RFID Gazette

Sources from China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) say that China will soon establish an RFID national standard. We have reported earlier about China's promising RFID market including the National Passport plan.

The impending standard is being delayed due to a persistent for one-upmanship between supporting organizations of the three major international RFID standards--ISO/IEC18000, EPCGlobal and UbiquitousID.

As a result, the authorities are not being able to make up their minds about one national standard for RFID. What will it be? We will keep you posted.

via RFidBlog

The results of the first-ever scientific HF vs. UHF RFID evaluation, 'Pharmaceutical Item Level RFID: Battle of the Frequencies', are out. A product of collaboration between Unisys and ODIN technologies, the aim of this 'shootout' was to find an ideal solution for the pharmaceutical industry's strict requirements for serialized item-level product tracking. The industry is under pressure from state and federal-level regulators to take more steps regarding the safety and authenticity of medicines

The researchers compared the core drivers of HF and UHF tag performance across a wide variety of metrics including Read Distance¸ Orientation Sensitivity, Material Dependence, Maximum Encode Speed, Tag Quality, In-motion item-level verification, Item-to-case aggregation, and Item level reads for pallet stacked cases.

Via MoreRFID

CISProMobile, from ChemSW, helps labs utilise RFID technology to reduce the time and effort required to conduct inventory processes.

RFID results in simpler and faster acquisition of data from container IDs.  The RFID tags are read by ChemSW's CISProMobile, which is Bluetooth-enabled, all-in-one handheld. It consists of the antenna, the transceiver and the decoder. The CISProMobile can function like a normal barcode reader. It has a PDA-like screen that gives the handheld more flexibility than normal bar code solutions. You can go from a 16-character two-line display to full-fledged menus.

Via Laboratory talk

British Telecom has successfully tested RFID tags in asset tracking, giving hope to the construction industry.

The trial, which was first of its kind in the construction business in the United Kingdom, took place at a major London construction site over a period of two months.  The idea of the trail was to see how to improve cost-efficiencies and look at the management of assets such as vehicles, tools and equipment on large construction sites. Tracking assets in large, flung-out places like construction sites are a big concern.

Asset-tracking specialist OxLoc supported BT's arm, BT Auto-ID Services on the project.

Via Public Technology

Zebra Technologies has funded the RFID Lab in the Kelley School, part of Indiana University. The Kelley School's RFID lab studies the important field of RFID implementation in supply-chain management. Zebra has given a RFID printer to the lab. This will allow the Kelley School's undergraduate and graduate students to model the complete life cycle of a tag.

RFID is an integral part of the whole 'Plant-warehouse-market' chain in many industries. Retailers and government organizations like the Army use RFID on a big scale. Earlier we reported about usage of RFID to monitor Luxury Wine in Japan. The transportation sector, including the roads themselves uses RFID extensively.

Via RFidBlog

G2 Microsystems has introduced a Wi-Fi based System-on-a-Chip RFID solution. This is an ultra low power, active radio frequency identification (RFID) System-on-a-Chip (SoC). It uses the widely used Wi-Fi network infrastructure.

G2 claims that its radical solution will reduce cost of ownership by at least a 75 percent. This will be a big incentive for companies to install asset-tracking systems. Industries that can benefit include the hospitals and container transportation. Wi-Fi based System-on-a-Chip RFID also has applications in the fast growing 'Mobile resource management' market.   'Mobile resource management' uses real-time location systems (RTLS) to track and monitor assets both inside and outside.

Via supplychainreview

Deister Electronic is perhaps the world's largest independent manufacturer of RFID solutions. The company has introduced a new RFID key management system. This new system is primarily targeted at storage, handling and logistic businesses.

The new system, called proxSafe, consists of a stylish aluminium key cabinet that houses the smart keytags.  These 'smart keytags' contain RFID chips just like those found in proximity access control cards. The keys are connected to the 'smart keytags' using a secure arrangement of a steel ring and a one-time seal.

The proxSafe system can also be useful to secure valuable items like mobile telephones, PDAs and digital cameras.

Via MHWMagazine

Supply chain solutions provider, Manhattan Associates, Inc., has recently updated its Integrated Logistics Solutions, based on Microsoft .NET technology.

The updated solution now contains other components of Manhattan Associates' supply chain solutions. This updates improves usability, scalability and flexibility for customers of the solutions. A variety of industries employ this solution in fine tuning their supply chains.

The updated version covers important business functions giving companies greatly increased inventory visibility. Newly added business functions include Labor Management, Slotting Optimization, Trading Partner Management, enhanced Warehouse Management, Transportation Execution, RFID and Performance Management capabilities.

Via RFidblog

The South Korean vendors were slow off the mark on RFID deployment but they have caught up fast. Many South Korean vendors see great opportunities in the global market, especially in the UHF segment.

The Koreans have invested heavily in R&D activities and have installed mass production capacities. Samsung Electronics and LS Industrial System are in the forefront of the RFID market in the country. These giants have the biggest manufacturing facilities.

The Koreans have reason to be optimistic. ABI Research says that from 2006, UHF and microwave will drive the RFID market.

Via MoreRFID

One main problem with UHF based RFID tags are that they are subject to multipath interference which is common with electromagnetic signals. As a result, RFID tags become unreadable even if they are within the range of the reader.

Now Omron has developed a new type of antenna technology that is able to control electronically the electromagnetic field that the reader emits.

Omron's technology reduces multipath interference by allowing a wave with directivity to propagate in any specific direction. Moreover, the reader can control the direction of the propagation. Now one can direct the wave's direction of propagation to avoid objects near the beam that may be the cause of signal reflections.

Via Electronicstalk