RFID At Work

Busy on the products..

2012-01-23T00:59:00.000-08:00

It's a hard call on selecting products for the shop. We want to put up stuff that people might want to buy on-line but also we're conscious that the shop is a great way for people researching the technology so we need other things there too. Over the weekend we've put on a new range of high frequency desktop readers from Elatec, including an attractively priced NFC trial pack. Let's see how they go!

Component readers from Elatec in RFID Shop

2012-01-13T01:21:00.000-08:00

The Elatec component RFID readers are now on our webshop, on the low frequency readers page.While most of the work on the new shop has been to move the current product set across, we have added some new stuff including a nice range of OEM component readers from Elatec. These PCB mounted readers are designed for integration with other products and look like they will be popular.

New Shop Site Up & Running

2012-01-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

Well, the new version of the web shop (www.rfidshop.com) finally went live this week after a few weeks of HTML bashing and much effort in rewriting the product descriptions, etc. There was one horror moment yesterday when it looked as though visits had dropped off a cliff but it turned out to be that I hadn't put the tracking code into the site's HTML, so Google analytics wasn't seeing it! All now fixed so at least we are getting accurate data on how many visits we are getting and where from. It will be interesting to see what changes as a result of the redesign.... volume of visits? ..... bounce rates? ..... time on site?Time will tell!

2011-12-27T09:27:00.000-08:00

Interesting to see that Gartner slots "The Internet of Things" (which uses RFID as one of its base technologies) as one of their 12 strategic technologies for 2012. We see plenty of tactical applications but little move in organisations to embracing a strategic view of RFID. There's a way to go yet, I think.Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies for 2012 Media tablets and beyond Mobile-centric applications and interfaces Contextual and social user experience Internet of things Next-generation analytics Big data In-memory computing Extreme low-energy servers Cloud computingSource: Gartner

Big Push on our On-Line Shop

2011-12-16T04:45:00.000-08:00

We've been working for some time on an exciting revamp for our on-line shop. There's going to be a big push on moving products over so we can start by the end of January. The aim is to make it easier for folk to find the things they need, so watch this space!

After hard tags, stiff tags?

2011-12-16T01:34:00.000-08:00

What next? The dead parrot sketch with RFID?We get to hear about some strange things that people track with RFID and we were asked to look at tracking coffins a while back but this is one step beyond....http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/9050

December Efforts

2011-12-11T00:35:00.001-08:00

Hectic run up to Christmas with plenty going on. We're busy revamping the interface to our on-line shop and that's taking up a chunk of my time at the moment. We're aiming to have it on line early in the New Year and it should make it even easier for our customers - at least that's the aim - but, then, when did you ever hear a company claim it was making things more difficult????

More on RFID Research

2011-11-24T23:23:00.000-08:00

Following on from my last post we've been talking about the way RFID research gets out into the business world and decided to try to do something about it with an initiative of our own.

We're promoting an award scheme - the CoreRFID Research Innovation Award - to try to improve the visibility that academic research gets in the business world.

We've got the details of the scheme up now, so it will be interesting to see what sort of projects apply.

2011-08-31T02:11:00.001-07:00

I've been looking at some of the stuff going on in the academic world with RFID and came across this the totem project.

I'm having enough trouble cataloguing the thousands of digital pics in my Photoshop catalogue, but maybe there's something in this approach for hands-on museums?

2011-08-23T03:08:00.000-07:00

Nice new web site front page....

We've put up a new flash panel at the head of our web site. At last we've got rid onf the man scratching his bum on the escalator - that slipped through our extensive visual testing when the site went live originally.

The new home page features the work we've done for Ainscough Crane Hire, Vaillant Group, Cosalt and Thomas Cook Airlines.

See it here.

Handy Hints....

2011-08-23T02:59:00.000-07:00

Every so often I spot an article in the RFID firmament that I wish I'd written. This is a good contribution from Louis Sirico at RFID Net. It's got some good hints and tips.

