Tagging patients by radio transmitters...

BANGALORE: When patients are admitted to the Out Patient Department of the Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain (BMJ) Heart Centre here, they are provided a special card fitted with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip.

HEART AND BRAIN: The cardiac laboratory at the BMJ Heart Centre in Bangalore (left) is linked to the Clinical Information Processing Platform developed by Aventyn.

This helps the hospital keep track of the patient, via radio, as they move from reception to consultation and treatment rooms. The record of tests conducted, medicines prescribed, bills raised... are all available wirelessly in an instant at any of over a dozen stations, helping the hospital treat the patient, speedily and with minimum hassle.

The RFID technology — the use of tiny embedded radio transmitters to track people and objects — forms the communication backbone of the Clinical Information Processing Platform (CLIP) deployed at BMJ, a state-of-the-art hospital management system that has been developed by an Indian-founded, U.S.-based company, Aventyn.

The latest — version 1.2 — of CLIP, is one of the first of its kind in the healthcare industry, providing clinicians, health care providers and hospital administrators, with a single but comprehensive tool that links up "live" with the key element of any such operation: the patient.

The RFID is increasingly being harnessed to keep track of large inventories in warehouses and depots — but new and creative applications are enlarging its scope.

At BMJ for example, they tag not just patients but high value inventory such as pacemakers and stents as well.

In a special report on the CLIP deployment at the Bangalore hospital, Beth Bacheldor wrote in RFID Journal last week that over 100 patients were being tagged daily.

Satish Chandra, Director of non-invasive cardiology, is quoted as saying that the hospital's experience has encouraged it to extend the system to inpatient and intensive care departments.

The San Diego-based Aventyn was founded by Navin Govind, who has contributed key wireless technologies earlier at Intel and Tarari Inc.

In recent weeks, the CLIP solution has been widely discussed by RFID forums worldwide — and the experience in Bangalore will be closely watched by other potential user agencies worldwide.

Source : Hinduonnet

Report studies chipless RFID market potential

Research and Markets has announced the recent publication of a report entitled 'Printed and Chipless RFID Forecasts, Technologies & Players 2007-2017', which shows how chipless RFID smart labels - which can cost much less than chip-based RFID tags - could grow from 0.4% of the RFID market in 2006 to as much as 45% of the market by 2016.

With cumulative sales of 100 million chipless tags to date (compared to 2,322 million chip-based RFID tags), chipless devices have the potential to grow to 45% of the market in 2016, the report says. Ultimately, the end aim will be for RFID to be almost costless, in the same way that barcodes are today. reaswaran This article is copyright 2007 UsingRFID.com.

Big players grow the market

Some of the biggest names in the business now offer both chip and Chipless RFID in order to cover a full range of user needs. From AstraZeneca to Calvin Klein, companies are already using them in large volumes and many paper and packaging companies have licensed the various processes.

Chipless RFID tags can operate to over 10 meters in range and with 256 bits of data, and can cost as little as one-tenth of their silicon chip equivalents. Chipless RFID can be materials-based, or can consist of transistorless circuits. Transparent polymer transistor circuits are now also available from Philips, PolyIC, OrganicID and Motorola among others. These directly mimic the circuit on a chip.

The chipless future

These factors, the report says, mean that chipless technology is addressing mainstream RFID applications and is likely to grow the market rapidly through massive price reductions.

The report on chipless RFID contains detailed market forecasts from 2006 to 2016, an analysis of the technologies being implemented today, and several detailed case histories and company profiles of the various trials and successes in the industry. The authors also offer their assessment of who will be the winners and losers in the market, and what the future will bring.

Source: Using RFID.com

RFID Survey Reports Lack of Man Power

The talent pool of RFID professionals is shallow and could impact the successful adoption of the technology by companies keen to comply with the expectations of major retailers, a recent industry report shows, writes Simon Pitman.

Eighty per cent of companies participating in the survey said they do not believe there are sufficient numbers of professionals skilled in RFID to hire from today - the report from the Comupting Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) finds. Two-thirds of organisations (66.7 per cent) said training and educating their employees in the technology is one of the biggest challenges they will face in order to succeed in the RFID market.

"We believe the market needs hundreds of systems integration companies with RFID capabilities; and hundreds of thousands of individuals knowledgeable in this technology to meet current and future demand," said David Sommer, vice president, electronic commerce, CompTIA.

Sommer presented the findings of the CompTIA survey in a presentation today at the RFID World 2005 conference in Dallas, Texas.

CompTIA says it is working with a cross section of major players in the RFID market to address the skills shortage. Product manufacturers, distributors, system integrators, education and training providers, and end-user customers are active in an effort to craft a vendor-neutral professional certification of RFID skills for individuals working with the technology.

The survey of CompTIA members found that customer adoption of RFID solutions is relatively modest. A significant number of companies - 71.4 per cent - said their customers have not implemented RFID solutions. For those organisations with customers that implemented RFID solutions, responding companies said that fewer than 20 per cent of their customers have done so.

Similarly, 80 per cent of the responding companies said either they have yet to go past the investigation stage of RFID implementation; or have done no investigation at all. Just 16 per cent have implemented one or more RFID pilot projects for themselves or their customers.

