For example, Idaho's Skyview High School is utilizing the Ekahau RTLS to support its emergency response program (see Idaho School Installs RTLS to Make Students Safer).
Assuta Medical Center Implements LogiTag's SmartCabinet
LogiTag Systems, a provider of RFID solutions and inventory-management systems, has announced that the Assuta Medical Center has implemented its RFID-enabled SmartCabinet solution within the hospital's catheterization laboratories. Assuta, Israel's largest private medical services center, runs two cath labs that perform more than 5,000 diagnosis catheterization and treatment procedures annually, LogiTag reports. The hospital is using the SmartCabinet solution to aid in tracking inventory, and to obtain an accurate view of inventory levels and usage at all times, the company indicates. As a result of the installation, LogiTag adds, the cath labs have eliminated the need for manual counting and reordering practices by nurses and other personnel. The LogiTag solution leverages 13.56 MHz passive RFID tags compliant with the ISO 15693 standard, which are attached to medical supplies. The SmartCabinet's built-in RFID reader, designed and manufactured by LogiTag, then captures when products enter and leave its shelves, and provides access to authorized employees. The SmartCabinet automatically creates a digital record of which items have been removed, as well as by whom. "LogiTag's SmartCabinet solution has changed the way we manage our cath-lab inventory," said Chemi Shamir, an Assuta purchasing manager, in a prepared statement. "The fact we can move from a manual to automate counting process has given us the flexibility to work under a consignment model with our medical suppliers. This means both our suppliers and we now have ongoing real-time reports on what has been used, due to expire, needs invoicing, or re-stocking. We no longer pay our suppliers in advance or hold inventory that may not be utilized; therefore, saving the hospital much needed resources. Given this great outcome, we plan to use SmartCabinet in other departments including our eye clinic." Other health-care organizations are using LogiTag's solutions as well. New York Hospital Queens is employing LogiTag's SmartCabinets and StockBox to automate the management of medical devices and consumables (see New York Hospital Queens Tests RFID Inventory System). The StockBox is designed for consumables, such as surgical supplies, that are used only once. When a predetermined amount of product is consumed, an RFID tag is placed within an RFID-enabled box, thereby triggering the reordering of that item from the warehouse or stockroom.
Sentara Healthcare, Trinitas Regional Medical Center Select Versus RTLS
Two health-care organizations—Sentara Healthcare and the Trinitas Regional Medical Center—have implemented Versus Technology's real-time locating system (RTLS), a solution that combines readers, badges and tags for tracking individuals and assets. The system uses infrared (IR) signals, as well as RFID as a backup solution, in the event that the IR signal is blocked or not operating properly. When a tag's IR signal, emitted every three seconds, is received by the IR reader at a particular location, the interrogator transmits its own ID number, along with that of the tag, to the Versus software. In the event that the IR signal is not being received (if, for instance, a blanket is covering the tag and its infrared beacon), the RFID system provides a backup by emitting a 433 MHz RFID signal—which also beacons every three seconds—using a proprietary air-interface protocol. The tags and badges communicate with wireless, battery-powered V-Link sensors. Following a six-month, hospital-wide asset-tracking pilot at the Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, Sentara Healthcare selected Versus' Advantages Asset Tracking and Fleet Management system. The hospital now plans to implement the solution at its nine additional locations throughout Virginia and North Carolina. The hospitals will use the solution to track a variety of assets, including IV pumps, beds and more. Sentara was able to build its asset-tracking system onto a Versus RTLS network already in use for nurse-call automation, Versus reports. Upon its initial pursuit of RTLS technology for asset tracking, Sentara's main goal was to reduce equipment loss. Further into its evaluation of the RTLS solution, Sentara's staff realized that it could improve its return on investment (ROI) by focusing on equipment utilization. During the pilot, 500 assets were tagged and tracked for three weeks, in order to collect baseline data, prior to the frond-end software being rolled out to staff. Comparing utilization data from the three-week period before and after the system was taken live, Versus notes, showed that IV pump utilization increased by 17 percent, IV pump module utilization increased by 7 percent, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump inventory was found to be underutilized, and less labor time was spent searching for equipment, with staff members able to take on additional duties. "We actually had a standing order for 10 pumps and modules," said Patrice Lavoie, Sentara's senior business applications analyst, in the prepared statement. "We realized immediately that we didn't need them." Prior to the implementation of the RTLS solution, Sentara's overall utilization rate was 54 percent—already higher than the average utilization rate for mobile equipment (42 percent). Currently, Sentara Williamsburg maintains a 75 percent utilization rate, according to Versus. There have been gains in the hospital's sterile processing department (SPD) as well. Automatic notifications alert the SPD when used equipment is awaiting sterilization, Versus explains. The Trinitas Regional Medical Center, a full-service health-care facility serving Central New Jersey, is using Versus' Visibility Staff Assist solution to enhance its safety protocols. Provided via Maffey's Security Group, the local Versus certified systems integrator and Trinitas' security vendor of more than 50 years, the solution provides badges for caregivers. By pressing the badge button, workers can immediately summon help to their location. More than 200 Trinitas physicians, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and technicians wear Versus badges. Trinitas first implemented the Staff Assist system within its emergency department (ED) in February 2013. According to Versus, ED employees can push their badge buttons to summon help in the event of medical emergencies (for example, to help with a patient suffering a cardiac arrest), or to request a Code Gray (combative patient or visitor). Trinitas has since expanded the system into its inpatient and outpatient psychiatric units, as well as to its drug abuse counseling facility. A button-push within these areas immediately triggers a Code Gray response. Implementation in the medical/surgical unit, which sometimes houses psychiatric patients, is on the horizon. In the prepared statement, John Dougherty, Trinitas' security director, said, "We're always going to have our Code Grays, but Staff Assist may cut down on actual physical assault, because of improved response times".