Unfortunately its not always as easy to avoid these pitfalls as it might seem....

Louis Sirico on 5 Common Mistakes

Where's the payback..

2011-08-18T03:23:00.000-07:00

I'm always interested by how people plan to cost justify their investments in technology (partly because so often projects seem to go ahead on a feeling of "it will be a good thing really" and partly because I've always tried to look for a cost-justification for expenditure on marketing projects).

One conversation with a potential customer this week pointed to an interesting basis for a business case. We quite often see people basing their justification on improved service or lower cost of operations in one way or another. Sometimes its about risk-avoidance or an insurance policy for regulatory compliance.This time the thinking was: using RFID we can be sure how much product we have delivered to our customer, that allows us to invoice the customer for work in progress sooner, improving our cash flow. In times of tight money, maybe we'll see more of that sort of thinking.

2011-08-05T04:18:00.001-07:00

Busy day on case studies. nothing for ages then two come along together. Just posted Jade Industrial - users of CheckedOK for scaffolding safety checking - on the web site and there will be another Checked OK user up shortly.

Jade Case Study at www.corerfid.com

Who let the dogs out?

2011-07-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

Petlog actually...

National Microchipping Month was a big success for the companion animal tagging database & reunification service provider - Petlog.

60,000 new animals registered!

That's quite an achievement....

We're the stars of CCTV...

2011-07-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

Making movies out on the street...

Well in the office actually. We've added a few videos to our shop site talking about how some of our popular products. It's the first time we've done anything in house and its quite a challenge to get the material across in a short time. I reckon the first few have worked quite well. We'll be doing some more shortly.

Our YouTube Channel

On-site with Ainscough

2010-10-15T03:49:00.000-07:00

We've just put a system in for Ainscough Crane Hire - helping their Heavy Cranes Division keep track of the luffer sections that extend the crane's jib so that when a crane goes to site its got all the bits it needs for the lift it's going to do.

I went up to their Leyland depot yesterday to see the system in action.

Seriously impressive ironmongery in the luffer yard.

Here's a photo of one of the tags in situ on a luffer section.

Using this Ainscough get a complete history of each section use, which hire jobs it went on when and so on.

I hope to do some more customer visits soon. When you think about the range of things our systems keep track of, we ought to be able to get some interesting photo's to share with you.

Green RFID

2010-04-29T03:55:00.000-07:00

Good question from a customer - "How green is RFID?"

I had to admit that I had no idea. As it turns out, right now the answer is "not great" (although there are plenty of applications where RFID does help improving green credentials). There are initiatives to create recyclable tags but not a lot so far. I'm working what I've found out into a white paper - should it be a green paper - for our web site.....

After "Pigs in Space" : "Cows on Twitter"

2010-04-28T02:17:00.000-07:00

This amused me...

http://mashable.com/2010/04/27/cows-on-twitter/

Just another example of how the technology is being used.

2010-03-11T07:19:00.000-08:00

Well after commenting on sloth last time, it seems only appropriate to leave it a couple of months before posting again....

Still we've been busy with some new implementations in health and safety systems and other work in manufacturing.

Our latest case studies are:

A Triumph For The Spirit of Sloth

2010-01-11T07:54:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are finding it hard to get up steam in the cold weather and feel that the whole "pace of life" thing has just got too much, try Real Snail Mail.

High tech, yes (it uses RFID tags) but slow speed (it uses real snails).

2009-12-03T06:52:00.001-08:00

Yeeha!

Finally the new site (www.corerfid.com) is up and running.

At least now we'll be able to keep it up to date more easily.

The Internet of Things : Is it worth my brain cycles?

2009-11-25T05:13:00.000-08:00

Well, the new web site is up and (sort of) running. It's been a thrash and I've had to acquire a new set of skills (don't believe anyone that says, oh yes use this CMS and you won't have to worry abouty HTML) but its nice to see it working and its certainly something we can now maintain much more easily than before .. hats off to StudioNorth that did the central design work and Sitefinity, the CMS.

