SimplyRFID Upgrades Its Service By Upgrading Its Tag
The logistics and security services provider has switched to Avery Dennison AD-224 RFID inlays to increase read range, data storage and security.
By Claire Swedberg
July 18, 2008?SimplyRFID, a Virginia RFID logistics supplier and provider of an RFID-based security service for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), as well as for commercial firms that sell electronics equipment or other high-value products, is offering a new upgraded asset-tracking tag to its customers.
This tag, according to the company, will increase read range beyond that of most UHF Gen 2 tags, as well as add security with a serial number added to each tag and provide memory for data storage. The additional memory and improved read range will help customers employ the passive UHF Gen 2 tags not only to know if a product or asset is in the facility, but also to pinpoint its location and movement within a few feet, and with a higher read rate.
Carl Brown The DOD is the first customer to use the upgraded tag, which SimplyRFID's president, Carl Brown, says he is currently offering at the same price as his company's previous tag. SimplyRFID's passive Gen 2 Pro-Tags and Nox-1 Asset Tracking tags contain the new Avery Dennison AD-224 RFID inlay, says Wayne Baker, Avery Dennison's product manager, making SimplyRFID one of the first users of the new inlay.
The AD-224 contains NXP Semiconductors' Ucode G2XL or G2XM chip (see NXP Boosts EPC Gen 2 Tag Memory, Performance). The version of the AD-224 SimplyRFID utilizes contains the G2XL chip, with 240 bits of EPC memory, though Brown says he eventually plans to employ the G2XM, which offers an additional 512 bits of user-programmable memory.
According to Brown, SimplyRFID began testing the new AD-224 RFID inlay in April 2008, in the company's office and warehouse. As far as passive Gen 2 RFID technology goes, he says, he found that it was more reliable, offered a longer read range and was more durable than any similar inlays on the market.
Brown claims SimplyRFID's testing found a 40-foot read average, and that his company's tags are now able to read at about 10 to 20 percent greater range than previous tags SimplyRFID offered, or than other Gen 2 tags on the market. Now, Brown indicates, his firm will sell only the new higher-functioning tags, which he says may increase average read rates to about 99 percent (the previous tags averaged a read rate of 97 percent).
SimplyRFID's NOX system includes RFID interrogators that can be embedded in walls, as well as surveillance cameras that can be hidden if so desired by a user. The system thus enables users to track theft or other undesirable behavior on their property (see Companies, Agencies use Clandestine RFID Systems to Catch Thieves).
"Nox is about asset tracking?finding assets no matter where they are," Brown says. "The worst thing that can happen is the customer losing faith because a tag fails to read. It really becomes an issue." Therefore, he states, the tag's improved read range makes it that much more valuable. The tag is about 0.5 inch wide by 4 inches long and can be attached to high-value items for tracking throughout the supply chain, as well as for security purposes. SimplyRFID customers can employ RFID tags, for instance, to ensure items are not stolen from a warehouse by employees.
"Historically," Brown says, "the EPC Gen 2 products were used for more finite purposes, with reads under 20 feet. With the latest chip, he adds, by taking advantage of the chip's increased power, the industry can extend its read range and further enable the tag to be employed not just for asset tracking, but to actually pinpoint locations. "It's a big shift," he says, "and I think it will create a new direction for the industry."
At present, Brown says, with the AD-224 inlays, SimplyRFID's tags are powerful enough to capture tag ID numbers in a 900-square-foot area with one reader, creating 12- by 12-foot antenna zones so that if a tag is moved within that zone, a user can recognize that movement. "We can usually cover?reliably?a 20- by 20- by 10-foot cube with a single antenna," Brown states. "A single four-antenna reader system covers an average 40- by 40-foot room?1,600 square feet."
There are, however, numerous features the tag offers that SimplyRFID does not yet plan to take advantage of, Brown says, adding that the company will have to wait for reader technology to catch up first. For example, he adds, the G2XM chip comes with 240 bits of EPC memory and 512 bits of user-programmable memory. For added security, it also has a 32-bit unique serial number (otherwise known as a tag ID, or TID), in addition to an EPC number. Because EPC numbers can be duplicated, Brown notes, this feature is of interest to his clients who could use the chip's serial number to link with the EPC number and require a password to read that serial number using a "read protect" command.
"We're always looking to maintain the state-of-the art technology," Brown says, though in this case, the chip is ahead of the reader industry that cannot yet accommodate the extended memory; most Gen 2 readers, he claims, would not be able to read the stored data on the tag, or the added serial number. Baker agrees, commenting that the chip industry often leads the reader industry in new technology, but that in coming months, interrogator manufacturers can be expected to develop reader firmware to read the new tag. Like the transition to Gen 2 passive tags, Brown believes the reader industry will soon begin providing firmware upgrades, enabling interrogators to work with the new chip technology.
