RFid Blog

Have you ever thought that your refrigerator would inform you that it is running out of stock? You must think thrice when I introduce you such a futuristic refrigerator.

Samsung Electronics is developing a unique refrigerator equipped with RFID technology to inform the owner when foods need to be stocked up.

Chae Hee-kook, a company spokesperson says,

We are working on refrigerators wired for RFID. Technologically speaking, there is no barrier to come up with the new items.

The newest fridge would identify when food items like eggs, bread or milk are running low and inform the owner immediately through their mobile phones.

Sony Corporation, the leading manufacturer of electronics, video, communications, video games and information technology products for the consumer as well as professional markets is moving towards a large-scale RFID deployment in Europe to strength its business operations.

An RFID Journal news reveals that Sony Europe has stared a Video-RFID tracking system to enhance its shopping processes and solve shipping problems with its German retailer customers.

The RFID system deployed at Sony’s largest European distribution center in Tilburg, the Netherlands will be fully functional by March next year.

As per the Video- RFID tracking program, Sony would track the RFID-tagged items with closed-circuit video to ensure products are properly processed for shipping.

Commenting on the RFID program, Sony Europe explains,

We can dramatically increase ROI through process improvements and by combining video recognition with RFID helps to follow up the complete chain of a specific shipment and speed up operations.

RFID technology is nothing new to Sony. The company has already adopted it as per Wal-Mart mandate in USA. However, it is the first large-scale internal RFID implementation for Sony Europe, reports RFID Journal.

Let’s consider the figures- nearly 300,000 pieces of luggage have been lost by airlines in the month of October this year. More than $100 million is spent every year by airlines to recover and provide lost baggage to owner’s destinations.

For the last few years, the airlines industry is suffering a massive lose on account theft of baggage in the airports. The reason: lack of effective tracking system. Therefore, it is high time for the airlines to adopt BagChip solutions.

BagChips include travelers name, address and phone number as well a unique numeric id. Airport employees can promptly scan baggage inventory using hand-held medium range transponders to locate the lost bags at predetermined places within the airport’s baggage system.

RFID LTD, the company that advocates for BagChip solutions says,

We plan to aggressively pursue all airlines by offering tests at airports to prove how easily the BagChip system works. Implemented properly, BagChip can also be used as a means of capturing an additional revenue stream from advertisers who wish to market to travelers.

I don’t need to introduce about Microsoft’s BizTalk business process management server that enables companies to automate and optimize business processes. Now, Sirit is using Microsoft’s BizTalk RFID platform to enhance its RFID readers.

Sirit is one of the major RFID product manufacturers of the world whose products are widely used in the different markets including electronic toll collection, physical access control, logistics management, supply chain management, healthcare and pharmaceutical, asset control and product authentication.

Sirit would integrate Microsoft’s BizTalk RFID platform with its Plug-N-Play and INfinity readers bringing a simplified platform for the users to connect applications, processes and device data with it.

These readers support a wide range of frequencies and protocols. The integration of BizTalk RFID platform has made the readers highly versatile in the number of application in different industries and geographical locations.

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For a manufacturer, it is very important to meet the deadline of a retailer. If he fails to provide the goods and services in time, the retailer may opt for a new manufacturer since the retailer has to fulfill the demand of the customers. In a large warehouse, it is equally difficult on the part of a manufacturer to track out the ordered merchandise within a stipulated time.

In order to assist manufacturers in their mission to meet the retailers’ demand, NCR Crop has developed an out-of-the-box RFID solution that empowers the producers to speedily and willingly convene retailers’ mandates for supplying merchandise with RFID tags at the case and pallet level.

Ken Hamlin, General Manager of NCR’s Automatic Identification and Data Collection Solutions Group views,

More retailers are mandating RFID tagging for more products. As a result, many consumer goods manufacturers are telling us they want this capability without spending the time and money needed to implement a custom process.

The out-of-the-box solution consists of NCR application software, an RFID printer, a barcode scanner and startup supply of RFID labels that are based on EPCglobal Generation2 standard. It also consists of a year of software telephone support.

In brief, the NCR RFID Retail Compliance provides companies with all the components needed to install and implement an RFID tagging solution in a matter of hours. It saves time, money and energy and boosts business.

Developed in line with NCR Transition development platform, the Out-of-the-box solution has been installed hundreds of manufacturing units in the world.

