DIY RFID Implant

Video of a person with a do it yourself RFID implant.

Android, iPhones, and RFID.

Among the ever escalating numbers of smartphones available in the US, Apple’s iPhone still leads the way in those as well as other mobile application areas, noted David Dorf, director of retail technology at Oracle.

The more than 10,000 iPhone apps online in Apple’s App Store already include some photo-oriented “vision” apps. Examples include an app from Sears which helps you to locate a product in stores based on an uploaded product photo, and one from Wal-mart that allows you to use a picture of a room in deciding what size HDTV to buy.

With the recent entrance of Motorola’s Droid and Google’s Nexus One, for instance, apps of this kind are also headed to the open source Android platform, said speakers in an NRF panel session.

Developers are at work, too, on location-aware apps that will use GPS to send you discount coupons based on where you happen to be, and on augmented reality apps combining a mobile phone’s camera view with multiple layers of related information.

Meanwhile, commuters in New York City and San Francisco have been taking part in NFC trials involving the use of software-based token applications that bill their credit cards for mass transit use.

Participants have been able to hop aboard trains and subway cars simply by waving their phones in front of contact-less NFC readers near turnstiles in mass transit stations, said Sahir Anand, research director for retail, hospitality and Consumer Product Group practice at the Aberdeen Group analyst firm.The United States has long lagged behind some other parts of the world — most notably Japan and the Nordic countries — in mobile shopping and mass transit apps, pointed out Mohammad Khan, president and founder of ViVOtech. But with the advent of new smartphones and NRC, the US is getting poised to “leapfrog ahead,” Khan contended.

Read more: betanews.com

Shopping with the Smart Cart: DigInfo

Fujitsu have upgraded their Smart Cart system using the latest in wireless technology. Using the IC chip within a mobile phone as a customer loyalty card, the system can display a range of personalized information. It can also display the carts location in the store and using RFID technology keep a record of the items in the shopping cart.

Adding the Analytic Dimension to RFID

Earlier this decade, Wal-Mart first required its top 100 suppliers to put radio frequency identification tags on shipping crates and pallets, then extended the mandate to include all suppliers. Thanks to the Wal-Mart mandate, the first wave of serious enterprise RFID deployments are on the books, and the result is a C, maybe a C-, in terms of ROI and maximum utilization of the technology. Many have completed their Wal-Mart compliance requirements so they can continue to do business with the retailing giant. However, few have taken the opportunity to go beyond, into the other areas of their business. Fewer still have incorporated other data sources into their application or produced analytic value with RFID data.

This is not to say that companies outside Wal-Mart mandate have not been adopting RFID. Retailers utilize RFID in their stores to manage temperatures, control theft and shrinkage, influence store design and product placement and even experiment with self-service checkout. Indeed, with billions of tags ordered, there are numerous uses for this tiny technology.

Read more @ information-management.com

Unitech RH767

Unitech RH767

The RH767 is a Windows CE 5.0-based multi-tag HF or UHF RFID and bar code reader. It can read both EPC Gen 1 and Gen 2 RFID tags and comes with embedded RFID middleware for easy integration. Like the Unitech PA966 with which it shares the design and most tech specs, the RH767 uses the older 400MHz Marvell PXA255 processor.

Source: ruggedpcreview.com

Next Generation of Loyalty & Customer Relationship

Unified Grocers, Inc. Introduces Next Generation of Loyalty and Customer Relationship Software to Its Members Through Accelitec | interact

Unified Grocers, Inc., one of the largest member-owned grocery cooperatives in the western United States,
has begun introducing a next generation software service offered by Accelitec, Inc., to its members.

Accelitec | interact is an innovative software service that helps retailers move beyond the traditional way of discount pricing to improve customer retention and store profitability.

