RFID Gazette

UPS Tests RFID Passive Tags

United Parcel Service has been using active RFID tags to track trailers for 15 years. But now, the shipping company is piloting passive RFID tags and multiprotocol readers.

According to InformationWeek:

UPS has tested RFID products from vendors such as Alien Technology Corp. and Matrics Inc. But the company's goal is to switch to what Nonneman calls "agile readers" or multiprotocol readers, which have broader capabilities than Class 0 and class 1 readers. "UPS has many retailer characteristics; therefore, it can't use a single class tag.

Read more: UPS Steps Up RFID Efforts

Jack Link's Beef Jerky Gets RFID for Wal-Mart Shipments

Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision is integrating Jack Link's Beef Jerky's pallet-level RFID tags shipping from the snack manufacturer to Wal-Mart stores. Jack Link's Beef Jerky is a meat manufacturer and therefore must meet U.S. Department of Agriculture traceability requirements.

According to InformationWeek:

Although Jack Link's Beef Jerky has never experienced an actual meat recall, it carries out frequent mock recalls that show it takes between 12 and 16 hours to manually track every case that came out of one specific lot recall. That's because the company needs to track the customers it shipped to as well as sales orders to which the shipment is tied. "I'm shooting from the hip, but I bet with RFID we can get this processes in under a half an hour," Paepke says.

Read more: RFID Gives Manufacturer A Better Handle On Its Snacks

HP Offers RFID Solutions with OATSystems, BearingPoint

OATSystems Inc., a middleware provider, and BearingPoint, a business consulting firm, have teamed with Hewlett-Packard to help industries and retail providers implement RFID technology.

According to InformationWeek:

RFID/IS (Industrial Strength), which was designed to fit the needs of the automotive, consumer packaged-goods, pharmaceutical, consumer electronics, high-tech, and retail customers, combines an RFID framework, systems management, and consulting and integration services into a single platform. HP has chosen OATSystems as its middleware partner. The OAT Foundation Suite offers software with four layers--RFID system of record, business-context layer, EPC number management, and RFID middleware--to run with HP's RFID infrastructure.

Read more: HP Bolsters RFID Offerings With Partners

IBM Invests $250 Million in RFID Business Unit

IBM's new sensor network for business unit will employ approximately 1,000 people and will focus on mobile sensor technology integration, which starts with the passive RFID chip.

According to the New York Times:

"We are moving from batches of information about operations to continuous visibility," said Gary Cohen, general manager of the pervasive computing group at International Business Machines. [...]

I.B.M.'s goal, analysts said, is to persuade businesses to view radio tagging - one of the hottest growth areas for mobile sensor technology - as just one element of a new wave of information technology outside of data centers that must be integrated to be exploited.

Radio tags can be read in groups instead of one by one, and they hold far more data than bar codes.

Read more: What's in the Box? Radio Tags Know That, and More

RSA Developing RFID Blocker Tag

RSA Laboratories, the research arm of RSA Security, is currently developing an RFID blocker tag that will prevent unauthorized RFID readers from reading valuable data from RFID tags.

According to ferret.com.au:

"In a naive, RFID-enabled world without technical forethought, there is risk that sensitive information could be visible in secret to anyone with an RFID reader," said Burt Kaliski, director and chief scientist with RSA Laboratories in the US.

"Moreover, the unique serial numbers emitted by RFID tags could be used to track people and objects surreptitiously."

Read more: RFID tag blocker

AXCESS to Release RFID-Enabled Radiation Detection

The new RFID-enabled radition detection system from AXCESS International will be demonstrated at next week's American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS) Annual Seminar and Exhibits Show. The system will employ RFID technology to alert users of harmful gamma radiation which could be used in a terrorist dirty bomb attack.

According to Yahoo! Finance:

The network-based solution integrates the RADITECT(TM) detector with the AXCESS ActiveTag(TM) wireless sensor technology. The ActiveTag(TM) RFID unit is integrated into the RADITECT(TM) detector to receive and transmit an alarm condition brought on by the presence of an increase in gamma radiation around the device. The system can detect the presence of radiation equal to a single X-Ray. A single detection unit or multiple units networked together can be monitored by an infrastructure of RFID receivers connected to the network or the Internet using AXCESS' Onlinesupervisor(TM) software.

Read more: AXCESS to Unveil RFID-based Radiation Detection Monitoring System at American Society of Industrial Security Trade Show

Cost, Integration Are Big RFID Concerns

While RFID is taking off in businesses around the globe, many still worry about high cost and integration difficulties that come with RFID.

According to eWeek:

The survey, which was conducted among 135 attendees at last week's Frontline Solutions show in Chicago and released Wednesday, found that 22 percent of respondents have already launched an RFID pilot. Another 42 percent plan to implement RFID within the next 12 months, while 21 percent are looking at deployments 12 to 24 months down the road. [...]