VTT ja Tokion yliopiston Sakamura-laboratorio allekirjoittavat juhannuksen aikoihin yhteistyösopimuksen reaaliaikaisten käyttöjärjestelmien sekä jokapaikan tietotekniikan (ubiquitous computing) tutkimuksesta.
Tutkimus liittyy TRON-käyttöjärjestelmään (The Real-Time Operating System Nucleus), joka on eräs maailman yleisimpiä reaaliaikaisia käyttöjärjestelmiä. Sitä käytetään yleisesti muun muassa kuluttajaelektroniikan tuotteissa, kuten esimerkiksi useimmissa japanilaisissa digikameroissa, kodinkoneissa ja autoissa.
TRON-käyttöjärjestelmän on kehittänyt Tokion yliopiston professori Ken Sakamura ja hän myös johtaa Ubiquitous Networking laboratoriota ja T-Engine Forumia. T-Engine Forum edistää TRON-järjestelmiin pohjautuvien teknologioiden käyttöä ja standardointia.
T-Engine on avoin, standardisoitu reaaliaikakäyttöjärjestelmän kehitysympäristö, jonka avulla voi rakentaa jokapaikan tietotekniikkaa. Se sisältää TRON:in turva-arkkitehtuurin, joten sen avulla voi kehittää sovellusjärjestelmiä, joissa on vahva verkkoturva.
TRON-määrittelyt ovat vapaasti käytettäviä mutta ne ovat enemmän suunnitteluratkaisujen ja käyttöjärjestelmärajapinnan määrittelyjä kun taas esimerkiksi perus-Linux on käyttöjärjestelmän ytimeen liittyvä osio.
Японский национальный институт информационных и коммуникационных технологий (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, NICT) разработал комплексный симулятор космической погоды, который в цифровом виде воспроизводит состояние областей от поверхности Солнца до верхних слоев атмосферы Земли на экране по итогам вычислений суперкомпьютера. В дополнение к существующим прогнозам магнитосферы симулятор может предсказывать появление северных сияний и возрастание отклонений в системе GPS из-за ионосферных возмущений. Устройство состоит из магнитосферного симулятора и двух других симуляторов, работающих в реальном времени. Один из них воспроизводит поведение Солнца и солнечных ветров, второй — состояние ионосферы и термосферы. В комплексе все это позволяет модулировать состояние пространства между Солнцем и Землей.
Например, симулятор способен сформировать изображения солнечных ветров, испускаемых Солнцем по направлению к Земле, а также изображения магнитосферы, ионосферы и термосферы. Точность предсказания ионосферных помех и состояния термосферы значительно повысилась, что позволяет фиксировать влияние ионосферных помех на беспроводную связь, GPS и спутники низкой околоземной орбиты. Кроме того, симулятор выдает прогноз состояния ионосферы на три дня раньше традиционных систем.
NICT планирует проверить и улучшить характеристики симулятора сравнением с показаниями спутников и наземных обсерваторий. Разработка технологии предсказания состояния космического пространства на часы и дни вперед также находится в планах. К следующему максимуму солнечной активности, ожидаемому через 3-4 года, NICT поставил в качестве цели разработку полномасштабной цифровой системы предсказания космической погоды.
Этот симулятор был разработан как часть основного исследования по изучению эволюционного процесса и технологии — проекта, поддерживаемого Агентством науки и технологии Японии в партнерстве с Университетом Киушу (Kyushu University) и Метеорологическим колледжем. Устройство работает под управлением суперкомпьютера NEC SX-8R.
Результаты работы установки размещаются по этому адресу.
Avery Dennison RFID introduces four new inlays to its RFID product portfolio with the AD-224, AD-631, AD-824, and AD-840. The new UHF inlays are EPC Class 1, Gen 2 and ISO180006- C-compliant and are manufactured using the company's proprietary high-speed strap attach technology.
The AD-224, AD-824, and AD-840 include extended memory options by utilizing the UCODE G2X chip set from NXP Semiconductors. The UCODE G2X devices offer superior UHF performance, increased sensitivity, extended memory space, and unique custom commands, including a read protect security feature.
The AD-224 standard version offers a scalable 96- to 240-bit EPC memory to accommodate applications requiring different length EPC codes. The AD-224 is also available with an additional 512 bits of user memory. This inlay measures 4 by 0.5 inches and provides increased read ranges and higher read rates. It is optimized for use between 860 and 960 MHz.
