RFID: How Do They Do It?

The popular Science Channel TV series How Do They Do It?, which explains such topics as how bridges are built and how items are manufactured, recently aired a segment regarding RFID. Perhaps this is another sign that the technology is finally starting to become mainstream.

The show began by discussing how goods are manufactured in Asia and other areas, and how they are then shipped worldwide to stores. "Every day, a billion items are made, packaged and sent around the world, " the narrator said. "Keeping track of all these products from factory to warehouse to store is a massive challenge. And it all relies on a tiny chip, less than 1/200th of an inch across. So how do they do it? "

The episode explained the history of RFID, including its roots in the friend-or-foe identifications system set up for airplanes during the Second World War. "In essence, there is a radio receiver in all these clothes, " the narrator stated. "Retailers like Gerry Weber International rely on RFID to ensure that every store is supplied with every garment in each available size and color... Thanks to RFID, factories always know what's hot in the shops, and make sure it's in stock. "

The show took viewers inside Avery Dennison's passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tag manufacturing facility in Clinton, S. C. It showed how antennas are cut from very thin aluminum, how each chip is attached to a copper strap and the strap to an antenna, how transponders are tested, and how the finished transponder is inserted into a Gerry Weber care label.

In addition, there was an interesting portion about how clothing is sorted at an 86, 000-square-foot warehouse in Germany, using a highly automated process. As goods were received at a store, viewers could watch how quickly staff members received them into inventory using handheld RFID readers.

It was a great segment, and can be viewed online for $1. 99, using Amazon Instant. If you get a chance to watch it, I recommend taking a look.

This article is come from http://www.asiarfid.com

80x30mm RFID Tag For Clothes Brand

80x30mm RFID Tag For Clothes Brand

Who Says RFID Tags Pose a Privacy Risk or Are Too Costly?

In a little less than two months, Reveal Labs, the start-up behind the Tile—a small Bluetooth tag about the size of a matchbox—raised more than $2. 6 million in pre-orders. At $18. 95 apiece, that means at least 141, 493 tags have been spoken for so far. One could argue that's pretty impressive.

Started by software and hardware engineers Mike Farley and Nick Evans in 2012, Tile was incubated out of Silicon Valley mobile accelerator Tandem Entrepreneurs Management Services, with $200, 000 in funding. When Tile launched its crowdfunding initiative, it stated it was in search of $20, 000 to fund its device.

Raising $2. 6 million—for a tag that uses radio frequency to broadcast its existence to any nearby mobile device running the Tile app—is, in my opinion, nothing short of amazing. Many of you may remember it wasn't too terribly long ago (in early 2003) that Gillette attached RFID tags to its Mach 3 Turbo razor blades and shipped them to stores including Wal-Mart and the U. K. supermarket chain Tesco that were equipped with "smart shelves. " Those tests caused quite a stir, with protestors and privacy groups voicing concerns about the potential invasion of privacy that could result from having RFID tags permanently attached to products. Within a few months, Wal-Mart backed out of the item-level tagging tests and focused instead on tagging pallets in the supply chain.

It appears now, a decade later, people are much more comfortable with RFID technologies (and for that matter, with paying for them). That's not to say that people don't have concerns about privacy with regard to RFID, NFC and other auto-ID technologies. But thousands and thousands are ordering Tiles, and other, similar tags. For the record, the Tile founders insist that people's personal information is kept private and that Tiles are secure, stating on the Web site that only the Tile owner and the Tile users with which an owner has explicitly shared his or her Tiles can search for that owner's Tiles.

Tile says its tag is designed to help people find misplaced keys, wallets and other things. Using an accompanying iOS app, people will be able to manage and find multiple Tile tags (and presumably the items to which they are attached) located within a 100 to 150 foot radius. The app uses the Tile tag's signal to determine whether the user is getting closer or farther away from the tagged item. And just like the common practice of calling a misplaced mobile phone to find it, people can call their misplaced tile from the Tile app on their phone to make finding it easier (when pinged, the Tile tag rings). If out of range, the app's "Last Place Seen" feature shows where the item was, well, last seen.