Survey respondents said their customers come from a variety of industries, including services, government, manufacturing, retail, health care, communications, and financial services and real estate.

When asked if they see their company offering RFID products and services in the next three years, 37.3 per cent of organisations said they definitely will; and 39.2 per cent said they would consider it if there is interest from their customers. Companies expect to offer hardware installation and maintenance services (82.1 per cent), software implementations (61.5 per cent) and other services (51.3 per cent).

The majority of respondents to the survey were value-added resellers and solutions providers (33.3 per cent); consultants and systems integrators (21.6 per cent); and manufactures (19.6 per cent). Two-thirds of the companies have annual revenues of up to $25 million; while 22 per cent are companies with annual revenues of $100 million or more.

So far companies in the US have been quickest to take up on the technology. In the manufacturing sector a lot of this movement is being driven by companies trying to comply with RFID requirements implemented by major retailers such as Wal-Mart.

This action has prompted many major players in industries such as the food and beverage industry, as well as the cosmetics and personal care industry to introduce the technology as a key part of their supply chain. Following on from this movement in the US, these companies are also starting to implement RFID systems to their operations in Europe, but at a slower pace.

Source: The Navigtor

In-Stat: Wi-Fi RFID tag market to double annually

Market research firm In-Stat reported there were 135,000 shipments of Wi-Fi RFID tags in 2006 and the market is set to double each year until 2010. This would result to more than 2.1 million units in three years.

According to In-Stat, shipments under the AeroScout brand accounted for the majority of Wi-Fi RFID tags shipped in 2006 and the key application areas for growth are health care, heavy manufacturing, transportation and logistics.

"Historically, one of the key weaknesses of this market has been the short battery life of asset tags," said In-Stat analyst Daryl Schoolar in a statement. "G2 MicroSystems, the only tag-specific chip vendor, has made strides in overcoming this weakness, with multiyear battery life now a reality."

Source: EE-Times

RF switch enables seamless enterprise mobility

In order to become 802.11n compliant, Motorola Inc. has introduced what it claims the industry's first RF wireless switch that bridges the gap between Wi-Fi and RFID, future RF technologies and indoor and outdoor wireless networks. The enterprise-class RF switch supports location, management and security services. The RFS7000 can accommodate Motorola and third-party vendor services, providing seamless enterprise mobility indoors to large businesses requiring a WLAN.

It is capable of supporting 256 802.11a/b/g access points and enables a new switch clustering concept, providing redundancy and high-performance scalability for up to 3,000 access points, Motorola said.

The RFS7000 is part of Motorola's end-to-end enterprise WLAN product suite, which comes under the company's MOTOwi4 portfolio of wireless broadband solutions and services that complement IP networks.

The RF switch's "locationing" capability enables real-time tracking of Wi-Fi devices and active tags. With this service, businesses have the ability to locate employees for safety or track high-value and mission-critical assets. In a healthcare setting, locationing services could be used to track crash carts, transfusion pumps, defibrillators, and portable X-ray and dialysis machines. Locationing can also be used to find and track inventory for customers.

Motorola's integrated management suite, comprised of a LAN planner and mobility services platform, is a set of tools to help enterprises centrally plan, deploy, manage and secure their RF infrastructure and environment, said the company. The integrated wireless intrusion protection system solution detects and locates rogue devices, protecting the network against denial-of-service attacks. The sensor-based system also provides compliance reporting and advanced forensics, as well as monitors, detects, protects and prevents intrusions to a wireless network.

Source: EE-Times

Epson invests in RuBee asset-tracking RFID tech

Epson Electronics has entered a "strategic" investment with Visible Assets Inc., an asset tracker specialist and one of the main backers of wireless RuBee technology.

RuBee technology is a low-frequency network protocol for tough to track goods. They work underwater and in underground environments that obstruct higher-frequency RFID signals. RuBee tags can be made as thin as 1.5mm and operate for as long as 10 years using a coin-sized lithium ion battery.

Last year, the IEEE started work on developing a standard—dubbed 1902.1—for the protocol, whose backers in the retail sector include U.K.-based Tesco and Germany's Metro Group, as well as technology companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, Sony, Panasonic and Motorola.

Visible Assets is using its patented technology to offer supply chain and asset visibility platforms to retailers.

"This investment will provide both companies with new commercial opportunities in many markets," Epson Electronics America (EEA) CEO Toshio Akahane said. "EEA and our parent company, Seiko Epson Corp. in Japan, plan to offer RuBee-enabled silicon devices, as well as using the technology in a wide variety of products."

The RuBee protocol works with both active radio tags and passive tags that have no battery. A controlled reading range of 1-100ft and an integrated clock ensure high security and privacy.

Source: EE-Times

RFID meets robotics: a twist in mobile supply tracking

New hospital system uses robots to track and transport medical equipment

February 26, 2007 -- Aethon Inc. today announced a system that uses robots to monitor the movement of medical equipment tagged with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips and fetch it when needed by nurses or other hospital staff.

The new mobile asset utilization system is designed to locate, deliver and recover hospital equipment using RFID tags and two robots, the company said. The system includes a robot called Homer that constantly roams the hospital pinging for RFID tags on hospital equipment to track locations. A second robot, called Tug, delivers clean equipment and returns used equipment to a central location.

