Sharing Wi-Fi access via NFC or QR code

InstaWifi lets you share access to your wireless connection by using NFC tags or a generated QR code. This is a great tool for business owners who have customers or office guests who want to connect to their wireless connection. It's definitely a faster option than giving them a password to type in, or keeping said password written down with the potential of getting lost.

Hacker allegedly cracks Tesco discount barcodes

Matt Evans believes he has successfully reverse engineered the discount barcodes used by Tesco. The self-proclaimed "Jesus-loving Physics geek" was in a store on Friday when he discovered a pattern in the barcodes for produce on sale. For those who don't know, Tesco is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal-Mart and Carrefour). The British grocery chain also operates in China, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, India, Isle of Man, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, the Republic of Ireland, Slovakia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the U.S.

Smartcard rolled out for Durban transport

Friday marked the official rollout of the Muvo card to all commuters using People Mover and Durban Transport buses, in the eThekwini Transit System, and implementation of the city's first large-scale cashless transit tariff system. The card, developed by Standard Bank's Beyond Payments unit, uses contactless technology to provide tap-and-pay functionality. The ticket machines and reading devices aboard the buses and at self-service kiosks have been provided by transport IT specialist Almex.

New scanner allows nationwide retailers to do inventory self-scanning wirelessly

GainSpan Corporation announced today that its ultra-low power embedded Wi-Fi modules are being used by Datascan, the nation's largest self-scanning company, for its recently released Wi-Fi Barcode Scanner. Datascan's new Wi-Fi Barcode Scanner allows retailers to conduct inventory self-scanning and to communicate the details over Wi-Fi within seconds to a central database. Since inventory data is transmitted in real time, the new Wi-Fi scanner eliminates the need for employees to upload in bulk the stored data from the scanner and thus dramatically decreases inventory count times.
"Datascan has over 80,000 handheld scanners being used worldwide by retail companies doing self-inventory of their store stock. For our newest wireless scanners, we needed a connectivity solution that would work with wireless networks already installed at retailers, many of which were Wi-Fi, handle commercial grade encryption and, because they are battery-operated devices, consume as little power as possible" said Carter Graves, vice president of operations, Datascan. "After testing wireless solutions from a number of companies we decided that GainSpan Wi-Fi technology outperformed all the others."
"GainSpan's GS1011M Wi-Fi module met all our needs and then some," said Graves. "It was very low power, provided a wide variety of different encryption methods and offered one of the best price/performance ratios on the market."
The GS1011M Wi-Fi module offers easy system integration and minimal use of host resources. The module provides both UART and SPI interfaces, making it possible to connect to any 8-32 bit microcontroller using simple AT commands. The firmware provided to run on the module includes complete Wi-Fi functionality including security, the networking stack and advanced networking features and services not readily available with other Wi-Fi modules including enterprise security, embedded servers (HTTP, DHCP and DNS servers), service and device discovery (mDNS and DNS/SD), XML parsing, and over the air firmware upgrades, as well as WPS and other provisioning features.

Global Market for RFID in Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals to Reach US$1.7 Billion