Tile leverages the relatively new Bluetooth 4. 0 standard and its Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) specification, which uses a technology that allows for periodic rather than continuous data transfer. That means the tag is often dormant and thus, has an operational battery life of about a year. The Tile tag is completely sealed, making it waterproof, and when a year is almost up (and the likelihood that the battery life is about up), the company will send customers a reminder to order a new Tile tag. Bluetooth LE technology operates in the 2. 4 GHz to 2. 4835 GHz ISM band, the same RF spectrum used by Classic Bluetooth technology, but employs a different set of channels.

Tile can help track down lost pets or stolen items; people can note in Tile app when a tag goes missing and is outside of the range of their iPhone or iPad. This alerts the entire network of devices running the Tile app to be on the lookout. If the missing tag comes within range of another mobile device running the Tile app, the missing tag can signal that device, and, according to the company, that device "discretely and securely" identifies the Tile tag and notifies its owner. No personal information is shared, nor is anyone except the missing tag's owner aware of the search and rescue event.

Reveal Labs isn't the first company to introduce such an active RFID tag that leverages Bluetooth LE technology. In fact, Sticknfind Technologies, founded by Jimmy Buchheim, already offers its sticker tag used to help people keep track of and find items like wallets or pets. About the size and thickness of a quarter, the Stick-N-Find tag leverages Bluetooth LE and has an accompany iOS app that shows users when they are getting close to the tag they are searching for. The Stick-n-Find uses a standard watch battery, which can be replaced, so the tags are reusable. The tag has a range of about 100 feet, and like the Tile app, the Stick-N-Find app can call the tag, causing it to light up and buzz. This Find It feature has options; different sounding alarms can be designated for different stickered items, according to the company. Another feature, Virtual Leash, turns on an alarm if a designated sticker moves outside of a selected approximate distance. Also like Tile, Stick-N-Find was launched with a crowdfunding initiative, and it has raised more than $931, 000 for the Stick-N-Find tag. The tags cost $49. 99 per pack of two.

Sticknfind Technologies is now offering, via pre-order, the BluTracker—another small tag that leverages Bluetooth 4. 0, as well as a custom-modified RF amplifier and an omni-directional antenna designed for long range. It also has a GPS locator and a transmission range of more than a half mile, according to the company. The BluTracker, by the way, is $89. 99 per tag.

And then there's the DropTag, a Bluetooth-based RFID sensor tag designed to help logistics companies and their customers identify when a package has been dropped (see DropTag Knows When a Package Has Been Handled With Care). Created by Cambridge Consultants, the DropTag consists of an accelerometer, a cell battery, a Bluetooth LE chip and an antenna in a plastic housing, about the size of a silver dollar. When the tag is interrogated by a Bluetooth LE-enabled mobile device, the tag transmits its own ID number along with any sensor data indicating a fall incident, as well as the time in which that incident occurred.

In early 2012, 9Solutions updated its Indoor Positioning and Communication Solution (IPCS)— a real-time location system (RTLS)—to run on Apple's iPhone 4S and Motorola's Droid Razr (see Lipa Betoni Uses Bluetooth-Based RTLS to Manage Production). The 9Solutions IPCS system uses active RFID tags that communicate via Bluetooth LE, enabling companies to track workers and assets via Bluetooth LE phones and 9Solutions' IPCS nodes (tag readers). Throughout Europe (primarily in the Nordic region of Scandinavia), enterprises such as hospitals and mines are using 9Solutions tags, according to the company, in order to track assets and personnel.

This article is come from http://www.asiarfid.com

Fortune Highlights the Value of RFID to Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

The mainstream business press hasn't quite caught up with the reality that radio frequency identification technology has matured and is delivering benefits to companies in every industry and in every corner of the world. But that might be changing. A recent article posted on Fortune's website explains that Macy's and other brick-and-mortar retailers are using RFID
to compete more effectively with online retailers, such as Amazon.com (see Can RFID save brick-and-mortar retailers after all?).