The AD-824 employs a breakthrough antenna design that enables item-level RFID tagging for dense tag environments. The 1.3- by 2-inch inlays may be stacked within several millimeters of each other and still be read and written to reliably. The AD-824 offers up to 240 bits of EPC memory and is also available with an extra 512 bits of user memory.
The AD-631 is orientation insensitive, so it can be read in any direction (face on or edge on). The AD-631 also provides a long read range with high readability rates. The AD-631 fits easily in a 3- by 3-inch label and is optimized for use between 860 and 960 MHz.
And the AD-840 exhibits powerful read range performance in applications where the inlay must survive rough industrial automated handling processes such as baggage handling. The AD-840 inlay design utilizes a large-area antenna that is rugged and more durable than a traditional thin-line dipole design. The AD-840 is in a 2- by 4-inch format and is optimized for use between 860 and 960 MHz.
As the intense competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics continue, images of the Beijing National Stadium, the Games' main venue, appear repeatedly on television and in newspapers.
The stadium, nicknamed "Bird's Nest," has a unique look -- a bird's nest into which phoenix will land and nest, an omen of good fortune in China. A Swiss architectural firm, Herzog & de Meuron, was responsible for the basic design. The same firm designed the Prada Aoyama Epicenter Building.
The Prada building is distinctive not for its architectural silhouette but rather for its diagonally latticed exterior. The Bird's Nest pushes this concept even further, with a steel skeleton that weighs 44,000 tons and appears, at first glance, to be crisscrossing chaotically to create a facade that is stunningly distinctive. The stadium's steel beams look like the twigs of a bird's nest, hence the nickname.
I watched a documentary film titled "Bird's Nest", which portrays the cultural friction that the Western designers encountered as they worked on the stadium from the design stage through the construction phase, and shows how the architects learned to cooperate with the Chinese.
What I found quite interesting was the absurdity of the Chinese business practices. The project got underway without a formal contract, and at the groundbreaking ceremony, local powerful figures were given preferential treatment, and the Western architects were not given a chance to handle the shovels for the ceremony. The architects were told that they were expected to bend to every whim of their clients, and before they could blink an eye their budget had been slashed by one-third.
The bureaucrats made impossible demands, even suggesting that the stadium's steel webbing be replaced with plastic to save money. Designing the Bird's Nest was like running an obstacle course as the architects were forced to abandon their retractable roof, which had been the keystone of the project, in order to come in on budget.
The architects feared that if they eliminated the "world's biggest retractable roof" from the project, their proposal would be shot down by high-ranking Chinese officials, who liked "number one in the world" endeavors. But Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were told that the structure "with the lid looked like a hat, and without it looks more like a bird's nest" and that the removal of the roof was "a blessing." The change to the design was quickly approved.
The documentary also unveils the role played by two advisers who served as cultural go-betweens for the Western architects and the Chinese -- Uli Sigg, former Swiss ambassador to China and Chinese art researcher, and Ai Weiwei, a contemporary Chinese artist and architect. In the design competition for the national stadium, Jean Nouvel, the world-renowned French architect, submitted an entry that featured a roof made with green glass. His design was not selected in part because it conjured up images of a green hat, which signifies an unfaithful wife, and also resembled the shell of a tortoise, which could augur misfortune. Advised by Sigg, Herzog and de Meuron began their design effort with intensive research on Chinese culture, and eventually won the competition.
Even more interesting than the cultural dimensions of Herzog and de Meuron's story is their belief that the "Bird's Nest" is a personal milestone. Both architects are keenly aware that this project could only have been completed in China, and insist that they were able to accomplish what they set out to do precisely because of conditions that prevail there, the plethora of vexing problems and constraints that they encountered notwithstanding.
They were able to accomplish their architectural goals primarily because of two factors. First, technical advances in 3D computer assisted design systems allowed them to use these systems on personal computers. The irregularly shaped parts of the steel webbing that forms the exterior of the Bird's Nest, for example, crisscrossed at assorted angles. Although numerous design changes were made to the Bird's Nest, new technology enabled them to complete construction between 2003 and 2008. The task was akin to solving a complex puzzle. But the most important factor was China's national system. Although the design was dependent on technology, it was implemented with massive quantities of manual labor. The jumbled shape of the Bird's Nest meant that it could not be built with automated machinery.
It might be illustrative to draw a contrast with a typical example of Herzog and de Meuron's previous work, the Munich soccer arena . Vertical elements are also lacking from the exterior of the Munich arena, which has a translucent, strange appearance. But that arena was the end product of an industrial process that pieced together a large number of identical diamond-shaped cells constructed from high-tech Japanese-made ethylene tetrafluoroethylene film. The facade of the Bird's Nest, on the other hand, is a simple steel skeleton whose impact is magnified because all of its parts have different shapes.
