RFID Lowdown

RFID Applications: Forestry Asset Management

[This post is part of a short series aimed at giving a quick overview of existing and future applications of RFID - radio frequency identification - technology.] Asset Management (AM) is one of the more common applications of RFID technology. Within this umbrella application are many specialized apps targeted at a particular use which typically requires customized techniques as well as equipment.

For example, in forestry applications of AM, such as that developed by TU Munich (Technical University of Munich), a method of applying RFID tags to logs has been devised. In this case, logs that have already fallen are tagged by the harvester. This allows a more refined process and the ability to track a log through several steps. It's much easier for everyone involved in the log harvesting process to determine what stage a log is currently at.

What's unique about the TU Munich application is that the passive tags are stapled into the side of a log by the harvester, compared to other similar apps that use nail-shaped tags that have to be manually hammered by a lumberjack. The harvester collects information about each log and stores it tied to a unique id. RFID Journal provides more detail.

RFID Lowdown - Sat Nov 25, 2006

New Airline Bagging Tagging Chip
Delta Airlines is testing a new RFID baggage tagging solution called BagChip from RFID Ltd. The system is expected to cut down on lost baggage which estimated at around 800,000 pieces yearly, costing US$100M annually. Each BagChip tag is about US$10. [Business Wire via Biz Yahoo]

Medline RFID For Surgical Sponges
Medline Industries is the latest company to offer an RFID system for tracking surgical sponges. Such sponges are used during operations and have a tendency to be left behind under the stress of some surgeries. Medline's system also works with surgical gauze and towels. [via RFID Journal]

South Korea Certifies ThingMagic
ThingMagic's Mercury4 RFID reader has been certified [RFID News] for use in South Korea, and is already being used for a number of applications including airline, high-security, and casinos. Mercury4 functions on EPC Gen 2 technology.

Dual-Frequency RFID Reader Tunnel

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

In spite of the advances made in item-level UHF tagging and the fact that various companies have started the production of tags for such applications, the majority of pharmaceutical companies tag their products using HF technology. The containers that hold the products usually come with UHF tags, which make reading a dual process. Not anymore, though.

The new Smart Conveyor Tunnel from Blue Vector Systems is touted to be capable of reading HF-tagged items inside UHF-tagged containers and pallets. With the Blue Vector Edge Manager, controlling the sensors and cases is made easy in real-time. Business rules allow cases to be removed, ECP-compliant details to be loaded into databases, items to be verified with the original manufacturer, and advance shipping notices to be sent to supply chain partners. Blue Vector has set up a web interface through which the tunnel can be configured and monitored. Business Wire reports:

The tunnel supports EPC Gen 1 and Gen 2 UHF tag standards. For HF, it supports the ISO 15693 and 18000-3 tag standards. Blue Vector’s Smart Conveyor Tunnel includes all components necessary for operation, including RFID readers from companies such as Symbol Technologies, a Blue Vector partner.

RFID Lowdown - Mon Nov 06, 2006

Smartcards And Banking Models
The Australian government plans to adopt a banking system model for the new citizen "access card", which provides access to government services. In other words, access requires entering a PIN code, just like for a debit/ ATM card. However, unlike debit cards, the citizen access cards will have a photo, signature, card number, and an RFID chip containing a digitized photo and signature. [via Australian IT News]

Jack In The Box Goes Contactless
The American chain of Jack in the Box restaurants will be adding contactless payment cards as a new payment option at all of their restaurants - something few other chains can claim. They'll be accepting the typical American Express, MasterCard PayPass, and Visa Contactless cards as well as Discover Network. They expect to have all restaurants rolled out with this payment option by the end of this year. [via Home BusinessWire]

Metal-Compatible RFID Tags
Metal has been the bane of RFID tags but QinetiQ and Crown Holdings have come up with a way to make metal containers with special antenna-less Gen 2 UHF tags. The tags would be able to handle the interference normally associated with metal by redirecting the RF signals. [via RFID Journal]

RFID In Shipping

EPCglobal is conducting a pilot study to promote their EPCIS (electronic product code information services) technical specification in Asia, as well as test RFID for automated customs clearance. EPCIS is a guideline for the standardizing RFID data so that it can be shared. The first of two phases involves tagging containers being shipped between Hong Kong and Japan (by sea).

Another RFID pilot being run by Schenker, a division of Deutsche Bahn, is also being applied to sea freight containers, in this case between the ports of Hong Kong and Hamburg, Germany. This pilot is also in two phases and will last about a year. It will use tags and readers from Intermec, with the tags being able to withstand salt water.

Other companies such as Savi Networks are also testing RFID with shipping containers.

