18 RFID Developments Making Waves Around the Globe

By HaLeigh Boutin

1. TAGSYS Makes a Move on Cambridge, MA
TAGSYS announces the move of the company's headquarters to Cambridge, MA. Thirty five million dollars in financing, led by JPMorgan Partners, will be used to advance the global giant's efforts and help it expand into emerging markets. Cambridge was chosen for the new home for the leading academic institutions (such as M.I.T.) in the area, giving the company the chance to tap into the region's talent. Visit www.tagsysrfid.com.

2. ODIN technologies Overseas and at Home
ODIN technologies of Dulles, VA, introduced their new European located venture, ODIN Budapest. Created with the Hungarian government and the Swiss firm MTS, the local company will be better apt to meet the high demands of the growing RFID market in Europe, the second largest in the world. ODIN technologies also released a new report which analyzes eight of the most used EPC-compliant Gen 2 RFID readers. The report is called Gen 2 RFID Reader Benchmark, and was sponsored by Unisys. Visit www.odinbudapest.hu.

3. Wal-Mart Canada Planning RFID Supply Chain Pilot
Wal-Mart Canada has begun planning an RFID pilot project to mirror that of the U.S. pilot, only on a smaller scale. Sixteen suppliers have been asked to take part in the 2006-2007 pilot, which uses RFID tags to track products as they enter and leave distribution centers. The pilot will be focused on accuracy rather than speed, keeping the supply chain significantly smaller than that occurring in the U.S, with mostly the same suppliers. Visit www.walmart.ca.

4. South American CPG Company Tracks Short Shelf Life Products
An RFID pilot for the South American consumer packaged goods company, Noel SA, has worked so effectively that it revealed inaccuracies in the previous barcoding system. Noel SA, borrowing the RFID enabled Oracle Warehouse Management System, tagged its shelf life-sensitive products to improve order fulfillment and customer satisfaction. Success with tracking lot numbers and expiration dates throughout the entire supply chain has led the company to plan a full-scale RFID roll-out.

5. Marks & Spencer Expands UHF Trial in U.K.
In the United Kingdom, Paxar Corporation has announced that they will continue with Marks & Spencer's RFID trial program in the U.K. The chain increased the number of participating stores to 53 during the spring of 2006. UHF tags are used to take inventory in the loading bays of all six distribution centers as transported merchandise is carried through. Visit www.paxar.com.

6. Finnair Adopts RFID System for Ground Staff
Finnair Airlines, at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in Finland, is to streamline their operations by using RFID enabled Nokia 5140i phones for the entire ground staff. Northport Ltd., Finland's leading ground services group, estimates that the new task management system will increase efficiency and flexibility of airport logistics. The handsets act with real-time locators which receive task information automatically and efficiently, a great improvement over the previous system of entering PIN codes at service centers. Visit www.finnair.com.

7. German Company Creates 'Smart Floor'
German carpet manufacturer Vorwerk Teppichwerke announces the development of the first "smart floor." Passive RFID tags, embedded in textile flooring underlay, enable robots to move between targets and orient themselves within a building. The robots can be used for tasks like floor cleaning and directed to areas that have not been cleaned recently. Further plans for the smart floor include creating a system that can monitor movement to catch intruders or alert hospital staff to patients who have fallen out of bed. Visit www.vorwerk-teppich.de/sc/vorwerk/home_en.html.

8. Qatar Implements National RFID IDs
Qatar will implement RFID enabled personal identification cards to become effective at the start of 2007. The Qatar National Identification Project is not the first project of its kind, but the latest from the Middle East. The processors within each ID will contain the carrier's name, date of birth, address, and fingerprint. This will be the official ID document for Qatar citizens and foreign residents over the age of 16.

9. Johannesburg Keeps the Trash Out
The city of Johannesburg, South Africa, is using RFID technology, through Wavetrend and Opto Africa, to monitor waste collection and disposal by the city's sewage disposal system. This effort, called "Pikitup," hopes to increase efficiencies in the system. Each of 450 vehicles are suited with a Wavetrend RFID chip that holds the mass calculations, the type of waste, the driver information, and time and date as each vehicle enters a weigh-bridge. Visit www.wavetrend.net and www.pikitup.co.za.