The Tug robot is already used at 75 hospitals as a courier to deliver and recover equipment, according to Pittsburgh-based Aethon.

The system is designed to keep track of large numbers of hospital equipment such as IV pumps, wheelchairs and respirators and to ensure staff can access them when they are needed, said Aldo Zini, Aethon's president and CEO.

"A lot of hospitals are beginning to realize that to get the true value out of an asset-tracking system so they can actually improve asset utilization and decrease costs you have to do more than locate assets," he said. "You need to be able to locate it, retrieve it and deliver it to its proper location."

Zini said that many asset-tracking systems used in hospitals today require the installation of an expensive infrastructure of antennas and receivers to triangulate the location of RFID-tagged equipment.

Aethon's system uses the robot's single antenna to track the location of tagged equipment and does not require that more equipment be installed, he noted. In addition, the Homer robot can read multiple third-party RFID tags, Zini said.

The company said it does not require hospitals to sign site licenses but instead offers per-tag pricing.

Skill Shortage Hits RFID Growth

Radio frequency identification is significantly hampered by the shortage of IT professionals who are trained in the technology

The IT industry is facing a shortage of professionals well-versed in RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, and this could affect the adoption of the technology, warned a senior official at Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

According to Michael Mudd, the industry body's Asia-Pacific director of public policy, there are fewer than 1,000 qualified IT professionals available worldwide who understand and know enough to deploy and service RFID technology. Mudd was in town for the RFID Connect Asia held here last week.

For instance, Mudd said, compared with the "hundreds of thousands" of technicians who are certified by CompTIA or other IT vendors such as Cisco Systems, and skilled in fixing PCs or servers, the current number of available RFID skilled workers is "very low".

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, he noted: "It's probably one of the things that's keeping back the deployment of the [RFID] technology."

Companies do not simply consider the cost of buying the technology when they look at deploying RFID, he added. "It's [also about] the cost of maintaining, training, servicing [and] replacement of spare parts," Mudd said.

"The RFID skills shortage must be addressed to help drive down implementation costs and make a better ROI (returns on investment) case", he said.

Mudd cautioned that the skills dearth can prove to be the next biggest inhibitor of successful RFID deployment after customers cross the implementation hurdle.

According to preliminary results of a CompTIA survey conducted in February this year, which polled 56 members from the industry group, 69.6 percent of the respondents indicated that there is an insufficient RFID talent pool. Some 64.7 percent also believed that the lack of skilled individuals will affect the adoption of RFID.

Mudd said: "RFID is not yet a plug-and-play technology. Each deployment is unique, and within each deployment, any number of variables can affect its success or failure."

"Most of the [RFID] skills that are lacking are in the areas of understanding how the physics of radio frequencies work, and how to tag items so that they are readable," he said.

He noted that to execute any RFID initiative successfully, there needs to be trained and certified professionals with knowledge and experience in radio frequency engineering and design, supply chain management, logistics, warehouse management, and familiarity in RFID products and standards.

According to CompTIA, the industry body has worked with over 20 organizations with "leadership positions in RFID technology" to develop an industry-accepted credential that validates a technician's knowledge and skills in the areas of installation, maintenance, repair and upkeep of hardware and software functionality of RFID products. For instance, the CompTIA RFID+ is a vendor-neutral certification that addresses critical skills related to the installation, maintenance, repair and troubleshooting of hardware and software functionality of RFID products.

RFID Passive Tags Track Cars

A South African company, iPico Holdings, "has developed and tested RFID passive tags and readers that can be used to monitor vehicles at a read distance of 17 feet traveling at speeds of 160 mph.

The tags are attached to the windshield inside the cars while the readers are placed on the roadside or on bridges. When an equipped car passes in front a reader, at a speed not exceeding 250 kph, the unique 64-bit ID of the tag is read. The readers, which cost about US$1,000, can detect up to 7,200 vehicles per minute. The tags cost currently 60 cents each -- for an order of 5 million tags. The technology will be used to control traffic and speed, but also will enable immediate traffic ticketing or toll collection.

Here is the Funda

South African RFID chip and reader design firm iPico Holdings announced the commercial availability of its Electronic Number Plate (ENP) RFID technology. The company says its technology is already being deployed in a pilot in South America.

IPico’s new UHF ENP technology uses the company’s existing EM4222 passive chip design already used for supply chain management and tire-tagging applications. For its ENP system, however, the company redesigned the tag so it could be attached to the inside of a vehicle’s windshield and developed readers for roadside placement.

Using RFID in electronic vehicle identification promises to support a range of applications both for government and local authorities and for businesses. The technology is being considered for electronic vehicle licensing, traffic, speed and cross-border control and traffic ticketing, as well as for existing operations such as road toll collection and fleet and parking management.

Will this technology really work?

The company maintains that when used with its readers, the ENP tag can be read at distances that allow readers to be placed at the roadside or on bridges over roads. In July, the company demonstrated the technology at an automotive test track operated by Gerotek Test Facilities in Pretoria. Four Smart cars, a DaimlerChrysler line of very small vehicles sold in South Africa as well as in Europe and Asia, were each fitted with two ENP tags to simulate eight vehicles.

