Confidex Introduces UHF RFID Label
for Returnable Plastic Containers

jpg Confidex announces the introduction of Confidex Carrier™, the company’s new, UHF RFID label for returnable plastic containers. Confidex Carrier is a special label designed to effectively and reliably adhere to plastic surfaces.

Millions of plastic transit items such as totes, crates, and trays are used in various applications that require proven durability under heavy use and challenging environments. Accurately and reliably tracking these plastic items requires an RFID tag solution that is equal to the task. The EPC Class 1 Gen 2-compliant Confidex Carrier, with its high performance acrylic adhesive, was specifically developed to meet these demands by providing an RFID tag solution that will consistently withstand the daily use of plastic transit items for several years.

“Prior to its introduction, Confidex Carrier was tested in industrial applications with real-life use and cleaning conditions to ensure the tag design meets the requirements of our customers,” says Jarkko Miettinen, Vice President of Marketing at Confidex. “The requirements for better visibility in asset management have been continuously expanding due to increased material and transportation costs and the need to remain competitive in today’s business environment.”

A reliable UHF RFID tag solution can provide a fast return-on-investment for asset tracking applications where identification in inventory and cleaning management are critical, such as meat crates or other similar assets used for delivering food. With its long read range, UHF RFID can enable fast identification of assets in just a fraction of a second and provide more accurate information about the location and quantity of such assets. In addition to tracking returnable plastic transit items in the supply chain, Confidex Carrier, with its wide-band antenna design, is also ideally suited for a wide range of other applications.

New Nordic ID Handheld Computer with
Advanced Cross Dipole and RFID Features

submitted by VDC

jpg Nordic ID announces the release of a new handheld UHF RFID computer that offers outstanding UHF RFID performance thanks to a novel antenna solution. Nordic ID PL3000 Cross Dipole is the first RFID handheld that fulfils all the critical requirements set for an industrial level handheld — reading distance, reading reliability, multiple adjustable reading features, various polarization schemes, long battery life, and overall usability. The device has a typical reading distance of 4 meters with exceptional high reading reliability.

The secret to its performance is Nordic ID’s patent pending cross dipole antenna. Furthermore, the adjustable output power and a support for a sense reader mode make it more flexible to create RFID solutions fitted for customer-specific needs. The RFID reader is fully compatible with a wide selection of ETSI standards, the standards of multi-channel management, and NXP based tag reading. The new device is well suited to a number of applications, such as garment processing, pallet logistics, luggage handling, and retail supply chains.

Director of R&D at Nordic ID, Hannu Heino, says: “Feedback from our test clients has been highly encouraging. This device has been rigorously tested and developed to the point where we can be confident of its ability to perform even under the most demanding conditions.”

In addition to its RFID performance, Nordic ID PL3000 Cross Dipole is also fully ready for commercial applications. The device’s latest Windows CE 6 operating system allows for integration to all back end systems and provides tremendous speed. State of the art remote management and a number of easy to use functionalities are available or included with the device.

As with all other Nordic ID devices, the PL3000 Cross Dipole can be equipped with several communication options and other functionalities, including: GPRS, WLAN, Bluetooth, USB, and barcode reader.

Alien Technology® Introduces Intelligent Tag Radar™ Software to Enable New Applications for RFID

gif Alien Technology announces the availability of its new Intelligent Tag Radar™ (ITR) software developed for the ALR-9900, ALR-9800, and ALR-8800 Enterprise-Class reader platform. ITR is the first RFID reader software to provide comprehensive information about the position and direction of UHF RFID tags in addition to the contents of the tag memory.

The Intelligent Tag Radar reader platform includes:

ITR-Singulation™, a breakthrough technology that enables the reader to easily discriminate among adjacent tagged objects on a conveyor such as items, cases or airline baggage, without the need for specialized antennas, sensors, or near-field equipment
ITR-Velocity™, which provides real-time information on the speed of a tagged object, enabling discrimination between stationary and moving objects and automated decision making based on speed and location
ITR-Directionality™, which identifies whether an item is coming or going as well as the direction of the item
ITR-Range™, which enables the system to isolate tagged items to a given zone, with sufficient precision for most applications, but with much lower cost than competitive technologies like active and WiFi tags.

“With this new ITR platform, our partners and their customers can derive new value from their existing investments in RFID,” says Scot Stelter, Director of Reader Product Marketing with Alien Technology. “This extension of the Alien Reader Protocol enables our partners to address unsolved business problems using existing Alien readers and Gen 2 tags as well as to expand RFID into new growth applications and segments.”

ITR application examples:

ITR for Airline Baggage and Manufacturing
One of the challenges of using RFID with conveyor belts is the difficulty in isolating individual tagged objects as they pass the antenna. Standard solutions to this problem entail reducing conveyor speed or creating greater separation between tagged objects. ITR-Singulation™ enables the isolation of the one tag that is “top-dead-center” with respect to the antenna. This allows the system to keep track of the order of the tagged objects and to take specific action with respect to each one. Alien subsidiary Quatrotec is using ITR, in addition to its shielding solution, in baggage handling applications being evaluated now by several airports and baggage handling companies.