Businesses are increasingly becoming more aware of the need to track and monitor people as well as other assets for optimum utilization of resources. Taking cue from other sectors, healthcare providers worldwide have recognized the benefits of adopting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology into their operations for enhancing the delivery of healthcare services. The availability as well as new found usage of innovative RFID-enabled information technology applications is enabling providers to scrutinize the administration and authenticity of drugs; track medical supplies and equipment in a more efficient manner; as well as enhance patient security and safety, using RFID-enabled identification bracelets for patients. However, with the increase in realization of the benefits associated with uses and applications of RFID, concerns are also mounting regarding the potential privacy implications of the use of the technology, particularly when RFID tags are attached to identify people.
The pharmaceutical and healthcare industries are typified by unique set of requirements with respect to RFID technology. However, potential returns on investment are plausible with overwhelming benefits that could incite even laggards to adopt the technology. RFID market in healthcare and pharmaceutical industries would be mainly driven by the demand for RTLS (Real Time Locating Systems) for its use in locating equipment, patients and staff, and in enhancing safety and efficiency of healthcare delivery. Besides, demand for technology would also be driven by the need to reduce losses in operations. Tagging of drugs at item level to eliminate influx of fake drugs would also assist robust growth in demand for these systems in the years ahead. Although factors such as out of stock and counterfeiting are not the favorites in any industry, these could have relatively more serious implications on the pharmaceutical industry. RFID enables pharmaceutical companies to pinpoint the exact location of a particular stock in case of a recall, record when a patient has taken a medicine and even communicate with them.
Use of RFID in healthcare industry mainly revolves around active RFID tags. These tags operate by transmitting radio signals continuously to networked receivers that are located throughout the establishment. However, significant uses also exist for passive RFID tags, which function by swiping a reader near a tag by the user. The use of these tags had been successfully demonstrated and finds application in areas such as reducing medication errors in a healthcare setting. Active RFID has mainly been used in healthcare settings for optimizing operations and in management of assets by healthcare facilities that embraced this technology early. Those clients opting RFID for asset management application do so for locating equipment in their facilities. This includes locating products such as wheelchairs, small equipment used in operating rooms and others.

Argonne, Evigia Finalize Licensing Agreement for Next-Gen RFID sensor technology

Evigia Systems and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have finalized a licensing agreement under which Argonne's patented, application-specific radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensor/seal technology and its custom-developed ARG-US software suite will be further developed and marketed by Evigia as a comprehensive nuclear and hazardous material handling solution.
The system, jointly developed by Evigia and Argonne, adds sophisticated sensing, monitoring and communication capabilities directly to drum-type packages, using affixed battery-powered RFID tags that combine a full-range of sensors, onboard memory and secure wireless communications (based on the ISO18000-7 international standard). Argonne's ARG-US tags are based on Evigia's EV3 wireless sensor platform and offer real-time, continuous monitoring of tampering and seal breakage, physical shock, temperature/humidity, radiation level, battery status, and identification, alarm and detailed data logging functions.
The ARG--US RFID system provides continuous, near-real-time tracking and monitoring of the status of packages during transport, in-transit stops and storage. The system integrates ARG-US RFID tags, interrogators, control computers, software, a database and satellite and cellular-based communications.
The licensing agreement between Evigia and Argonne highlights the value of ARG--US technology to industry, "Our initial goal was to develop RFID tags to support DOE in reducing operating costs, modernizing its management of the life-cycle of nuclear materials and enhancing safety, safeguards and security for years to come," said Yung Liu, a senior nuclear engineer at Argonne. "However, the need for ARG-US technology has grown beyond the initial application as a result of demonstrated performance, ongoing development and industry recognition of the technology's value in the broader market. Our licensing agreement with Evigia will facilitate technology transfer to the marketplace, one of the key goals of the DOE national laboratories encouraged by Energy Secretary Chu."
According to Dr. Navid Yazdi, President of Evigia, the agreement "enables us to immediately enter new markets with the Evigia EV-3 platform and Argonne's ARG-US technology and deliver a complete, readily deployable wireless sensing solution for these vitally important nuclear material transportation and storage operations."
Argonne's development work is sponsored by DOE's Office of Environmental Management in support of its Office of Packaging and Transportation (OPT) Packaging Certification Program. The OPT Director, Stephen O'Connor, said, "There is a lot of opportunities for cost savings, worker dose reductions, and enhanced security for DOE in using these devices. One application in which we are already seeing significant benefits is the use of the ARG-US RFIDs to monitor environmental conditions on radioactive material transportation packages in interim storage conditions. Doing so allows DOE to extend the package seal life and reduce the maintenance costs and worker dose for performing the annual seal replacement and leak testing on these packages."