"But when two big customers [Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense] issue mandates, it definitely accelerates the market," acknowledged Eric Hermelee, Wavelink's vice president of marketing, in an interview with eWEEK.com.

Read more: Survey: RFID Users Fret over Cost, Integration

Cathexis Creates Bluetooth-Enabled RFID Reader IDBlue

The world's first bluetooth-enabled handheld RFID reader has been released by co-creators Cathexis Innovations and Baracoda Wireless Technology.

According to Cathexis:

IDBlue™ is a powerful tool with versatility that allows you to do many things not previously possible with other RFID readers. IDBlue™ harnesses RFID technology of through automatically identifying a unique asset with pinpoint accuracy. In addition IDBlue™ stores important information on the asset itself, greatly increasing efficiency managing assets.

Read more: Introducing the World’s First Bluetooth® Enabled RFID Handheld Reader

Privacy, Security Are RFID's Biggest Challenges

From eWeek, an article explains that while RFID has shown huge potential, security and privacy concerns still loom large.

Other nations aren't necessarily about to enthusiastically embrace standards forged by the U.S. Defense Department, said Holmes, who is director of port development at SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.) and a former Coast Guard captain of the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach.

For their part, customs officials from other countries worry that RFID isn't tamper-proof enough, said a U.S. government official attending the conference, who asked not to be identified.

"Their worst nightmare is that somebody might put the wrong [RFID] tags on whatever is really 'inside the box.'

Read more: Needs for Standards, Privacy Top RFID Concerns

Boeing Preparing RFID Standards

Boeing will issue RFID specifications to its suppliers sometime in the first half of 2005, according to word out of the Frontline Solutions Conference and Exposition.

From Computerworld:

The specifications will spell out Boeing's technical standards relating to issues such as the frequency, memory capacity and size of RFID tags and labels. Suppliers that ship parts to Boeing will eventually need to label their components with RFID tags that meet the specifications.

However, there will be no mandate from Boeing requiring suppliers to implement RFID tagging right away, said Daryl Remily, deputy program manager of the company's Auto-ID program.

Read more: Boeing readies RFID standards for release to suppliers in 2005

U.S. Military Invests $100 Million in RFID

High-tech RFID tags used to track inventory will help improve logistics efficiency within the U.S. military branches.

According to DefenseLINK News:

That's why, starting in January, the Defense Department wants its suppliers to start using radio frequency identification technology for shipping containers, said Alan Estevez, deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration, at the National Defense Transportation Association's annual conference.

By 2007, Estevez said, the department will require suppliers to apply RFID tags to cases, pallets and all packaging of commodities shipped to all DoD locations.

The Defense Department, he noted, simply is mirroring newer inventory-control systems already undertaken by private-sector giants such as Wal-Mart.

Read more: Radio ID Tagging Aims to Improve Military Logistics

Avery Dennison Creates RFID Division

Label maker Avery Dennison has formed a new division to focus on making low-cost RFID inlays and tags.

Forbes reports:

"Retail, pharmaceutical and packaged goods companies throughout the world are confirming that pressure-sensitive labels are ideal vehicles for carrying an RFID chip and antenna," said Avery chairman and chief executive Philip M. Neal in a statement.

The new division will be headed by Mathew S. Mellis, 58, who was appointed vice president of the RFID and Specialty Converting division.

Read more: Avery Dennison Forms RFID Division

IBM Expands RFID Integration Services

IBM is using the results of their own RFID tests to offer a new line of RFID consulting services to manufacturers.

According to Information Week:

The services include business-case development, technological proofs of concept, internal pilots, trading-partner pilots, and full-system rollouts. IBM is selling them to industries such as aerospace and defense, automotive, chemicals and petroleum, electronics, forest and paper, and manufacturing.

Eric Gabrielson, IBM's director of worldwide RFID products, says a weeklong workshop to determine where to apply RFID technology costs $20,000.

Read more: New RFID Services Based On IBM's Own Tagging Projects

SafeTzone Real-Time Locating System Keeps Kids Safe with RFID

RF Code and Texas Instruments have teamed to offer Wannado City, a role-playing theme park in Florida, a real-time human tracking system by employing RFID tags and readers.

From Yahoo! Finance:

Included in the general admission fee, each visitor receives a WannaFinder(TM) plastic wristband, a hybrid wireless bracelet which combines a Texas Instruments 23mm passive, low frequency transponder and an RF Code Mantis(TM) series active RFID tag.

The WannaFinder wristband communicates information, including a person's location, via radio signals to a series of TI and RF Code readers and makes the information accessible through the many WannaFinder touch screen kiosks situated throughout the park. RF Code's TAVIS(TM) data management software collects and consolidates data from the active RFID tags, while SafeTzone's patented Real-Time Location Module draws associations among the passive and active data to identify and locate each member of a group.