The system was tested as the cars drove closely together at both at low speed (80 kph, or 50 mph) and high speed (120 kph, or 75 mph), says iPico, and all the tags were read each time they passed roadside readers. In addition, an ENP tag placed on the inside windshield of a Mercedes Benz C55 model was also succesfully read while the car traveled at speeds in excess of 250 kph (160 mph).

OK, it works for one car, but does it also work to control thousands of cars?
according to the company, its system can read up to 200 tags per second; on a continuous basis, the system can read an average of 7,200 tags per minute. These volumes can be read either by a single reader, by a single reader that has an array of up to four antennas, or by multiple readers in close proximity (say four readers covering four lanes of a highway) that are connected with iPico’s DIMI (Device Information & Management Interface) middleware platform.

IPico has started a test program in a non-disclosed country in South America, and says that 5 million tags have already been ordered. In the future, the tags will also contain more information, such as the vehicle license plate, which will permit to detect stolen cars.

Source : www.primidi.com

Rugged RFID antenna suits baler, compactor applications

Tyco Electronics has expanded its RFID solutions product family with the introduction of a line of ruggedized RFID antennas for use in baler and compactor RFID applications.

The M/A-COM MAAN-000210-AT0000 is a linear polarized antenna with a high-density polyethylene radome that is said to provide superior protection from constant abrasion. It also has a neoprene gasket to prevent liquids from infiltrating the antenna.

The M/A-COM MAAN-000210-AT0000 antennas operate with a typical gain of 2.5dB. The antennas have a beam width of 130° at 3dB, and a typical Voltage Standing Wave Radio (VSWR) of 1.5:1. Multidirectional conduit access holes and a removable connector access panel are available for more efficient installation. The connector housing is removable for use in National Electrical Manufacturer's Association (NEMA) enclosures.

The M/A-COM MAAN-000210-AT0000 is a customized antenna. Price and delivery quotes can be obtained directly from Tyco Electronics' M/A-COM sales channels.

Source : EE-Times

Motorola, Avery team to deliver RFID solution

Motorola Inc. and Avery Dennison Corp. announced a strategic relationship under which Avery Dennison RFID will supply EPCglobal Gen 2 RFID tags to Motorola, increasing the speed of RFID deployments and product availability to large markets.

The agreement aligns Avery Dennison's cost effective inlay manufacturing capabilities with Motorola's hardware and tag design expertise. Motorola will now be able to more quickly fulfill the growing demand for its portfolio of custom RFID tags, including its high-performance airline baggage tag and durable tags for asset tracking. In addition, by working together on RFID solutions, both companies will be able to optimize RFID systems for real world deployments.

"Together, Motorola and Avery Dennison can build on successful customer engagements with an even stronger reader-and-tag solution," said Joe White, vice president of RFID marketing and business development for the enterprise mobility business, Motorola Networks & Enterprise. "Motorola's broad portfolio of intellectual property in EPC RFID tags and readers, combined with Avery Dennison's expertise in high-volume inlay manufacturing, will provide Motorola customers with a reliable supply of quality, high-performance RFID tag products."

"By working together, Avery Dennison and Motorola will enable customers to better manage their assets and enhance their return on investment in RFID," said Bob Cornick, vice president and general manager of Avery Dennison RFID.

Motorola plans to start shipping Avery Dennison-supplied Gen 2 tags in 2H 2007.

Source : EE-Times

NIST issues RFID security guidelines

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued guidelines for RFID. NIST's report on RFID security was released last week as it urges everyone using the technology to evaluate security and privacy risks and use best practices to mitigate them. The institute said it released the report to meet some of its responsibilities under the Federal Information and Security Management Act of 2002, which requires federal agencies to secure information technology systems.

NIST also said the report is likely to benefit other types of organizations as well.

"The goal of our report is to give organizations practical ways in a structured format with checklists and specific recommendations to address potential RFID security risks," said NIST's Tom Karygiannis in a statement.

The document focuses on asset management, tracking, matching and supply chain uses. It recommends the use of firewalls to separate RFID databases from other IT systems and databases. NIST also urges users to encrypt radio signals, authenticate approved users, and block tag signals with metal shields to prevent unauthorized skimming of information. The report states that auditing, logging, and time-stamping should be used to detect security breaches and it urges users to establish tag disposal and recycling procedures for disabling the devices and destroying data.

"RFID tags, commonly referred to as smart tags, have the ability to improve logistics, profoundly change cost structures for business, and improve the current levels of safety and authenticity of the international pharmaceutical supply chain and many other industries," Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology Robert C. Cresanti said in a prepared statement. "This important report lays the foundation for addressing potential RFID security risks so that a thoughtful enterprise can launch a smart tag program with confidence."

The 115-page report covers several aspects of RFID technology, including applications, requirements, middleware, networks, economics, environment and durability.

Source : EE-Times

ISO acknowledges South Korea's mobile RFID technology

The South Korean Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry reports that the country's proprietary mobile RFID technology, known as Object Identifier (OID), has been adopted as an international standard by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization.

A ministry spokesman said the mobile RFID technology, developed by the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, allows mobile phones to read a wide range of RFID tags. Through OID-equipped handsets, users can read detailed product data on RFID tags.