The European Commission of EU has decided to harmonize the RF (Radio Frequency) bands through out European Countries to increase the adoption of RFID tags and wireless devices including wireless computer keywords, headphones and garage openers.

The commission excepts by harmonizing RF bands, the customers both household and business enterprises will able to use same short-range of wireless product anywhere in Europe and manufacturers require to develop one product for whole internal market. This would bring down the price of wireless devices than before.

The EU also plans to harmonize frequencies for RFID devices that are being widely adopted in the retail, logistics, security and systems in all most all the countries in Europe.

Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for the information society says,

From garage door openers to baby monitors, alarms and wireless medical implants, short range devices affect us all, from the very young to the very old. That’s why these Commission decisions will help create a single market for wireless devices, stimulate their uptake, boost industry in this vital sector and provide benefits to all Europeans.

The EU predicts the value of the market for wireless devices is set to hit A€25 billion by 2009 and value of RFID market in the EU countries will touch A€4 billion by 2010. The introduction of an identical RF band would further boost these markets.

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Undeniably, the drugs counterfeiting is now a global problem. Nearly 10 percent of drugs worldwide are counterfeit and in some countries, more than 50 percent of the drug-supply is made up counterfeit drugs. The annual earnings of counterfeit drugs are more than $32 billion, according to a WHO report.

IBM, the global leader in computer hardware and software services has come forward to fight against drug counterfeiting using the latest RFID technology which would prove highly helpful for drugs manufacturers, distributors and retailers worldwide.

The New York-based International Business Machines Corp has announced it is introducing RFID tags on drug packages to check out the authenticity of a particular substance.

As designed by IBM, the technology builds a new RFID system enabling retailers and distributors to correspond more efficiently with manufacturers over secure networks allowing them to confirm that each package is authentic and not a counterfeit persists in the supply chain.

At present, the two drug wholesalers AmerisourceBergen Corporation and Cardinal Health Inc are using this technology, confirmed IBM.

Whenever you are alone and feel like talking to someone then you feel that walls should also talk so that you don’t get bored.

Well this will not be a dream anymore as the Sumitomo Osaka Cement and the YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory have developed a one of its kind cement that they call as Cyber-Concrete.

The Cyber-Concrete is embedded with RFID tags that can store data and when an RFID reader is placed near the walls it receives the data from the walls and convert it to spoken form.

The testing of this amazing cement will begin this month and the developers aim to make the product available for construction companies by the spring of 2007.

The applications of such a product are endless but the initial versions of the system will be able to tell its manufacturing, its strength, quality and some data about the reliability and inspections.

This will be a boon in the earthquake prone areas as the users will not have to get the walls inspected by some inspectors as the walls will be able to speak for themselves.

Via: pinktentacle

The US government faces obstacle in its step towards the introduction of RFID enabled e-pedigrees for pharmaceutical sectors with federal court relaxing compliant of pedigree requirements for drug shipments.

A small group of pharmaceutical wholesalers moved Eastern District Court of New York against the Department of Health and Human Services of FDA regarding the RFID pedigree. They urged the court to wedge the pedigree requirement complaining it may cause loss to the small wholesalers of the country. The judge Joanna Seybert issued a status quo that eventually relaxes pedigree requirements for wholesalers.

Going by Prescription Drug Marketing Act, the RFID had not been a requirement for the pedigrees of drug shipments. However, industry observers agreed to introduce RFID-based pedigrees for effective tracking of drugs. So FDA has decided to give effect the RFID pedigree law on January 1, 2007. However, the court injunction has compelled FDA to postpone the idea.

In an effort to develop an RFID community, RFID Tribe has prepared an interactive online map that presents a myriad of organizations, experts, vendors and suppliers of RFID world.

Just click here and be part of the RFID community. You would find advanced search engines to move across the RFID Ecosystem. Type keywords such as logistics, defense, healthcare, asset and tags. By doing so, you would get all sorts information of the organization that could serve your needs. You can also make area wise search in the map.

Mark Johnson, president of RFID Tribe opines,

These organizations represent a vibrant community - end users of RFID technology, universities performing RFID research and vendors of RFID products and services. RFID Tribe is pleased to play a role in developing the RFID community throughout the world.

The user-friendly and interactive RFID organization map is a better platform to bring the RFID companies and end-users together.