RFID-BLOG

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  Tao Wang 19:30 on July 27, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: cost (2), RFID   

  RFID item-level tag @ retail 

  The retail giant Wal-Mart will place radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags on underwear, jeans and other consumer items to keep better track of its inventory from next month.

  Wal-Mart will be embed RFID tag in the items you buy at the store which previously used on pallets carrying products. Store workers can quickly check the stock of an item on a shelf by scanning the tag with a handheld reader. In addition to managing inventory, Wal-Mart hopes that the tags will help avoid employee theft by allowing the store to track the clothing throughout the store.

  RFID item-level tagging helps retailers realize greater overall productivity， and makes to retail operations with inventory accuracy increasing up to 99percent, compared with 70percent to 80percent. Apart from the large retailer like Wal-Mart, some small and medium size retailers have begun to try to introduce RFID system in their store.Florida shoe retailer Peltz Shoes as an example, has saved approximately 1,500 man-hours in the past year by applying a passive GPC Gen2 RFID tags to every box containing a pair of shoes at each of its four stores, and by employing an RFID-enabled cart to manage its inventory.

   

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  n.wang 14:21 on July 16, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: NFC (4), RFID   

  A “NFC France” in steps 

  2005, Philips, Orange and Samsung Joint with retailers LaSer and Vinci Park implement a six-month NFC technology pilot project at city of Cannes . It was the biggest attempting of NFC service worldwide by that time. The main purpose is to collect feedback from telecommunications providers, retailers and the consumers.

  2009, Nice has won government funding to become the ‘city of reference’ for a pre-commercial phase of NFC testing, which involving four French mobile operators — Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and NRJ Mobile. A total number of 4,000 NFC phones will on sale to subscribers in Nice initially. The phones will be the NFC version of touch-screen phone, the Samsung (S5230) Player One.

  2009, The French ministry of industry, has announced funding running into ’several million euros’ for 13 innovation projects in the NFC and RFID fields. The projects winning funding across many areas, from public transportation, logistics management, secure payment solution to access control managing, medical records tracking, RFID-based real time stock tracking system, etc.

  2010, After the successful launch of the NFC service in Nice. The French Minister for Industry and also Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, has announced plans to provide funding to allow a further three to five French cities to adopt NFC services within the next twelve months.

  2010, Details of twelve more government-support NFC and RFID projects has announced by the French Ministry of Industry. €4.5 million of funding from the French government will spend on those projects.The successful projects include applications in the trade, tourism, health and homecare services, sustainable development and consumer services.

   
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  Derek Du 03:32 on July 7, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: China (14), NFC (4), NOKIA, RF-SIM (2), RFID   

  Nokia’ fight on hands, NFC Smart phones 

  Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s new executive vice president, has announced that it will incorporate NFC into all new smart phones next year. The world’s largest mobile phone maker just lowered its 2010 earnings outlook in June, and integrated its own smart phone sector and Ovi service, with a view to developing a competing smart phone against Apple and Blackberry.

  “we have a fight on our hands,” The new vice president Anssi Vanjoki wrote. “The first battle is to bring you products and services you will want to own and use, to inspire you to create and do new things in this ever-changing digital world. I’m ready to take this challenge on, and so is the entire Nokia team.”

  Maybe for Mr.Anssi Vanjoki, to incorporate NFC into smart phones would be his first battle. According to the statistics from market research firm IDC, Nokia sold 67.7 million smart phones by last year, almost double the number of RIM did (3450 million). Therefore, once a significant number of handsets have NFC then the technology will take off, and by the time Apple and others gets round to embedding NFC into their mobile device, Nokia will be a technology leader again.

  In China, Although the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information has not decided yet a national mobile payment standard between 2.4G and 13.56MHz, but with the tendency of the three major carriers have adopted the NFC standard, market prospects became clear. Now with the Nokia’ new smart phone policy, it can be said, NFC almost won the standards battle.

   
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  Rui Wang 03:48 on July 5, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: music festival, RFID, RFID market (3), Wristband   

  Cashless music festival by RFID wristband 

  The festival wristband is set to become more than just a piece of souvenir in the UK by next year. Music fans will pay electronically rather than using cash by a RFID wristband and cash top-up systems. Fans can use the wristband to buy everything from food and drink to t-shirts and their favorite CDs. In addition,

  Although the investment on infrastructure for such RFID systems will be significant,  the prospect of allowing fans to use wristbands have many benefits. The big advantage of using RFID wristband is to avoid has millions of pounds of cash on festival sites, which can be seen as a security risk. The wristband can also be use like a entry ticket, that function can lead a easy controlling entry to different parts of the festival, such as backstage or VIP areas.