Read more: RFID Technology From Texas Instruments and RF Code Helps Kids Play It Safe at Florida's Wannado City

RFID Problematic in Supply Chain Management

While some are quick to tout that RFID is going to change the world as we know it by allowing manufacturers and retailers to track items in real-time, others have been able to point to several problems with implementing this infant technology that may not be ready for the real world just yet. Problems such as the failure of the tags and the pain of integrating data management software have stifled many attempts already.

From silicon.com:

Some vendors such as SAP and Oracle are beginning to offer RFID technology built into their products, and this will have the advantage of making data handling faster, but it won't solve everyone's problems. Supply chains are heterogeneous, and Romanow points out that when applications have to deal with each other in sync, compatibility problems will arise as individual pieces of software are upgraded.

To solve some of these problems, Matt Ream, senior product manager for RFID systems at Zebra, which produces RFID printing products, suggests middleware as a potential solution.

Read more: RFID: It's no supply chain saviour - not yet anyway

SIS Technologies Announces Smart RFID Reader Java Mustang

SIS Technologies has announced a new smart RFID reader, the Java Mustang RFID Edge Appliance.

According to Yahoo! Finance:

The Java(TM) Mustang is a secure, remotely manageable, cost-effective, multi-protocol RFID edge appliance featuring a complete Linux kernel and the full 1.4 Java 2 Standard Edition on-board. It was developed to use open standards-based technologies that deliver end-to-end security from the "point of read" to the back-end server.

"This is the smartest breed of readers on the market today," said Sean Clark, who joined SIS, a Sun Microsystems iForce(SM) partner, six months ago to spearhead SIS' RFID practice.

Read more: RFID Readers Get Smart: SIS Announces the Java(TM) Mustang RFID Edge Appliance

Intermec Makes RFID Patents Available

In an effort to speed up the process of the global RFID Gen 2 standard, Intermec has decided to make five of its RFID patents available royalty-free.

According to Information Week:

Intermec, which claims to hold the majority of "critical" RFID patents, according to analysts, has made an additional nine patents available for a "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" rate, says Mike Wills, VP and general manger at the company.

Donating the patents would free up the protected technology to act as a platform for future work and enable more companies to design and develop products quicker.

On Oct. 5, EPCglobal Inc., the organization leading the effort to create RFID standards, is expected to release final specs for the long-awaited global standard based on the EPC Gen 2 UHF protocol used to transmit and receive RFID signals.

Read more: RFID Patent Holder To Donate Some Intellectual Property

Some Retailers Willing to Delay RFID

While Wal-Mart, Target, and other major retailers have been quick to rollout RFID and mandate that their suppliers implement the technology, some, such as Circuit City, have been more patient, knowing that the technology has not been perfected as of yet.

According to eWeek:

For us, RFID is a 'future,'" offered Chief Information Officer Mike Jones of the Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City, in an interview with eWeek.com.

As Circuit City sees it, RFID is only part of what Jones calls "the whole wireless opportunity." During an upcoming pilot of supply chain technology with IBM, Circuit City will compare a Linux operating system vs. Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP as a platform for retail sales associates.

Read more: Suppliers, Competitors Balk at Wal-Mart's RFID Lead

Metro Group RFID Rollout Begins in November

With multinational retailer Metro Group RFID tracking tag rollout slated to begin in November, many lessons have been learned along the way. Currently the radio frequency identification pilot is on trial at Metro's Future Store in Germany. Greg Wolfram is the project manager of the initiative.

According to ZDNet:

Applying the tracking tags gave the retailer the best results in supply chain visibility, he said, and was a huge advance from the traditional bar code. [...]

Metro has analyzed the results of the Future Store Initiative and believes that process efficiency rose by 12 percent to 17 percent with RFID. Losses and theft were down 11 percent to 18 percent, and merchandise availability increased 9 percent to 14 percent, the company found.

Read more: Retailer to follow RFID test with full rollout

WhereNet's VTMS Implements RFID to Track Cars

Vehicle tracking and management software (VTMS) from WhereNet Corp. is helping car makers cut costs by being able to locate cars in real-time using RFID technology.

According to InformationWeek:

WhereNet's real-time locating system architecture includes a group of WhereLAN locating access points that capture and calculate every tagged vehicle or asset.

WhereNet's vehicle-tracking and management software is a single wireless infrastructure that provides both location and two-way mobile communication in a single system. The software enables automakers, distributors, and renters to track the processing of every vehicle.

Read more: Savings For Automakers Using Active RFID

Best Buy Mandates Suppliers Use RFID

Best Buy has followed in the footsteps of retail giants Target and Wal-Mart and has issued a mandate to its major suppliers that they be using EPC-compliant RFID tags on their shipments by January 2, 2006.

According to the RFID Journal:

Paul Freeman, RFID program director for Best Buy, told RFID Journal that many of his company's high-level goals are the same as those of other retailers that have issued RFID mandates, including Wal-Mart and Target. But Best Buy has some advantages in using the technology because it sells high-value goods.

Read more: Best Buy to Deploy RFID