OTA Training Expands Into India

OTA Training, LLC, (www.otatraining.com) is conducting RFID training and certification in India. In conjunction with the event RFID Expo Live India (held in January), OTA trained 25 students from the region, serving the rapidly growing training needs in the South Asia sub-continent. This marks the first time successful completion of the RFID+ Certification has been administered and achieved in the region's history. OTA's certification program assures that students have the required competence in understanding and implementing the broad scope of RFID products and solutions.

After completing all of the necessary courses, attendees can take the high-level CompTIA® exam to become CompTIA RFID+™ Certified. CompTIA® certification validates the knowledge and skills of professionals who work with RFID technology. It is an international, vendor-neutral credential that recognizes a technician's ability to install, maintain, repair, and troubleshoot the hardware and software functionality of RFID products. These examinations put technical knowledge to the proof under test conditions.

"There is no doubt that this entire region, and India in particular, are keenly interested in learning more about RFID and becoming RFID+ Certified," says Darshan Brahmbhatt, Director of South Asia Operations, OTA Training. "We are delighted and proud that OTA was the first in this market".

Mathew Tanant, Chief Executive Officer of Asia Technologies says, "When we were searching for an RFID training partner, there was no other choice but to pick the company that wrote the book of RFID training and certification," referring to OTA's RFID+ Exam Cram™ study guide. "This is part of our strategy in laying a great service and support infrastructure to the RFID industry in South Asia."

In conjunction with Asia Technologies and other major Indian companies, OTA has aggressive plans to expand its comprehensive training throughout India and the entire region. Based on the tremendous success of this class, more classes are to be scheduled in the immediate future. Representatives from companies such as Accenture, TCS, India Rail Company, and DHL were among those involved in the inaugural class.

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Texas Instruments Introduces Rugged Encapsulated Tag for Harsh Process Environments

Texas Instruments Inc. (www.ti-rfid.com) introduces its Overmolded (OM) transponder family, comprised of the most rugged RFID tags in its portfolio of ISO/IEC 15693 compliant transponders. The OM tags are designed to withstand extreme environments where temperature, high pressure, and harsh chemicals inhibit the performance of line-of-sight automatic identification technologies. With their durability and small, 22 mm, circular dimension, TI's 13.56 MHz OM tags provide increased read performance for applications ranging from industrial laundry and textile rental to process industries such as perishable foods.

TI's OM tags are available in two memory options: a 2K bit version with the option for higher functionality and security features, and a 256 bit version offering customers the flexibility to choose the tag best suited to their particular application. Each tag can be reused hundreds of times in physically demanding environments (for example, the 13.56 MHz tags are capable of enduring more than 200 industrial laundry wash cycles).

"TI's latest RFID transponders with solid overmolded casing are effective in one of the harshest applications that RFID is used for: laundry," says Jeff Markman, President of Positek, a leading RFID systems integrator for laundry applications. "The extended read range enabled by the 22 mm size provides for more efficient reading of large bundles of clothing."

TI's 2K bit overmolded tag is already at work in various applications including the tracking of 130,000 staff garments in the laundry service at one of Norway's top hospitals, St. Olavs University Hospital in Trondheim. A case study on this customer application is now available at www.ti.com/rfid/shtml/news-casestudies-02-01-07.shtml.

In addition, a milk producer is currently using TI's 2K bit OM tag to individually identify test vials of milk samples for controlling and tracking the complete chain of quality inspection. Each vial must be correctly identified as it passes through a number of safety checks in a variety of harsh testing environments. Using TI's tags, the accuracy and safety of these checks are increased, and the reusability of the tag makes it more cost-effective.

VeriChip Announces Intended Commencement of IPO

VeriChip Corporation (www.verichipcorp.com) announces its intended commencement of a public offering of up to 4.3 million shares of the company's common stock. Applied Digital, VeriChip's parent company, will grant an option to the underwriters to purchase up to 645,000 shares of the common stock to cover over-allotments, in any exist. It is estimated that the price per stock will be between $6.50 and $8.50 per share, and the proposed sales to the public will commence around February 8. The shares are expected to be listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "CHIP."

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