  The RFID technology has being used in many industries, but the concept of music fans being able to attend festivals without having to carry cash is new to the music industry. If it did goes well, the potential market will be huge in the hot summer season.

   
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  Derek Du 15:04 on July 1, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: FIFA world cup, RFID   

  Do we need Goal-line technology? CTRUS football by AGENT 

  FIFA chief Sepp Blatter on Tuesday apologised to England and Mexico for the refree errors that led to their World Cup exit. Both the teams suffered from refereeing errors in their Round of 16 losing their games to Germany and Argentina, respectively.

  English Player Frank Lampard’s goal was denied even though his shot clearly crossed the line, in Germany’s 4-1 win over England during Sunday’s clash. Blatter assured a discussion on goal-line technology in July 4 meeting of International FA Board.

  

  The introduction of goal-line technology use on the real pitch has never stopped, those who oppose the use of goal-line technology always claim that football game got its own “tradition and charm”, but in my opinion, the “impartiality” should be the first priority before those “tradition and charm “.

  Actually, a new football with the name of “CTRUS” which designed by AGENT, could ensure the “impartiality” of football game. CTRUS functional principle is based on the mechanical properties of its materials. it is composed by an inner structure (skelle-core) and an outer net-embedded shell, made out of reinforced elastomers. In addition, CTRUS provides added functionality controlled by the electronic components in its nucleus which communicate wirelessly(GPS/RFID) with control stations at the stadium:

  - inner light, color changes at critical game situations (goal, offside and out of bounds).
  - recording of kick force and travel speed.
  - location of the ball relative to the court (interactive detection system via GPS / RFID).
  - P.O.V. camera footage (software stabilized image).

  

  

  

   
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  Rui Wang 01:25 on June 11, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: RFID, TAIBEI COMPUTEX   

  Smart RFID products from COMPUTEX Taipei 

  COMPUTEX Taipei, which ranks as the world’s second largest, is Asia’s most important ICT exhibition and transaction platform. This year COMPUTEX Taipei celebrates its 30th anniversary amid the theme “Shaping the Future: Smiling for a Better Life” and this was the first time COMPUTEX Taipei adopts RFID technology in its badges. After registered online or at the exhibition, visitors can access into the exhibition by RFID badges rather than the traditional ticket. Furthermore, visitors no longer need a lot of extra business cards or carrying heavy company introduction, they can share their personal or corporate information to exhibitors’ vendors by scan the RFID badge at front of vendors’ booth.

  

  There were varieties of RFID products on the exhibition, with RFID handhelds and tags are still the most kind, but two innovative products attracted my attention.

  First is the Smart Badge which won the IF product design award 2010 by Apacer Technology. This product is an identification card for office or factory environment, combined with RF Reader, four detachable USB flash drivers and security software capabilities.

  

  

  The other product is a digital vending machine at Intel’s exhibition booth, which using a massive touchscreen instead of a glass window, display items for sale and other information like advertising content. What sets this machine apart from other vending machines is buyer cannot purchase by cash, but a RFID card (build-in rfid chip credit card as imagine). The addition feature is a built-in camera that interfaces with facial recognition software to determine the approximate age and sex of the buyer, which potentially provide valuable market information to the vendor.

  

  

   
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  Derek Du 01:19 on June 9, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: China (14), E-Wallet (2), Mobile phone (2), Mobile Wallet (4), NFC (4), RF-SIM (2), RFID, RFID market (3)   

  Battle of RF-SIM and NFC 

  Recently, China Mobile formally Suspend RF-SIM mobile phone payment project (Mobile Wallet), the project will not be restart within two years for a conservative estimate. This result is a direct contest between China Mobile and China Unionpay, the only domestic credit card organization in China, which they support RF-SIM and NFC (Near Field Communication) separately.

  RF-SIM technology led by China Mobile use 2.4 G frequencies, which is not compatible with NFC (13.56MHz frequency) use by China Unionpay. Although China Mobile has the world’s largest mobile phone user group, but It’s too hard for China Mobile’s 2.4G standard to become primary frequency wireless communication technology in Chinese market as UnionPay’s 13.56MHz technology has being widely used by the financial POS, bus, subway, gas stations and more other fields. If China Mobile continues to push 2.4G standard, it means that not only RF-SIM card need to purchase one by one, but also full replacement of POS machines across China. The costs will reach hundreds of millions dollars.