So now I can get back to real work... I'm trying to work out whether this whole "Internet of Things" debate is worth anybody's attention. On one hand, there's no doubt that there could be benefits in the concept but am I alone in thinking that its another bandwagon for the bureaucrats and to get on and do things. there's plenty of stuff around, I'll share my thoughts here.

No news Is No News...

2009-11-10T23:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know its been quiet over here. Trouble is I have been up to my ears in re-writing our main web site for the last few weeks. At least the fruits of those labours should appear soon, but it has meant I haven't had time for much else lately.

2009-09-25T01:36:00.001-07:00

I'm constantly impressed by the level of innovation in the RFID tag arena as more applications drive the development of specialised tags and the arrival of new tags drives new applications.

We've just started with two new ranges of tags that are getting some interest from our users. Firstly we now have access to some ATEX compliant tags which are suitable for use in environments where there is an explosive atmosphere. Since many manufacturing processes, especially in the petrochemical industries, have this form of troublesome environment these tags will extend the areas in which we can deploy solutions.

The second range of tags is adding to our range of tamper detection offerings. There are many applications for RFID in the area of validation of assets, these tags make the range of possibilities wider, adding the ability to detect tampering without destroying the data on the tag. It will be interesting to report on some of the applications for these down stream.

2009-09-08T02:02:00.000-07:00

Blimey, a whole month since my last post! I can't even claim to being off on holiday so we'll just have to put it down to idleness, I guess.

I've been working to upgrade our web site and that seems to soak up a fair bit of time and attention but it looks like the new design is more or less agreed so we should be able to get going on editting the content fairly soon. One of the things I'm hoping to do is to make the solutions area a whole lot better so we can let folk learn more about the real value they can get out of this technology.

There seems to be a number of projects kicking up in the automotive arena at the moment - tracking vehicles one way or another, either pure RFID or RFID and ANPR in collaboration. Do I sense the green shoots of emerging from recession? Well, don't ask me! If you want the blog for guesses on the economy you'd be better off trying Robert Peston's than mine.

The Real Deal In RFID

2009-08-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems like everything is incredibly complicated and then something comes along that is really simple.

I've been taking some photos for our web site today and, as part of that, we wanted to get some shots of a new RFID reader that plugs into a USB port on a laptop. Our techie guys had said that not only was this little thing very neat but it was easy to use. Plug it in they said, It doesn't need any software.

So, since I hardly ever get to play with any of this technology, I thought I would have a go with this. Plugged the beasty into a USB port, opened an empty Word document and waved some tags at it. Voila, instant RFID reading, with each tag ID appearing in the Word document just as if I'd typed it there. Of course it's not much of an application but as a way of demonstrating the simplicity of RFID it's hard to beat!

Run Rabbit Run

2009-07-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

One of the interesting features of RFID is the opportunities it presents in marketing. Of course folk are rightly concerned about privacy issues (I'm a bit puzzled by some of the planned EU legislation but more of that later) but it does offer ways to personalise things and also to create new interactions with consumers that can help develop a brand.

We've been working with one marketing group AKQA to develop tags used by Mike as part of their NikeTown Runners program to develop the Nike + brand.

We've got a case study on this although it's not publicly available on the web site. But there's an exclusive for blog readers here.

How Not To Do RFID....

2009-06-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

I’m always keen to learn the lessons of real-world deployments but it’s pretty rare for someone to come right out and say “this is where we fouled up”. There’s a really useful “How Not To Do RFID” guide at Industry Wizards where the anonymous author lists thirteen lessons “learned the hard way”. I sent it around to all our team, it should be required reading for project leaders and RFID suppliers! See what you think.

Another fishy tale....

2009-06-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

This qualifies as my most curious use of RFID so far this week.