Germany's Kassel-Calden Airport Tests RFID to Guide Visually Impaired Visitors
The European Union-funded research project designed to improve the lives of visually impaired citizens, dubbed SESAMONET (Secure and Safe Mobility Network), is testing its RFID-enabled technology at the Kassel-Calden regional airport, in Germany. The SESAMONET was initially tested in 2007 in the city of Laveno, Italy, where RFID tags were installed along a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) path leading from the city's railway station to the banks of Lago Maggiore, through a park near the lake, and also extended across intersections. Blind and sighted people alike tested the technology using custom-designed canes that serve as interrogators (see Tags Lead the Way for Blind in EU-Funded Pilot). The project is overseen by the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC), which developed the prototype. The JRC initially developed the SESAMONET platform in collaboration with the RFID Lab at the Sapienza University of Rome. Since the Laveno test's conclusion, and following a license agreement signed with the Italian Blind Union (Unione Italiana Ciechi) in 2011, other RFID-enabled pathways have been deployed at several public locations in Italy, such as Gemelli Hospital, in Rome, and the University of Calabria. The Kassel-Calden airport project, Germany's first official SESAMONET RFID-enabled pathway, aims to make air travel more accessible for those with impaired vision, according to the JRC. This is important in view of current demographic trends toward an ageing society with a growing number of persons affected by vision loss, the JRC adds. At the Kassel-Calden airport, passive 134.2 kHz RFID transponders have been embedded into a concrete area, as well as at the airport's entrances, thereby forming a virtual path that guides people using custom-designed canes that serve as interrogators for the RFID tags encased in the path. The electronic canes read the transponders' ID numbers and forward the data via a Bluetooth connection to a nearby device where all navigation instructions and audio messages are managed. Roughly 450 transponders were installed, according to Berta Duane, JRC's press officer. The transponders were integrated directly into concrete tiles manufactured by Klostermann GmbH. The tiles were placed along the pathway, Duane says, with each transponder set at a distance of 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) from the next one. Researchers are considering adding the SESAMONET navigation system to the indoor part of the terminal during the project's second phase.
Central College Nottingham Tests NFC to Help Teach English as a Foreign Language
Central College Nottingham, in the United Kingdom, has tested Near Field Communication (NFC), smart posters and smartphones to help teach English as Foreign Language (EFL) students. A blog entry posted by Simon Wardman, an EFL teacher at Central College Nottingham and one of the project's initiators, explained that the NFC-enabled scavenger hunts were designed to provide the students with information regarding language outside the classroom, in a contextualized way. When students found and scanned the posters, which featured NFC tags, they were linked to the English definitions of nearby objects, hosted on a crowd-sourced dictionary known as Toponimo. From there, the students were required to make a collaborative decision about the most appropriate meaning of the word, relevant to its context. The NFC project followed an earlier one that leveraged QR codes, which can also be read via smartphones. The downside, Wardman wrote in his article, "is that you need to download special software before you can use them, fiddle around on your phone to get to the right app and the results are all too frequently underwhelming. QR codes may have their function, but the reality is that they're often tricky and frustrating to use." Those limitations, he wrote, caused students to skip the exercise. Thomas Sweeney, a researcher from the University of Nottingham's Learning Science Research Institute, suggested NFC RFID technology to Wardman, and helped him set up the NFC trial. The tags used for the project were RapidNFC 29mm Round Clear NFC Tags, made with NXP Semiconductors NTAG203 NFC chips featuring 137 bytes of usable memory, according to Sweeney (who also co-wrote the article with Wardman). The software for the project was custom-written and runs natively on Android, Sweeney says. According to the article, interacting with the NFC tags was easier, especially since the students could touch a tag with a phone to share information between the phone and the tag. Additionally, the NFC tags were more convenient for teachers, since they could be easily re-written—which saved a lot of time when creating new vocabulary hunts, Wardman wrote. Students were also able to create interactive posters themselves, and use these to set challenges for fellow students. According to the article, Central College Nottingham has analyzed the project to determine how well the NFC-enabled scavenger hunts helped EFL students. Out of the 29 students who took part, the article reports, 25 held a positive attitude toward the activity and saw benefits in learning using contextually relevant vocabulary.