With the ISO-standardized RFID technology, South Korea will be able to protect its domestic mobile RFID market, which is expected to reach $752 million in 2010, said the ministry spokesman.

The country's mobile telecommunications service carriers, including SK Telecom and KTF, are now testing the relevant services with various industries, according to the ministry.

Source : EE-Times

ISO acknowledges South Korea's mobile RFID technology

The South Korean Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry reports that the country's proprietary mobile RFID technology, known as Object Identifier (OID), has been adopted as an international standard by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization.

A ministry spokesman said the mobile RFID technology, developed by the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, allows mobile phones to read a wide range of RFID tags. Through OID-equipped handsets, users can read detailed product data on RFID tags.

With the ISO-standardized RFID technology, South Korea will be able to protect its domestic mobile RFID market, which is expected to reach $752 million in 2010, said the ministry spokesman.

The country's mobile telecommunications service carriers, including SK Telecom and KTF, are now testing the relevant services with various industries, according to the ministry.

Source : EE-Times

EPCIS ratification boosts RFID industry

Giving a boost to the RFID industry, EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) ratification provided businesses a standard way to capture and share information collected by RFID chips. This is done by giving a standard set of interfaces for EPC data.

EPCIS provides a standard set of interfaces for EPC data. Chris Adcock, president of the standards organisation EPCglobal Inc., called the ratification as potentially having more impact than the 2004 release of the UHF Gen2 Passive RFID standard. Those are big words, since the Gen2 standard led to the development of considerably cheaper and better performing Gen2 RFID chips.

Five years after proponents began insisting that RFID would dramatically change the way companies track goods in the supply chain, RFID remains a niche technology partly held back by the complexities associated with exchanging information captured by RFID and turning it into knowledge that leads to such basic business goals as lower costs or higher revenues.

Vendors involved in the interoperability testing of EPCIS—and those likely to offer products that support the standard—include Auto-ID Labs, Avicon, BEA Systems, Bent Systems, IBM, Globe Ranger, IIJ, NEC, Oracle, Polaris Systems, Samsung and T3Ci.

Still, while EPCglobal and RFID vendors are working to create standards-based RFID technologies and processes, other challenges remain. RFID tags are still too costly in many instances, and RFID pioneers continue to struggle with what to do with all of the data they're collecting from the tags, and how to turn it into real business intelligence.

Source : EE Times-India

Cattle give RFIDs field trials

The EM4569 RFID from EM Microelectronic is currently in field trials in North America. The RFID has been adopted by several tag manufacturers and used as a safe and efficient alternative to other forms of branding or marking cattle.

For cattle in England, one identification tag is required, allowing each cow to be tracked throughout its life. Many farms also use a second tag to identify age and medical history. While identification tags are not required by law in the United States, they are a very important management tool.
In addition to its consumer-friendly price, the EM4569 has unmatched performance in terms of detection range. “In a recent field trial using long-range animal readers, the EM4569 embedded in an ear-tag format was read at a distance of up to one metre, considerably more than other conventional RFID tags,” explains Mougahed Darwish, president of the management board of EM Microelectronic. “Additionally, the EM4569 is compliant with ISO 11784/5 and has bi-phase RF/32, making it very functional in the animal world.”

The EM4569 is a passive RFID circuit with long reading range, specifically for use in animal identification. Its features include bumped enlarged pads for direct antenna connection to save space and mounting costs.

Intended for use in electronic read/write RF transponders, the new circuit is a 125 kHz, 512-bit contactless identification CMOS RFID IC. Several data rate and data encoding options are available at a decreased level of power consumption. The RFID IC also increases reading distance, making it suitable for animal identification (ISO 11784/5).

The EM4569 is the enlarged-pad version of the EM4469, says EM Microelectronic; the enlarged pads allow direct antenna connection via bumps deposited on the enlarged pads, so the customer can directly solder the wire of the antenna onto it without the need for pcb support. Such pads also decrease the cost since the IC requires fewer handling operations.

Source : EM Micro Electronics

European Commission proposes RFID strategy

Exactly a year after launching an extensive Europe-wide public consultation on RFID tags, the European Commission unveiled proposals for an RFID strategy to address the privacy concerns of citizens.

"From fighting counterfeits to better healthcare, smart RFID-chips offers tremendous opportunities for business and society," said information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding when presenting the Commission's strategy at the CeBIT fair. "Last year I said here at CeBIT that we should stimulate the use of RFID technology in Europe whilst safeguarding personal data and privacy. The Commission's Europe-wide public consultation in 2006 identified a strong lack of awareness and considerable concern among citizens. The Commission's RFID strategy will therefore seek to raise awareness, stress the absolute need for citizens to decide how their personal data is used and ensure that Europe removes existing obstacles to RFID's enormous potential."


The economic potential of smart radio tags can hardly be underestimated. In 2006 alone, over 1 billion RFID tags were sold worldwide, and by 2016 it might be over 500 times this number. The European market is estimated to grow from $665 million in 2006 to $9.3 billion by 2016. Europe is also a leading international player for RFID R&D, and its industry is strongly placed, the Commission said.