As the challenges of the current economy continue, the importance of delivering ongoing value, convenience, and relevancy to existing and new customers remains very high for Unified Grocer, Inc.’s independent retailers. Introducing Accelitec | interact to its independent retailers is an important way for Unified to help bolster the competitive advantage its members have in their local communities. Accelitec | interact enhances the shopping experience with a range of customer communications, including targeted marketing promotions,
recall notifications, and other unique value added services.

The RFID-enabled program can also be used to motivate specific customer behavior, such as driving sales of particular products, increasing per-trip spending and accelerating the rate of return trips. In an industry where pricing wars and perishable inventory are the norm, Accelitec | interact provides a way for independent retailers to differentiate their business without compromising lean margins or creating unsustainable customer expectations.

Source: Reuters

Can RFID Survive the “Internet of Things”?

Is the concept of the “Internet of Things” hindering RFID deployment?

It’s a grand vision: everything in the world talking to every other thing in the world. A frozen meal communicating with the refrigerator, microwave and automated shopping list; clothes giving instructions to a washing machine and dryer and consulting with an artificial intelligence fashion consultant in the wardrobe; a medicine cabinet reading medication instructions and automatically dispensing them for geriatric patients and reporting the dosage and time taken to the patient’s doctor…the list goes on.

Many of these grand visions are consumer-facing and that helps generate awareness of how RFID can provide everyday benefits to the average citizen. But they are also bad because…

Read more

Samsung develops RFID chip for mobile handsets

Samsung Electronics has developed an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip it hopes will turn mobile phones into more useful tools to tell people about the products and services they want.

Samsung’s principal innovation in this area has been to design an RFID reader chip that can read different types of RFID tags. Normally, it takes more than one chip to read different kinds of RFID tags. The new chip will one day find its way into handheld devices, such as mobile phones, although the company did not say when that would happen.

When it does, people will be able to read RFID tags on products and other items meant to make the world an easier place to navigate. For example, some RFID tags on food or medicine products might give information on ingredients or dosages, while RFID tags at bus stops can offer schedules or tell when the next bus will arrive.<

The usefulness of RFID chips will grow as more companies put information on RFID tags and other devices meant for the technology. In Taiwan, for example, one local mobile network operator plans to work with movie theaters to put movie times on RFID tags in movie posters, so people can check on times while riding the subway or in popular shopping areas.

RFID technology is still in the early stages of use, a spokeswoman for Samsung in Seoul said, and Samsung currently has no timeline for when the RFID reader chips might enter mass production. The company plans to wait until RFID technology is more mature, she said.

Source: ARN

RFID & Consumer Electronics

Item-level tagging of Nokia mobile phones and accessories results in cost savings of 25%
UPM Raflatac is supplying UHF EPC Gen2 tags to Future Communications Company (FCC) based in the State of Kuwait. FCC is the main distributor of Nokia phones and accessories in Kuwait and runs more than 30 retail stores. The company is implementing RFID technology at item-level in its retail showroom in Kuwait City to improve customer service and maximize the efficiency of inventory management.

Are RFID tags leading to a surveillance culture?

Radio frequency identification chips are already widely used in supermarkets and shops for the purpose of stock control, but some people fear their use could be widened to monitor the habits and behaviour of ordinary citizens. At the moment, these tags, which are little bigger than a grain of sand, are embedded into pints of milk and library books. When paired with an RFID reader, the tags can help to provide detailed information about items, such as their location, or how many there are.

Although most people are happy for RFID tags to be used in stores to monitor stock levels, they’re less happy about the idea of the chips still sending out a signal once they leave the shop. On a benign level, such tracking capabilities would mean a store would know that people in Hertfordshire prefer blue cashmere jumpers, while those in Aberdeen favour the brown versions. But on a more sinister level, it could also enable them to glean an unprecedented insight into our personal lives, and target their brands to us accordingly.

To those people who fear a “surveillance culture”, the ability to tag and track everything from our food to our clothes would be the next step on an already slippery slope.

Source: Big Brother is Watching You