After explaining that the early promise of transforming Walmart's supply chain didn't pan out, the article says: "Today, RFID has landed a high-demand job: Helping retailers become more competitive with online sellers, through 'omnichannel' sales—closing a sale on the buyer's terms, whether in the store, on the Web, using social media, or through some combination of those channels. "

Bill Connell, Macy's senior VP of logistics and operations, is quoted as saying "RFID enables frequent [inventory] counting, which enables inventory accuracy. You can't be great at omnichannel without having high confidence at the store level, at the size and color level. "

Connell goes on to explain: "You can count [inventory] once or twice a year with bar codes with limited accuracy, because the person can be distracted, or scan the same code twice. We can count up to 24 times a year using RFID. It just enables us to keep inventory accuracy in the high 90s [in terms of percentage]. "

The article, written by former RFID Journal reporter Mary Catherine O'Connor, says Macy's is asking more suppliers to start delivering tagged apparel items. It points out that while Walmart began by using RFID in the supply chain, retailers have now learned the real benefit is in the stores.

"A warehouse can be Six Sigma, but [inside] a store is No Sigma, " the article quotes Bill Hardgrave, dean of Auburn University's College of Business, as saying. "Stores are chaotic. The processes are not repetitive; customers don't behave the same way every day; the weather isn't the same every day and that impacts buying patterns. So this is where RFID has the most value. "

It's great to see mainstream business publications explaining to retailers where the benefits are.

This article is come from http://www.asiarfid.com

U.S. Retailers Expect $9 Billion in Theft During Holidays

A new study conducted by the Centre for Retail Research, an independent research group in the United Kingdom, reports that retailers in the United States are expected to lose $8.9 billion during the 2012 holiday season (mid-November through Christmas) due to shoplifting, employee theft, and vendor or distribution losses. That figure is up 4 percent from last year.

The report, funded by a grant from Checkpoint Systems, indicates that shoplifters will steal $3.8 billion worth of goods. Employees will rip off retailers to the tune of $4.7 billion, while another $400 million will be lost due to vendor fraud or administrative errors.

Radio frequency identification probably cannot do much to stop shoplifting, as people will always find a way to steal from retailers. But having serialized data on everything within a store would let a retailer know what has been taken, so that those goods could then be replenished. There would be fewer instances of items sitting in the back because a retailer thinks stolen items are still on the shelf, which would equate to greater sales and fewer markdowns.

Even more important,RFID might help reduce the incidence of employee theft, which is a bigger problem than shoplifting. American Apparel found that at its RFID-enabled stores, internal shrinkage declined by an average of 55 percent—and, at some stores, by as much as 75 percent (see RFID Delivers Unexpected Benefits at American Apparel). Stacey Shulman, American Apparel's VP of technology, attributes this decrease to a reduction in process errors, as well as a change in the company's culture.

"Like many retailers, internal theft and process issues account for about 60 percent of our shrink," Shulman told RFID Journal. "RFID, it turns out, affects internal shrink in a profound way. We measure everything, and have accountability of every item. Every item counts, and when we change that culture, employees start treating product better. Internal theft does go down, and process errors go down."

That is something most retailers are not factoring into their return-on-investment (ROI) calculations. If theft keeps going up, however, they might want to start thinking about RFID for reducing shrinkage.

In addition, the National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts return fraud will cost retailers another $2.9 billion this holiday season. Return fraud occurs when people return stolen merchandise, use counterfeit receipts or return items already worn and/or used that are not defective. According to NRF's 2012 Return Fraud Survey, completed by loss-prevention executives at 60 retail companies, the industry will lose an estimated $8.9 billion to return fraud this year, including $2.9 billion during the holiday season alone. Overall, NRF reports, retailers estimate 4.6 percent of holiday returns are fraudulent.