In Spain they're using it to track the growth and productivity of muscle beds. With upwards of 500 ropes of muscles attached to each farming platform and the problem that from the top all the ropes look the same, RFID is providing a way of deciding which rope needs to be harvested when.

The project is using some of the same Confidex tags that we work with and supply.

Right, I'm off for me tea........

Fish & Chips

2009-05-18T03:19:00.000-07:00

All right, I can't resist a Sun style headline.

In case you missed it in RFID Journal, IBM are going to be working with the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers to get traceability from farm to point of sale.

This is just the latest example of RFID being use in food tracking. With consumers always concerned about the origins of food and the potential this has for improving public health (by providing the tracking needed for product recalls) this seems liek something that other sectors could consider.

A bit of new news on London Underground...

2009-05-15T03:44:00.000-07:00

We've got a short case study up at our web site, just in case you haven't seen the coverage in RFID Journal and in The Register. (Must be some sort of coup!)

Brussels Declares Its Hand : Will Recommendations Stamp On The Green Sprouts Of The RFID Economy?

2009-05-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

The EU has finally got around to publishing its recomendations on protecting citizens' privacy when RFID is implemented.

For those suffering from insomnia, here is the complete recommendation.

The essence though is:

operators of RFID systems will need to assess their potential impact on privacy and will have to protect the public against possible privacy invasions, including monitoring and reviewing protective measures.

they will have to submit their assessments to a monitoring authority 6 weeks prior to deployment.

they will be obliged to inform individuals of the presence of RFID readers by agreed signage.

they will have to inform individuals of the presence of tags placed on or embedded in products.

in retail applications operators will also be required to deactivate or remove tags at the point of sale unless the assessment indicates that the data held or derivable from the presence of the tag does not constitute a threat to privacy or personal data protection.

Although the recomendations recognise the difference between retail / mass market applications of RFID and others, it is clear that this affect deployments of RFID within businesses with an additional impact on the effort needed to deploy RFID based applications.

Here's our own thoughts on the privacy issue and a fact sheet on the EU recomendations.

RFID & Model trains

2009-04-02T03:15:00.000-07:00

Yet another new application this month. This one wins my prize for least expected use of RFID (though there are some others in the pipeline that fit the bill too!) for March.

We were approached by a group that promotes the use of electronics in model railways. They have taken some of the CoreRFID components, together with their own technology to build a series of kits for modellers.

What would a model railway want with RFID? Well, if you’ve got a really ambitious model – we’re not talking about the toy train oval on the carpet – then you may have parts of the layout that you can’t see from where you operate. What could be worse than setting the points expecting the passenger express to emerge from the sidings only to find you’ve got a goods train appearing instead! If you could identify which trains were standing in the sidings then that would solve the problem wouldn’t it?

That’s exactly what this month’s application for RFID is all about. Tiny tags that can be mounted under model locomotives, trucks or carriages; readers that can be placed under critical points on the layout; and the multiplexing components to bring the data from several readers back to one computer. The picture shows a 12mm RFID tag mounted under an N gauge (=2mm to the foot) truck; half the size of the popular OO gauge model railways showing just how easy it is to tag a small model.

Then the computer can display which train is where for the operator or, for an exhibition display drive a display telling the audience just which train has pulled into the station, which engine it is which rake of carriages and so on.

I hope that a full case study will be available on our web site soon.

Going Underground

2009-03-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

The latest application that we're involved in is a deployment of RFID on the London Underground. They are using UHF RFD tags to keep track of which individual escalator steps need maintenance (no, I hadn't realised that they needed to worry about individual steps either!).

As part of the project they are tagging 30,000 steps and using RFID readers mounted beside moving escalators so that they get an instant read out of which steps need exchanging without stopping the escalator.

It's a MUCH easier way of doing it than peering in the dark and greasy underneath of an escalator looking for labels on the steps.

2009-02-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

As a follow up to our involvement in the Royal Institution event. Here's our bit from Lecture 2.....

