RFID Gazette

The Senate Appropriations Committee has delayed the controversial Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the initiative brought by the Homeland Security Department (HSD).

According to the HSD proposal, people crossing the US borders must carry either a passport or a new form of identification (supposedly the RFID tag attach).

Things stand as of now, there is no unanimous view emerging on the kind of RFID technology to be adopted to track the people crossing US borders from Canada, Mexico and other states. The State department supports a contact less smart card with a short range RFID chip and privacy protections, while DHS suggests an ultra high-frequency form of RFID technology.

Therefore, the DHS's travel initiative has been put aside for 17 months to June 1, 2009.  The DHS and State department must come up with a solution for RFID rolling.

Via: [RFid Blog]

IDENTEC SOLUTIONS has obtained a financing package to the tune of 15million USD for the expansion of its networking. Lichtenstein-based major venture firm RFID Invest AG will be the lead investor of IDENTEC SOLUTIONS.

For the last seven years, IDENTEC SOLUTIONS has been providing asset management solutions and support to the renowned organizations like Volkswagen, Deutsche Post and General Electric. Recently it has teamed up with Boeing and FedEx for the implementation of active RFID tags for the Logistics provider. IDENTEC SOLUTIONS will utilize the financial package in the industrial active RFID systems and forge into new market sectors.

Via: [RFid News]

Yet another legal battle has begun between the two RFID leaders Alien Technology and Intermec. This time Alien Technology faces a suit from Intermec for allegedly infringing 10 Intermec patents.

Washington-based RFID hardware provider Intermec has filed a case in the US District Court for the District of Delaware for patent infringement complaining its UHF RFID readers and tags being infringed by the California-based Alien technology. Intermec in the suit has sought for an injunction, which would prohibit Alien from selling the infringing RFID products.  It is also demanding monetary damages from the sale of Alien's Gen 2 readers. Alien filed a case against Intermec in Federal District Court in the District of North Dakota earlier this month.

Via: [RFid Journal]

Jamison Door Company has made available a RFID Portal product line to assist the RFID industries to resolve problems relating to RFID deployment, such as cost, durability and hardware and integration capabilities. The Jamison division Industrial Portals™   will be in charge of marketing of the product.

John Williams, Chairman and CEO of Jamison Door explained,

To solve the issues associated with RFID deployment we combined our core expertise in rugged doorway design and manufacturing with the knowledge and deployment experience brought by RFID integrators. The portal allows users to easily install and integrate any RFID hardware/software systems with dramatically lower cost and with far superior capabilities than other portal systems.

Via: [RFid News]

Symbol Technologies and its strategic partner Concord Unity International Ltd will be offering RFID solutions to China Post. China Post will utilize the RFID based solutions to track the mailbags within the postal district of Shanghai.

As part of the national pilot project initiated by Chinese Science and Technology ministry, the RFID tags have been deployed in the Shanghai Post Express Mail Service. China Post will evaluate the benefits of RFID technology in postal operations.

Unarguably, the move taken by the China Post will help the postal department of Shanghai enormously. Implementing RFID technology, the post offices would be able to track the status of mailbags and sorting works.

Via: [efy times]

After facing problems with RFID trials, the leading supermarket Tesco have decided to delay the implementation of RFID technology at its various stores. Earlier, the supermarket had planned to deploy RFID tags and readers in 1,400 shops and distribution centers this year. However, it has installed just in 40 stores and one distribution centre.

Peter Harrop, Chairperson of RFID research specialist IDTechEx notes -

A lot of rollouts have had problems with one reader interfering with another because retailers are using UHF bands that are not as efficient.

However, the supermarket does not want to postpone the implementation of RFID technology forever. It has decided to tag transport items such as cages and trolleys but not the individual items.

Via: [RFid Blog]

Optio Software, Inc. has appointed Michael McGuire as the new general manager and senior vice president of healthcare sales and services. Optio's Healthcare Organization designs and delivers Electronic Health Record and RFID labeling solutions to hospitals and healthcare providers in the US.

McGuire is a visionary man. He worked as the senior vice president of sales and marketing for CareCentric, Inc. CareCentric provides technical assistance to the home healthcare industry.  Previously, he had associated the leading healthcare units like QUOVADX, Eclipsys Corporation and McKesson HBOC. Under the guidance of McGuire, Optio® Software will able to implement its market strategies successfully. 

Via: []

Two French companies, Coronis Systems and Data Health System (DHS) S.A have joined forces to develop a RFID-based monitoring system to inform the healthcare workers when a patient falls.

After conducting a series of tests at the Montpellier University Hospital in France and City of Paris Center for Social Action, the two companies launched Ynolis, the monitoring system. The monitoring system integrates DHS' detection bracelets with Coronis' wireless network Wavenis. The patient is provided with a bracelet bearing a unique ID. The ID is linked with the patient's name in a database. Coronis' wireless chip transmits data regarding the patient's condition to a reader or access point equipped with algorithms.

The director of strategic marketing at Coronis, Chirstophe Dugas remarks,

If the algorithm detects a fall because the change was major, the reader sends that information, along with the ID of the bracelet, to the central unit.

Via: [RFid Journal]

SATO America, an undisputed market leader in barcode printing, labeling and RFID solutions has launched an advanced OEM Print Engine what it calls the Lt408 for the small and medium size business enterprises.

The Lt408 OEM Print Engine combined with a high performance, 32-bit, RISC CPU and 16MB of RAM enables the both small and medium size producers to automate the labeling process on low-throughput and labor-intensive production lines.

Bob Lanzendorf, sales and marketing manager at SATO commented,

Essentially, we are combining SATO's tradition of high-quality, durable OEM print engine solutions with an entry-level feature set. This winning combination will appeal to thousands of manufacturers that, until now, have not been able to justify the expense of automating their labeling applications.

Via: [More RFid]

Solidica, Inc. bagged the prestigious 'Best of Sensors Expo' Gold award for their Chorus(TM) ultra-rugged wireless sensor and condition monitoring technology. This award is a part of initiative by Sensors Magazine. Solidica combines RFID technology with GPS to develop wireless sensor and condition monitoring technology, the technology extensively used to measure temperature, vibration, and three-dimensional acceleration.

Solidica CEO, Dawn White points out that,

The Chorus device is a dramatic example of a merger between Solidica's solid state ultrasonic consolidation fabrication technology and our industry-leading expertise in wireless electronics. It's simply another example of the unique best of breed technology combinations that our customers have come to expect from us.

Via: [PR Newswire]