However, awareness about the potential of RFID is low. According to the Commission, about 60 percent of the 2,190 respondents to the public consultation in 2006 said they did not know enough to adequately assess the pros and cons of RFID technology. Of those who are aware, 70 percent believed that technical solutions were the best way to reduce security, data protection and privacy concerns, 67 percent expressed their support for awareness-raising campaigns to educate consumers, and 55 percent called for RFID regulations.

To enhance Europe's ability to reap the economic and social benefits of RFID technology while answering consumer concerns, the Commission published last week the RFID Communication, enumerating the steps to be taken for by the Commission for its new RFID policy.

According to the RFID Communication, the Commission will create an RFID Stakeholder Group to provide advice and assistance to the Commission in developing a European policy position concerning RFID applications and propose amendments to the e-Privacy Directive to take account of RFID applications.

By the end of 2007, the Commission will publish a recommendation on how to handle date security and privacy of smart radio tags to Member States and stakeholders. In association with the Stakeholder Group, the Commission will then analyze the economic and social effects of smart radio tags and other technologies, particularly focusing on privacy, trust and governance, leading to an assessment of policy options and need for further legislative steps, by the end of 2008.

The RFID Communication also highlighted where the Commission wants to ensure that further development and deployment of smart radio tags are as safe, secure, privacy-friendly and effective as possible. This includes looking at research and innovation, the availability of radio spectrum, standardization, environmental and health issues, and also ensuring that digital identities are well protected against abuse.

Source : EE Times

Malaysia develops 'smallest' RFID chip

After two years of R&D, the Malaysia Microchip Project gains success with the release of the world's 'smallest' RFID microchip. The latest version of the Malaysia Microchip measures only 0.7mm-by-0.7mm.

In 2003, the Malaysian government bought the technology and the rights to design, manufacture and market the chip from Japan's FEC Inc. Following that, three versions of the chip have been developed.

The microchip emits radio waves on multiple frequencies, enabling detection even when embedded in paper documents such as money, or in objects or animals.

The first commercial application of the technology in Malaysia is for tagging and identifying original versions of movies on DVDs to curb the rampant video piracy in the country. The Malaysia government will also use the chip to prevent forgeries of documents such as passports and birth certificates.

In April or May, the technology will be used for a pilot project at Malaysia's and Hong Kong's international airports. The chip will be used in tagging luggage travelling between the two airports. This will help easily locate luggage lost or removed from airplanes as well as boost security services in the airports.

The development of the chip cost around $50-60 million. It costs 6 cents each. At present, the chip is manufactured in Japan but there are plans to move the production to Malaysia.

Officials said that they will market the chip internationally. At present, "inquiries are coming in" from countries about the chip, they added.

Source : EE Times Asia

Japanese consortium builds RFID logistics network

Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), an internet access and network solutions provider, has partnered with NTT Comware, Oracle Japan, and VeriSign Japan to construct an RFID system based on a jointly developed standard for use in the international logistics pilot programme that is being conducted by EPCglobal, the international RFID standards group.

International logistics is the backbone of global supply chains and logistics service providers handle huge information with a multitude of customers located throughout the world. The result has been a complex system whose costs grow annually. reaswaran This article is copyright 2007 UsingRFID.com.

Supply chain demand

The demand for advanced systems and supply-chain visibility in the logistics industry is growing, as is the demand for an international standard to facilitate the use, expansion, and spread of RFID. To this end, several logistic service providers and EPCglobal established the Transportation & Logistics Services Industry Action Group in November 2005.

This year the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry offered its support, and the international logistics RFID pilot programme was initiated, with the first phase involving a test from Hong Kong to Japan possibly coming in February 2007, and the second phase involving a test from Shanghai to Los Angeles, possibly in October 2007.

First phase participants

Potential participants in the first phase include international logistics service providers, DHL, Maersk, NYK, Schenker, and Schneider. The first phase test is scheduled to include interoperability over the RFID system. This pilot is intended to test the suitability of the RFID specification to the demands of businesses in the field, and to bring any operational problems to light so that they can be resolved.

Participating Companies It is vital for this pilot that the integration of an RFID system makes global supply chains visible. Through this pilot, NTT Comware, IIJ, Oracle Japan, and VeriSign Japan form the Japan Application Consortium (JAC).This consortium integrates an RFID system that can access and exchange information from RFID tags attached to products and containers, and each company contribute their EPCglobal-compliant products and solutions to the project.

These RFID systems in each country and company will work together to create an open platform for the exchange of supply chain information, and help make the supply chain visible, efficient, and effective for logistics service providers, shippers, and others in the industry. This, it is hoped, will contribute to business as a whole.

Through the pilot, the companies intend to show the effectiveness and results that are achievable by using an open platform for the exchange of RFID information.

Pilot's significance

The results of this pilot programme will be used to actively promote an international standard, and provide practical experience in applying RFID technology to the logistics industry.

Connecting different systems, effortlessly handling large volumes of data, ensuring greater security - these and other features will characterize the RFID system as it matures, and leveraging the achievements, experience, and technological strengths of the participating companies, the objective is a worldwide open platform.