No other country has ever been able to benefit from the assortment of conditions that prevail in China today -- human waves of low-paid laborers, Communist authoritarianism, and ample foreign currency reserves and international contacts to buy the services of the capitalist countries -- to stage its Olympic games.
At the end of the documentary, the architects said that they might consider moving their base of operations to China if Switzerland's restrictions on architecture remain in place. It is indeed ironic that architects from a free and democratic country would crave the freedoms in Communist China.
While the circumstances that China finds itself in today were ushered in by the winds of the times, these winds are only momentary puffs in the history of mankind. The winds that swept the pieces to form the Bird's Nest will never blow again. After these Olympics end and Beijing settles down, I plan to visit the city solely for the purpose of catching a glimpse of the Bird's Nest. (By Prof. Ken Sakamura, the University of Tokyo)
La Sumitomo Osaka Cement e YRP Ubiquitous Networking Lab hanno sviluppato un nuovo tipo di calcestruzzo che permette l'integrazione nell'amalgama di tag RFID.
L'obiettivo è quello di dotare di "memoria" le costruzioni civili, in modo che durante le fasi di controllo - nel tempo - sia possibile risalire alla data di realizzazione, ai metodi utilizzati, alla qualità dei materiali e alla loro resistenza. Una serie di dati da archiviare nelle capienti memorie degli ucode tag della YRP, specializzata appunto in Ubiquitous Networking.
Japanese manufacturer Shimafuji is readying a two-inch cubed computer that runs Red Hat Linux on 1GB of flash. The Space Cube is equipped with a MIPS-based NEC VR5701 processor, 64MB RAM, and numerous I/O connections, including a Firewire-like "SpaceWire" port designed for spaceflight.
Designed primarily to control and coordinate sensors and other devices on space stations and spacecraft, the Space Cube measures only 2 x 2 x 2.1 inches (52 x 52 x 55mm), and runs on a 5V power supply. According to the Shimafuji site, which dubs the latest model of the Space Cube as the SEMC5701B, the VR5701 processor is clocked between 200MHz and 300MHz.
The Space Cube runs on only 64MB SDRAM and 16MB internal flash memory, with the CF slot handling a supplied 1GB card that holds the Red Hat Linux distribution. The device outputs video in XGA (1024x768) format, and offers Ethernet, USB, and serial ports, as well as audio I/O and a JTAG connection for debugging.
The Space Cube is based on an earlier mini-computer of the same general dimensions called the Teacube (pictured at right). Introduced in 2004 by Personal Media Corp. in Japan, and updated in 2005, the cube was designed to demonstrate the T-Engine Forum's T-Engine platform for embedded systems. T-Engine is built around TRON (The Real-time Operating system Nucleus), an embedded operating system popular in Japan. However, in 2003 the forum announced a collaboration with MontaVista aimed at enabling T-Engine to support Linux, while retaining some TRON compatibility.
The Teacube was also based on the MIPS-based VR5701 processor and offered very similar specs. In fact, although it ran TRON out of the box, it was verified to work with Red Hat. The key difference with the Space Cube is the addition of the SpaceWire port, which is similar to the iEEE1394 Firewire standard and is said by Shimafuji to offer similar port speeds.
Based on iEEE1355, SpaceWire is the common name for the European Cooperation on Space Standardization ECSS-E50-12A standard, which is intended as a common port to connect devices from various space programs. SpaceWire has been adopted by the European Space Agency, the Japanese space agency, and NASA, and is used today on the International Space Station.
According to a recent review by UK-based PC-Pro, which acquired the latest prototype, the final commercial version of the Space Cube will soon be sold by Star-Dundee of Scotland for a whopping 1,500 British Pounds. Star-Dundee is a spin-out from the Space Systems Research Group of the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland and specializes in SpaceWire, selling a variety of Linux-compatible SpaceWire-enabled routers, testers, USB bricks, PCI boards, and other gadgets.
The review praised the "utterly rock solid" construction of the Space Cube, and the amazing number of connections it manages to fit into such a small frame, including jumpers that enable overclocking. Not surprisingly, the reviewers were unable to test out the SpaceWire connection, which they indicate is a proprietary interface.
The review tested the system as drawing a low 5 Watts of power, and reports that "for such a small and low-powered PC, the Space Cube is actually pretty nippy." The reviewers suggest that "amateur robotics and rocket clubs" might be interested, and that "the open-ended Linux installed here will no doubt prove versatile and able to be used for a variety of suitably scientific purposes." The review concludes with no faint praise indeed: "It's tiny, brilliant, and astounding, and we're huge fans."
Availability
No information was made about the commercial availability of the Space Cube. More on the Space Cube can be found on this Google-translated Shimafuji page. The full PC Pro review may be found here.