10. South African Company Improves Hospital Efficiency
South African company Holbert Systems Solutions has completed their pilot for an RFID tracking system in six Medi-Clinic hospitals. The goal was to monitor patients' time in surgery along with their medical information with a Wavetrend RF Tag attached to each patient's bed. The hospital's central information system can indicate areas where improvements could be made on the hospital's efficiency and resource utilization. Holbert is devising a roll-out plan for the six hospitals, and considering adding RFID tags for equipment and staff tracking. Visit www.holbertsystems.co.za or www.mediclinic.co.za.

11. Blue Vector Opens India Offices
Blue Vector announced the opening of its new offices located in Bangalore, India. The company hopes that the India location will help them reduce customer delay due to time zone interference and allow the operations to work around the clock between management sites. Ideally, the new location will be a step towards an increase in overseas sales and marketing efforts. Visit www.bluevectorsystems.com.

12. South Korean Vendors See a Bright Future for UHF
South Korean RFID vendors see a promising future for UHF tags, mainly from the business of private companies. HF tags led the market in 2005 for sectors such as logistics, retail, healthcare, library services, and education, with logistics and library services demonstrating the highest rate of adoption. 2006 holds promise for UHF advancement in South Korea with competitive prices. The South Korean government has aided the development of new RFID technology and adoption by individual enterprises.

13. Hong Kong Airline Gets a Handle on Luggage
Beijing Capital International Airport announces the adoption of the first RFID Luggage Tracking System to Cathay Pacific Airways, an airliner based in Hong Kong. The system will be introduced through two phases with the completion estimated for October, 2006. The new technology cost the airport over four million RMB (around $500,000 U.S. dollars)—not much for an airport with sales from Cathay Pacific Airways alone earning over $6 billion US dollars in 2005. Visit www.cathaypacific.com.

14. Japanese, South Korean Transit Firms Implement Contactless Payment Services
Japan and South Korea continue to be leaders in contactless payment services. East Japan Railways has updated stations with this technology, allowing passengers to access entire facilities with one card. In South Korea, Visa Wave and MasterCard Pay Pass have been successful, while SK Telecom and KTF are set to introduce a Universal Subscriber Identification Module (USIM), which uses an integrated swipe card to allow transit, banking, and contactless payments, by 13.56 MHz through a mobile handset. Visit www.sktelecom.com/eng and www.ktf.com/front/IR/eng.

15. Shanghai's Bailian Group Ltd. To Move Forward with EPC Pilot
The second phase of Shanghai's Bailian Group Ltd., in conjunction with VeriSign Inc., is underway for an EPCglobal Network for tracking the merchandise moved within the company's global supply chain. The first phase tested the hypothetical movement of products, and the second stage will track actual products as they move through the supply chain. Visit www.verisign.com.

16. Bangkok Hospital Prescribes RFID Wristbands
Bangkok Hospital in Thailand is working to enhance the safety of its patients by RFID tagged wristbands for every patient, encoded with medical information that can be retrieved seconds. Patients can also be easily tracked through the hospital so that the proper treatment can be administered immediately. The hospital hopes to increase both efficiency and safety, as full implementation proceeds this year, with plans to expand to 13 hospitals within three years. Visit www.bangkokhospital.com.

17. Australia Secures International Travel Documents
The Australia Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) and security identity solutions company, Viisage, are working together to increase security on identity and travel documents. Viisage's iA-thenticate Smart Chips and RFID Electronic Document Readers will be used to validate documents at more than 25 DIMA locations around the world. The Australian Customs Service currently uses the same Viisage technology to validate and secure documents at their international airports and at the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Visit www.immi.gov.au and www.viisage.com.

18. New Zealand Firms Work on EPC-Monitored Supply Chain
New Zealand's EPC/RFID Pathfinder Group, along with GS1 New Zealand, has developed a project to increase interest and education for Electronic Product Code (EPC) RFID, launching a trial period in August. It is designed to create a small, supervised supply chain of products, consisting of logistics operators, system integrators, hardware providers, retailers, and manufacturers. Gary Hartley, Strategic Initiatives Manager for GS1 New Zealand, says that the EPC technology will act in a real-time manner and monitor the chain of custody for a product. Visit www.gs1nz.org/EPCglobal.

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