Source : Using RFID

 

Smartcode invests in India RFID centre

SmartCode Corp., a supplier of RFID hardware solutions, has announced the establishment of a RFID Centre in India, and the addition of 18 new partnerships in India. The company has made an investment of up to Rs.67.98 crore ($15 million).

The new RFID Centre will further expand SmartCode Corp's footprint in the India market and will include Research & Development, Sales & Marketing, and Distribution for the India market. The new RFID Centre in India will also cater to the neighbouring markets of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Burma. SmartCode Corp's RFID Centre will join SmartCode's long established presence in the Asian market including China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

"SmartCode Corp.'s 18 new partnerships in India further demonstrate our dominance in the Global RFID market and the strong demand we see for our low cost, high performance RFID solutions worldwide" said Avi Ofer, CEO & President, SmartCode Corp., "With the establishment of SmartCode's new RFID Centre in India, we are expanding our global presence to more than 100 countries worldwide."

The Indian market presents lucrative and diverse opportunities for products, services, and commitment. India's infrastructure, transportation, energy, environmental, health care, high-tech, and defence sector requirements for equipment and services will exceed tens of billions of dollars in the mid-term as the Indian economy globalises and expands. India's GDP, currently growing at around seven per cent, makes it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Construction of nearly everything from airports to container ports to teleports is setting the stage to remake India. 

Source : EE Times India

TI unveils high-frequency RFID reader IC family

Using advanced design practices to increase reader efficiency while reducing the IC footprint, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has announced the availability of a high-frequency (13.56MHz), multi-standard RFID reader IC product family. The advanced package design of the TRF7960 family measures 5-by-5mm, and supports ISO/IEC 14443A/B, ISO/IEC 15693, ISO/IEC 18000-3 and TI's contactless commerce and Tag-It portfolio.

To maximise read range and reliability, said TI, the integrated on-board linear voltage regulators that turn up the analogue, digital and power amplifiers, provide power supply noise isolation. The reader has an integrated analogue front end and data framing system for all the supported standards, while the dual receiver input configuration of the TRF7960 reader family detects AM and PM. This feature helps to eliminate read 'holes' created when antenna orientation in the operating environment changes the tag return signal from AM to PM resulting in more consistent tag reads.

By providing an internal clock for the microcontroller, the TRF7960 powered reader uses only a single 13.56MHz crystal rather than the standard two crystals, reducing the total bill of materials of the end reader product. Designed with fewer components, TI's reader IC consumes less power, takes up less space, and can therefore address sensitivity and noise attenuation issues. Other integrated functions include error checking, data formatting, framing and anti-collision support for multi-reader environments. The TRF7960 is designed for both fixed and handheld reader devices.

Power consumption for the overall reader is reduced by providing seven flexible manual or automated configuration settings which shut down unused sections of the reader to save power. The TRF7960 IC operates between 2.7Vdc to 5.5Vdc input supply voltage and when in power down mode, consumption is less than 1µA while standby current is less than 120µA.

The TRF7961 supports ISO/IEC 15693, and ISO/IEC 18000-3 standards and TI's Tag-It portfolio. The TRF7960 supports the standards listed above plus the ISO/IEC 14443A/B standard and TI's contact less commerce portfolio. With a high level of integration, lower power consumption and a smaller footprint, both devices are available today from TI and its authorised distributors in the standard 32-pin QFN (IC to board) connection packages. A reference design and source code for an evaluation module, with TI's MSP430 ultra-low-power microcontroller, is available for easy evaluation of the TRF7960 family .

RFID - Year 2006 Performance

Despite some areas under performing, most of the RFID business is booming. Here IDTechEx has interviewed key companies in different vertical sectors and have presented their comments on the opportunity for RFID in those sectors.

Most of the RFID business is booming. Andrew Price RFID Manager at IATA, the airline trade association, enthuses, "In the next few years the air industry will be tagging an ever higher proportion of its two billion bags yearly and it will use RFID in other new applications as well." This is a global phenomenon, not least in government applications. Dr Jimmy Li, Deputy Director of the Initiative Office for Government RFID Applications at the Ministry of Economic Affairs Taiwan and Senior Advisor of the Institute for Information Industry in Taiwan says, "Government applications of RFID are now growing rapidly. We started five RFID projects in the government area this year and there are more to come next year."

Steve Georgevitch, Total Asset Visibility Program Manager of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems says, "The aerospace and defense industries are on a rapid RFID adoption path with substantial benefits anticipated in the next several years".

Martin Capper, President, Mark IV IVHS Division says, "Mark IV sees RFID as an explosive market particularly in the Transportation segment with the evolution from the existing electronic payment systems to new applications delivering safety and mobility for both individuals and commercial traffic. The emergence of DSRC at 5.9GHz will create the next paradigm shift in surface transportation."

There are also new markets opening up beyond transport. Dr Chang-Hun Lee of the National Information Society Agency, Korea says, "Ubiquitous Sensor Networks will be a huge RFID market in a few years."

RFID tagging of livestock is driven by ever wider legislation. For example, the European Community and New Zealand join the party in 2008-2010, creating a market for tagging sheep, goats, pigs and cows, the total demand for these two regions being over 150 million tags yearly at about $2 each in 2010 from almost none today. Add a big demand for systems to that figure. The largest bookseller in the Netherlands BGN is ordering several million tags yearly for its new scheme and its payback is so compelling that others will rapidly follow.