ITR for Retail
Retail users of RFID need to know not only that a given reader has detected a certain tag, but in which direction the tag is traveling when it was detected. Knowing whether a case of product has moved from the back room to the store floor or the reverse helps provide more accurate inventory information and supplements shrinkage control systems. Retailers will also be able to discern moving inventory items from stationary ones with ITR-Velocity™. This information provides retailers with timely and specific information on the product the user is examining, while collecting data about how long the customer interacted with the item. This valuable marketing data will help retailers to optimize merchandizing displays and to know which products are hot in real time.

ITR for Asset Tracking
In many asset-tracking applications, passive RFID is replacing the more expensive active RFID solution. ITR-Range™ enables the system to isolate the tag to a given zone, which in many cases is sufficient precision for the user, who retains all of the cost benefits of passive RFID. Alien developed this application to aid in the loading process for cargo helicopters. "The availability of Alien's ITR software points to continued passive UHF application enablement in the industry," says Michael Liard, Research Director for RFID and Contactless Technologies and Markets at ABI Research. "The ability to understand where an item is going, where its exact location is among other items, while on a conveyer or passing through a read zone, opens up the door for application use of RFID that's well beyond the supply chain, manufacturing, and simple asset tracking. Enterprises such as airlines and airports, large package and postal service companies, and others can benefit from the use of the Intelligent Tag Radar."

Alien’s patented Intelligent Tag Radar software can be downloaded by existing and new customers starting June 30 from the Alien Partner Portal. The new firmware includes an updated Software Development Kit with sample code for several of the applications described above.

RFID World Preview

gif TechInsights announces the expansion of the RFID World 2008 conference, offering demonstrable vertical market RFID solutions, discussion forums, seminars, and symposia that address the increased demand from industry leaders for a RFID solutions-focused event. RFID World 2008: Beyond RFID: Global Solutions for the Auto ID Community will take place in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand September 8-10.

The slate of RFID World educational topics focuses on the hottest issues facing the RFID industry today such as:

Food Traceability: Securing the Food Supply Chain
Pharma e-Pedigree: Compliance Plus Longer Term Business Transformation Goals
Hospital and Healthcare Organizations: Using RFID to Improve Operating Efficiency
Apparel, Footwear, and the Retail Experience
The Consumer Experience: Advertising, Marketing, and Media
Manufacturing & Automation: Integrating RFID & RTLS for Optimized Operations and Control
Transportation, Logistics, and Supply Chain Preparedness

“RFID World is an ideal forum for executives, solutions implementers, and technology providers to gather for the express purpose of finding viable RFID-based solutions for today’s business challenges and product safety concerns,” says Tim Downs, Managing Director, RFID World 2008. “No other RFID industry event provides as much timely and relevant information delivered by the world’s most respected RFID experts.”

In addition to the industry solution tracks, RFID World includes executive keynote addresses, networking events, in-depth technical presentations, a value-added reseller (VAR) seminar and the 2nd annual “Excellence in RFID” awards ceremony. RFID World also boasts the world’s largest RFID technology vendor exhibition featuring the products and service offerings of more than 150 companies.

VDC Report: NFC: Not a Near-Term Opportunity,
But Expect Triple-Digit Growth

jpg Near Field Communication (NFC) adoption is slow today because it is hamstrung by a lack of supporting infrastructure, technical standards, cooperation among value chain participants, and market misperceptions. There is a host of different companies involved in the NFC value chain, each with their own interest, roles, and business models. There is a great deal of uncertainty as to how a globally-accepted NFC business model will be defined and implemented, as several stakeholders are “competing” for control of the ever-expanding markets for non-cash transactions.

The global market for NFC solutions was valued at more than $10M in 2007, with approximately 61,000 NFC-enabled devices shipped. According to recent research, VDC predicts the total global NFC solutions market to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 143% through 2012, when it is expected to exceed $877 million in revenues.

“In a too-familiar Catch-22,” cites Louis Bianchin, Senior Analyst of VDC’s AIDC/RFID Practice, “NFC device end-users are limited as to where they can use it, while enterprises are not investing heavily into the technology because they feel that there is a limited supply of NFC-enabled devices and users.”

The integration of the technology into a merchant’s establishment will be based upon reliably achieving a number of objectives, including:

improving the customer’s experience
building brand loyalty
increased operational efficiencies/automation
the potential of increasing revenues

Convenience for the consumer will be a primary driver for adoption. End-users are expected to benefit from the technology by having multiple cards managed on a single device, reduced time for checkout and transactions, as well as other value-added services such as being able to receive and store a transaction log or ticket. The level of security is the same as used with most credit cards, and the integration of transactions leveraging a PIN code is expected to significantly improve security, thus easing consumer concerns regarding theft or fraud.