RFID can obviously help reduce return fraud. By linking a unique item to a purchase, a retailer can know if the product being returned is legitimate. Of course, not all retailers require a receipt when you return an item, so RFID won't completely eliminate the problem. But if the technology could reduce return fraud by 20 percent, that would still be a huge benefit for most retailers. 

This article is come from http://www.asiarfid.com

Proof Obamacare Requires All Americans to Be Chipped

For the past few years, I have been receiving e-mails from outraged Americans who want to know why the Affordable Care Act (a. k. a. Obamacare) requires them to be implanted with a radio frequency identification transponder. Sometimes, they want to know how to deactivate it, and sometimes, they just assail me for supporting this technology.

I write back to these people and assure them that I have read the law, and that it requires no such thing. I try to be respectful and share with them the facts.

Rich Handley, our managing editor, recently forwarded me a link to a video (see NBC Predicts: All Americans Will Receive a Microchip Implant in 2017 Per Obamacare) that purports to have "proof" that RFID implants are required under Obamacare. The narrator points to a section of House of Representative bill HR 3962 requiring the creation of a national medical device registry.

The narrator claims, "It talks about class III medical devices, and that's pacemakers and stuff. But this right here says... 'may include, as the Secretary determines appropriate and specifies in regulation, a class II device that is life-supporting or life-sustaining. ' What is a class II device? "

The video then shows a document titled "FDA Class II Special Controls Guidance Document: Implantable Radiofrequency Transponder System for Patient Identification and Health Information, " and claims that class II devices are RFID transponders designed to track people.

Even when compared to a lot of nonsense on the Web, this is a pretty poor attempt at "proof" that Obamacare requires RFID tracking. First of all, the narrator shows the bill and not the law that was actually enacted. There is no medical device registry and device serialization required under the law that was passed. The section described in the video was removed. Oops.

Even if you look at the bill as an attempt to promote implantation, the "proof" doesn't hold up. Class II medical devices include implantable RFID transponders—the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued guidelines because there were concerns that implanting transponders encapsulated in glass might be harmful—as well as X-ray machines, powered wheelchairs, infusion pumps, surgical drapes, surgical needles, suture materials and acupuncture needles. So the section in the bill (which, again, was removed before passage) was not designed specifically for RFID—and, in fact, did not require RFID for tracking medical devices.

And even if RFID were required to track class II devices, there was nothing in the draft that gave the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to require patients to be implanted with RFID. The bill said the secretary had the discretion to require serialization of class II devices that are "life-supporting or life-sustaining, " which RFID is obviously not. And even if the law gave the secretary the discretion to call RFID "life-supporting, " the bill only called for the tracking of unique devices. So basically, the bill would have authorized the secretary to require RFID tags be put on implantable transponders, not people.

The myth that Obamacare requires Americans to be embedded with an RFID transponder has been completely, totally and thoroughly debunked. So please stop e-mailing me about this.

This article is come from http://www.asiarfid.com

Ntag 203 тегов с фабрики Цена может быть использован для идентификации животных, подарок поощрения, комнатной карты и т.д.

Ntag 203 тегов с фабрики Цена может быть использован для идентификации животных, подарок поощрения, комнатной карты и т.д.

Компания NXP дебютирует NTAG203 чип тег с улучшенной чувствительностью РФ могут быть использованы в качестве мощного управления парковкой карты.

Ntag 203 Tag Описания:

С широким выбором вариантов антенн и протоколов, то Ntag 203 Метка предлагает большую гибкость приложений и отделка для функции-дизайн в самых требовательных приложениях. Кроме того, это с завода цене.

Технология, используемая Ntag 203 категории является идеальным решением для различных NFC приложений, таких как встроенные NFC теги плакатов, знаков, меню, этикеток и визитных карточек, которые сразу же запускать приложения для мобильных телефонов или подключенных пользователю веб-сайты социальных медиа.

Ntag 203 Tag Технические характеристики:
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