When it comes to the biggest RFID market - contactless smart cards - Don Davis, Editor of Card Technology says, "Big players are making major bets on contactless, and forcing competitors to catch up. They are issuing large numbers of contactless cards and fobs and, in Japan, adding contactless functionality to millions of mobile phones, giving many consumers the chance to pay with a wave."

Contactless cards are a huge success and contactless ticket sales are also taking off exponentially. The China National ID card and system is the biggest rollout but an even larger budget of at least $15 billion is planned for the UK National ID card. Then there is continued growth in secure access applications and the start of the process of converting over three billion financial cards from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and JCB to RFID. Eurosmart sees sales of these RFID financial cards doubling to 20 million in 2007. In the US alone, 150,000 readers have just been installed for these financial cards but that is only the beginning. RFID cards and tickets and RFID enabled mobile phones (Near Field Communication) increasingly provide payments, ticketing, and secure access. All three devices are seeing rapid growth.

The China National ID scheme will peak at a huge 300 million US $2.45 cards delivered in 2007. Card readers valued at $1.2 billion are being ordered to go with them. The global market for RFID cards and systems will pass $3 billion in 2008. The figure below shows the market for RFID cards, which is fully analysed, together with tickets and RFID phones, in the new IDTechEx report Contactless Smart Cards and Near Field Communication 2007-2017.

Value of global market for RFID cards 2007-2010 in millions of US dollars excluding the China ID card

Source: IDTechEx report Contactless Smart Cards and Near Field Communication 2007-2017

IDTechEx forecasts that sales of RFID tickets will rocket from 100 million in 2007 to 450 million in 2010. Others are even more bullish in their forecasts. Certainly, the national railway system in China uses three billion tickets yearly, so its recent order for hundreds of millions of RFID tickets is only a beginning.

All the experts quoted in this article will present at the sixth annual RFID Smart Labels USA and Active RFID & RTLS conference in Boston, February 21-22 2007 www.smartlabelsusa.com. This major conference will be attended by many companies that intend to place large orders for RFID.

Source:

Raghu Das, Idtechex

German Meat-Tracking Project Focuses on Lasers and RFID

A group of university researchers are developing a system designed to ensure the freshness of meat distributed throughout the supply chain.

Jan. 2, 2007—A few months ago, Germans were horrified when government authorities announced they had uncovered 110 tons of rotten meat at several wholesale warehouses in Bavaria. Some of this meat was more than four years out of date, and may have been exported to other European Union countries. The manager for one of the involved wholesalers hung himself as the scandal received widened coverage.

However, an RFID project funded by the federal government in Germany may help eliminate future abuses of this kind. Not long before the news erupted, five research institutes launched a project to develop an RFID-based system using laser beams to recognize and record meat freshness

The FreshScan project, funded with €3 million from the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), is being coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Micro-integration (IZM) in Berlin, which focuses on assembly and packaging technologies. No commercial partners are participating at the current time.

Established in mid-2006, the three-year project FreshScan project is still in the conceptual phase. The participants are developing a two-component system. The first part consists of a semi-active RFID tag with temperature sensors to document the condition of meat, from slaughter to sale, and record temperatures on a continual basis. The second is an RFID reader integrated with an optical detector—a device utilizing a laser to analyze and record the meat's condition in the tag. "The reader measures the light spectrum in which chemical changes can be detected," says Rolf Thomasius, an IZM researcher involved in the project.

Other partners consist of the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut für Hoechstfrequenztechnik (FBH), which is developing the optical detector; the Federal Research Center for Nutrition and Food (BfEL), which is defining those chemicals and positions in the radio spectrum that should be monitored by the system; the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim (ATB), which is determining how best to read the signals and define the freshness parameters; and the Technical University of Berlin (TU), which is designing the software needed to run the device. In addition, two professors are studying the chemical makeup of meat samples as they age. Fraunhofer's IZM is coordinating the results of the research conducted by these partners, and is building a demonstration model.

To determine the meat's freshness, the system will use technology often found in telescopes or satellites. One potential technology researchers are testing is Raman spectroscopy. This involves pointing a laser beam at the meat and measuring the beam's absorption and reflection, which change as the meat's chemical properties (i.e., the freshness) change.

The processing site will tag the meat's packaging, and the sensor on the RFID tag will measure temperature, moisture and light incidence at different intervals, recording this information on the tag. This mobile "freshness scanner" will be used at different points to determine the meat's condition.

No vendors have yet been chosen for the project, and standards remain unclear at present. However, Thomasius says the tags used are likely to be 13.56 MHz and comply with an ISO standard. Additionally, the designers are working out the type of power on which the tags should rely. When the project is finished, the demonstration model will still need some more development before it can be brought to market.

"Our goal is to create a very close prototype at the end product, so that we can launch the system shortly after the research project ends," he says.

According to Thomasius, one focus of the project is to create a tag that is smaller and thinner than 2 millimeters and can last at least one year so it can be reused. Since the project is noncommercial at this point, researchers are not focusing on the cost of the components.

Source : RFID Journal