CoreRFID Demo For Royal Institution Christmas Lecture

For anyone that's interested in these lectures but missed them, Five and the Royal Institution will publish the series as a DVD box set, hopefully in March 2009.

Museums

2009-01-30T00:48:00.000-08:00

Blimey - another month gone!

After all the running around with the Royal Institution demo I've been able to get back to some real work this month but again I'm going to put forward one of our own applications as my interesting solution of the month - even if its only because its in a good cause.

We've done a few implementations for visitor interaction in museums but one that has recently been installed has a particulalry important application.

The Museum voor Communicatie's new RFID enabled exhibition opened in December. As part of this they implemented a system that collected up visitor's information as they went around the exhibitis and present it back to them in a demonstration of how easy it is for someone to steal identity details on line. There's more about it on the press release on our web site but I think that this is a great idea that will help kids learn about the realities of the on-line world, great opportunities but some risks as well.

Getting Institutionalised...

2008-12-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

Well as far as December is concerned my most interesting application is one of our own.

Actually it's not a real application, it's a bit of a cheat.

We were approached by the film company recording this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures to Young People to ask us if we could provide an RFID demo for part of one of their lectures.

Well, we said, "Yes," and so you can see a very simple demo of the potential of RFID as part of the "Chips With Everything" lecture which goes out on 5 at 19:15 on 30th December.

The whole process was instructive and there's some interesting stuff in the lecture that I wasn't aware of. Our demo is based on a highly simplified supermarket checkout scenario - we wanted something that the kids and the TV audience could relate to very quickly (after all our part of the lecture is probably only a minute!) - but it illustrates pretty clearly the benefits of an RFID approach to collecting information over what can be done with barcodes.

All part of reaching out to the wider audience.

Ham or Cheese?

2008-11-27T23:18:00.000-08:00

This week I've been talking with some other suppliers of RFID solutions around Europe. As ever, plenty of good examples of new applications but, going back to the food theme of a few weeks ago, two that I liked were....

From Italy, a project to track hams through the salting and maturing process with the pork tagged as it enters the factory and tracked every step of the way until it leaves at the end.

From Israel, almost the same application but with cheeses.

Diamond Geezers

2008-11-19T04:00:00.000-08:00

Another of my favorite applications that just goes to show (a) the versatility of RFID and (b) the ingenuity of users.

One of our clients needed to manage assets that included some very small (and very expensive) tools used for diamond cutting. They came up with the idea of using the grain-of-rice sized glass encased tags that are used as the injectable tags for cats and dogs. They fitted the bill exactly, it just goes to show you shouldn't always believe the label on the tin - we've got plenty of other examples of people using tags in ways that we hadn't thought of before.

But, like I always say, you get your best product ideas from your customers!

Cubicle Curiosity

2008-11-11T04:00:00.000-08:00

Now I'm not the most enthusiastic shopper for clothes - my ideal is to grab some stuff from a hangar, make sure it fits (approximately) and then head for the till. However there are those, I'll acknowledge, that take more pleasure in it.

I came across an interesting RFID application in clothes retail on the web site of one of our partners - UPM Raflatac - that specialise in .......

One of their clients - Galeria Kaufhof in Essen, Germany - is using RFID tags on clothing and readers across the sales floor including over changing rooms, in order to track which items are tried on together and which are selected from what displays, and which items are tied but not purchased, so helping the shop to organise its outlet better.

I liked this. Often the focus in RFID systems is on what's being sold, here they are as interested in what isn't selling. That's got to be more interesting when floor space is at a premium.

Log - arithm

2008-10-28T07:48:00.001-07:00

Fascinating facts you learn when working on RFID #1....

It takes 1000 logs to build a log cabin.

This weeks interesting application comes from Finland where log cabin maker Honkarakenne is using RFID to track logs through the production process, encoding tags with the specific milling instructions for each log.

With the credit crunch we'll all be living in mud huts soon if I believe the news. I wonder what role RFID will play in that?

More foodie thoughts....