  According to the statistics of Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information, China’s mobile phone users reached 780 million in the first quarter. If 40% of Chinese mobile phone users choose the mobile payment service like in Japan and South Korea, China will have more than 300 million users to pay by mobile. Different wireless communication frequency standards will lead to redundant investment and other issues in such huge market. To solve this, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Technology is to promote a mobile payment standard system. Although the result is unsettled, but the industry view was expressed that, with the suspension of China Mobile’s RF-SIM project, 13.56MHz NFC technology is likely to be the final winner.

  It is uncertain that who will become leader in the field of mobile payments in China, but one thing is certain, that no one can dominate the market, only to cooperate together for a bigger cake.

  Elin is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Elin 11:30 on June 29, 2010 Permalink

    Oh, so China Mobile has officially stated that they will not commercialize their mobile payment service based on RFID?

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  Rui Wang 02:21 on June 7, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Beijing, China (14), ETC, RFID   

  Rapid Development of ETC RFID system in Beijing 

  ETC (electronic toll collection) RFID system is a better solution for urban traffic congested problems. China operated ETC RFID system for trial since 2004 at Chinese south-eastern coastal areas, despite a marked effect to solve congestion; the system did not receive widespread coverage. For the car owners to enjoy an express ETC RFID service, they need to pay 450 Chinese Yuan (about 70 US Dollars) to buy a RFID car tag, which is the reason they would rather choose to waiting in a long queue to pay by cash.

  Huaxia Bank, a small Chinese bank, their Beijing branch with Beijing Highway Electronic Toll System Co., Ltd. lunched a joint bank card called “Sutong Card”. Registered user of “Sutong card” can enjoy 5% off discount of high-way tolls by use ETC RFID system and the user’ highway tolls automatically transfer from “Sutong Card” accounts. Most important, user of “China-speed Card” will receive RFID car tag free of charge.

  As far as I know, the total number of ETC RFID users in Beijing is about 170,000 by earlier this year, but 30,000 “Sutong Card” has already issued within 45 days of card launched. Consider there are 5 million vehicles registered in Beijing city, I believe a huge market prospects for ETC RFID system.

   
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  Tao Wang 04:55 on June 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: cost (2), RFID   

  High cost will limit the popularize of RFID application 

  RFID tags usage has reached 200 million in total around the world. The most common application is based on retail logistics project by Wal-Mart, Metro and other big retailers. Turning to China, there are thousands of RFID application projects currently being carried out, but except few government lead projects, the demand for RFID tags for most of those project can only reach few thousand pieces in average.

  The reason for this is mainly due to the expensive RFID tag cost. Under normal circumstances in China, the RFID tag cost more than two US Dollars is for the usage of military, biotechnology and medical care; RFID tag cost below one US Dollar is mainly used in transportation, warehousing, packaging and so on. Higher cost is the big factor which RFID application has not use in a wider range. The small and medium size enterprises can not afford lose of profits, even they fully understand all the advantages of RFID application.

   
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  Derek Du 18:54 on May 17, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Children (2), China (14), EXPO 2010 (3), RFID, RFID bracelet, Safety (3)   

  Use technology to protect children 

  Just over a month’s time, a series of campus massacre against children suddenly become the most focus of attention in China. How can we protect our children? This is a big question mark in all parent’ mind, after all, children are everything to us. My answer is to use technology to improve the protection of the children, hope that more and more companies find a better solution via RFID or other related technologies to archive that.

  Give an example here, Abilia experience center, the children’s professional experience center from the Shanghai World Expo which selected 25 representative future careers for 7-15 years old children to experience growth in the fun. As the area of Abilia experience center reach 4,200 square meters and parents cannot follow their child to enter, so the RFID technology has introduced in order to track children’s location within Abilia center. Each child will wear an RFID bracelet on their hand at the entrance, and each child’s RFID bracelet has a matching bracelet also distributed to the child’s parents. The RFID readers across whole center can read the children’ RFID bracelets and track their location; the parents can also obtain the specific location of their children by scan their bracelet in front of RFID kiosk just outside the entrance.

  Actually, such technology has being used by “BabyBoss professional experience city” in Taiwan two years ago. Our children will be more effective protected by more application of such technology.