Measuring Gen 2 RFID

Data is just one of those things that begs to be analyzed. For analysis geeks, un-analyzed data is just wasted data. So it wasn't long after the debut of the Gen2 RFID tag protocol that an electrical engineering professor at University of Arkansas, Kazem Sohraby, and a post-doctoral fellow, Chonggang Wang, came up with two performance metrics for RFID - a way to measure the capacity of an RFID reader. Said Professor Sohraby:

As far as we know, this is the first quantitative analysis of the performance of the Gen-2 protocol

referring to the recent Gen2 UHF (Ultra High Frequency) RFID specification being backed EPCglobal and supported by over 60 other companies in the industry. EPCGlobal's EPC (Electronic Product Code) is being pushed as a worldwide standard for radio frequency technology. Some reports say that upgrading to Gen2 will be expensive, though the cost of UHF readers should fall. So any sort of analysis that improves the usage of current Gen 2 equipment holds a great deal of value. The model devised uses an advanced mathematical concept known as Discrete-Time Markov Chains, which help describe the state of a system - in this case, the different states of an RFID reader.

[via University of Arkansas]

RFID Applications: CCM - Cold Chain Management

[This post is part of a short series aimed at giving a quick overview of existing and future applications of RFID - radio frequencyidentification - technology .] Cold Chain Management (CCM) has applications in any industry where strict temperature control must be maintained for products or assets. Example uses are for pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, perishable food products, and chemicals. A new breed of temperature-sensitive RFID tags are helping to automate CCM processes, thus reducing spoilage or critical situations (in the case of medical equipment for surgery, etc.). These RFID CCM systems not only monitor temperatures - or sometimes even light or humidity - but typically also wirelessly transmit any data collected to a central system where a human being can filter the data and act upon a situation as necessary.

A loosely-related application (though not part of CCM) of temperature-sensitive RFID tags is for monitoring livestock, to more readily detect when an animal might be sick. This would be based on not only a change in body temperature - as measured by an ear tag-thermometer combo - but the persistence of change over an extended duration.

[additional sources: SMB Edge, Canadian Forces Logistics, RFID Journal, Medical Device Link]

Impinj + Reva Achieve Dense RFID Reading

In Europe, RFID readers must use a "listen-before-talk" technique, where a reader checks for other signals before transmitting its own broadcast. Reva Systems and Impinj performed a joint test using 36 readers and a single listen-before-talk sensor, as well as a Reva TAP (Tag Acquisition Processor) to achieve "dense reading" rates of 98-99% accuracy - previously unheard of for such signal density. Furthermore, the European spectrum for UHF (Ultra High Frequency) RFID is only 3 Mhz compared to 26 Mhz in the USA. So the net result is that the achievement might mean wider adoption of RFID in European, especially in the supply chain.

[BusinessWire via RFID Update]

Cubic Wins Award For Transit Smart Cards

--By Raj Dash, Staff Writer

Back when I lived in the big city, in my mid-twenties, I did a lot of consulting in neighboring cities and towns. While I lived in the heart of downtown, with access to a fairly good transit system with subway, buses and streetcars (no, not San Francisco), I often had to use up to three or four different systems to get to client offices. I could put up with the 1-1.5 hour trips in each direction, but trying to keep enough change, especially during the bitter cold of winter, was not enjoyable. It would have been nice to have a single transit card that I could use for all of them.

Well, Frost & Sullivan has awarded their Innovation & Advancement award to Cubic Transportation for just such a reason. Cubic links multiple transit operators and simultaneously offers a single payment system. This obviously makes things convenient for citizens in metropolitan areas where there are satellite towns and cities with their own transit systems. All they need is a single RFID-enabled contactless transit card.

The company also came up with a Tri-Reader that processes a number of ISO 14443-compliant (credit card form factor) contactless smart cards, including those used by occasional riders such as tourists. Cubic projects are ongoing in London (UK), South East Queensland (Australia) and a number of US cities including New York/ New Jersey, Washington, D.C./ Maryland, Atlanta, L.A., San Francisco and others. Another company working on innovative contactless transit ticketing is Innovision, with their Jewel chip. RFID is also being used to improve transit service.

[via Contactless News]

Metal-Compatible RFID Transponders

--By Raj Dash, Staff Writer

One of the problems with HF (High Frequency) RFID tags is that typically do not function well on, in, or near metal. There are, however, many industrial applications where RFID would be a boon. Trials show that UHF Gen2 RFID tags do much better in these situations. As such, Sontec Co. has devised an RFID transponder for RSC (Retail Supply Chain) use that functions well around the high metal content of consumer goods such as appliances and electronics.

The company's EPC Gen 2 tags' silicon chips are supplied by Texas Instruments and is actually mounted on metal - something no one would even bother to try with other RFID chips. This chip gets around a number of the interference problems.

[via RFID News]