2008-10-23T02:40:00.000-07:00

In my weekly trawl of the interesting RDID web sites, I picked up on a release from BearingPoint Inc, which I thought harked back nicely to the foodie theme that I've been following for the last few entries.

It also highlighted to me one of the weaknesses that seem to turn up in most RFID case studies and press releases and made me think about what we are doing with ours.

BearingPoint helped the Chinese Food Safety Administration Office to deliver an RFID based end-to-end food tracking system for the Beijing Olympics. (More details here)

Now, it seems to me that this sort of system can be viewed as a sort of insurance policy. What to me is interesting about this system is not the number of trucks equipped with sensors (206) or the number of food deliveries monitored (3800 - this sounds curiously small to me, given the number of athletes and visitors that there were at the event) - what I wanted to know was had the thing actually done any good!

The real business benefit only becomes apparent when you say how many instances of faulty delivery were detected or how many food recalls were actually enabled by the system. Without this it's impossible to judge whether the insurance policy was worth while. Sure it's encouraging that the technology was successfully deployed and worked but the real payoff comes from the benefit it delivers.

I'm as guilty as the next man of writing press releases or brochures that focus on what we know about a customer's solution (and of course what they are prepared to have said about it) rather than trying to dig up things that folk haven't counted, so I'm not pointing any fingers at BearingPoint here. I guess this is a plea for more information on HOW the technology of RFID delivers value, not just on what is being done. (I'm writing myself a note to get better at it too!)

Separating the Sheep Fom The Goats

2008-10-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

We do quite a bit of work with various animal tagging applications for RFID so I tend to keep an eye on what's going on with regard to regulations that require electronic tagging for animals.

DEFRA are currently implementing (after much procrastination) EU legislation on its use for sheep and goats. Except that it's not for goats.

Why not?

Apparently we don't have enough goats. The EU doesn't think its worth bothering if there are fewer than 160,000 goats and that (allegedly) is more than we have.

So, no chance of traceability for the contents of your goat curry.

(these posts have been a bit foodie this week).

Which came first.....

2008-10-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well after Monday's post (the egg) here comes the chicken....

http://tinyurl.com/5ok6yq

Seems like IBM is engaged in food chain tracking on a proof-of-concept for poultry.

It won't be too long before we're saying, "Waiter there's a chip in my chicken noodle soup!"

Traceability....(I guess the diet is kicking in....)

2008-10-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

I was browsing the GS1/EPC Global RFID In Action website this morning - one of the applications they profile is using RFID to provide traceability and quality control for eggs.

How long before when you get to your restaurant you are given a hand-held to scan your meal as it arrives so that you can see just where all that food has come from???

On a more serious note, as more folk get interested in food-miles (no, it's not a reward scheme for over-eating) and the quality of produce, traceabillity in food is going to get to be more of an issue.

RFID Helps Stop Vibration Injuries

2008-10-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

I guess everyone is familiar with the most common uses of RFID - tagging pets for example and keeping track of stock or corporate assets - but we have a few users that get into more interesting areas.

One of our partners - Reactec Ltd - has just posted a great video of their application where they use RFID enabled data collection devices to keep track of workers exposure to vibration in the workplace. This helps them to reduce the risks of industrial injury from machines like angle grinders, compressed air drills and the like. It's in areas like these that RFID seems to me to offer some quick paybacks for relatively little investment.

Missing EDS disk drive

2008-10-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

More missing government data! This time it looks like data has been lost for 100,000 service personnel. Somehow there has to be a better way of handling data than this.

They found out because of an "audit" and I'm betting this was only done because of the takeover of EDS. If no one ever checks what's out on the desktop then it's no wonder that people forget to take simple precautions. The reality is that this disk drive has probably been lost at the back of a drawer somewhere but it would still be interesting to know how much data is out on desktops and on pen drives compared with how much there is in data centres, these days.

We're doing some stuff developing applications in this area, so I hope to be able to post some more thoughts on this soon.