DNP and C-SAM Collaborate on Global Mobile Services Solution

C-SAM, Inc. (C-SAM) and Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) announced that DNP has been licensed C-SAM's Mobile Transaction Platform (MTP) as a part of the two companies collaboration on a mobile wallet solution that will be fully integrated with DNP's TSM (Trusted Service Manager) solution, smart card offerings, and NFC technologies and digital services.
This jointly developed and comprehensive mobile implementation will offer a scalable and flexible mobile wallet solution to mobile operators, retailers and banks, as well as healthcare and other service providers both in Japan and globally. Selectable configurations of multiple mobile services will be offered including payment, offers, coupons, banking, loyalty, healthcare and other rich value added services supported by the C-SAM platform.
The C-SAM MTP addresses the complexities of managing multiple mobile devices & operating systems, secure elements, and connections to multiple third party systems for conducting secure NFC and/or Barcode transactions related to payments, rewards, coupons, ticketing and related services.
DNP currently serves a broad cross-section of the Japanese market offering a wide range of services related to smart cards, printing and technology as a hardware and software provider and system integrator. This new offering will leverage and expand the services DNP is able to provide to both current and new customers.
The C-SAM platform, Secure Mobile Transaction Platform and SDK has previously been selected by ISIS, the US based joint venture of AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, as the platform on which their mobile wallet offering is based. Additionally, C-SAM recently announced a joint initiative with MasterCard to offer a white label mobile wallet solution based on C-SAM's flexible Mobile Transaction Platform (MTP) enabling seamless integration with MasterCard's pre-paid platform, offers, PayPass Wallet Services and rich informational services. C-SAM's new initiative with DNP will build on and leverage these existing implementations, and allow the exploration of offering interoperable services across global continental markets to develop and provide continuous, global and user friendly experiences to consumers and customers.

Omni-ID Launches Enhanced Partner Program

Omni-ID, the leading global supplier of high-performance, passive UHF RFID tags and visual tagging systems, has announced several additions to its product lineup over the past several months -- including three new product families. Given this expansion, Omni-ID has released several enhancements to its already robust channel partner program to better serve its existing and prospective reseller and system integrator partners.
"We're excited to see such a marked increase in the interest level and adoption of auto-identification technologies in a number of industries," said George Reynolds, Vice President of Global Sales of Omni-ID. "This heightened interest level along with the additions to our product portfolio has increased our presence within the IT/data center, energy, tool tracking, healthcare and manufacturing industries -- along with the resellers and system integrators that serve them."
The Omni-ID Partner Program has been designed to enhance partner profitability by providing aggressive volume based discounts along with financial, marketing and lead generation incentive programs that reward partners for high quantity purchasing to ultimately help them win future business.
"By creating different levels of commitment and rewards for our partners, we can better support them as they expand their businesses and accelerate the distribution and future adoption of RFID technology globally," added Tony Kington, Ph.D., Vice President of Operations and Managing Director- Europe for Omni-ID. "As one example, the company has expanded its assembly, finishing, commissioning and distribution facilities in all major geographies -- the Americas, Europe and Asia. This enables Omni-ID to provide customized product globally, at low cost and with short lead-times."
The program has been designed with three levels of partnership: Authorized Reseller, Preferred Partner and Premium Partner. Each level of partnership comes with discounted volume-based pricing, 24/7 online-ordering, sales tools, product training and marketing materials.

Wakestock first in UK to go festival-wide with ‘cashless’ microchip wristbands

Wakestock festival, held last weekend (July 6-8) in North Wales, was the first UK festival to premiere the use of wristbands fitted with microchips across its entire event, with 15,000 revellers donning the product. The technology encompasses a radio frequency identification (RFID) microchip, much like that of London’s Oyster Cards, which allows wearers to pre-load the chips with money to pay for food and drink and scan in and out of festival areas. They can also be cancelled if lost.

What may be lurking in QR codes?

Atmel’s low frequency RFID transponder for consumer and industrial applications

Atmel Corporation has announced production availability of a low-frequency (LF) RFID transponder device, the Atmel ATA5577M1330C-PP. The device is suitable for applications in building access control systems, industrial automation, consumer and industrial segments, and as tokens, key fobs or transponders. The RFID device enables with a stand-alone, fully functional tag that includes an antenna coil trimmed to an operating frequency of 125kHz.
Atmel claims that this is the only device on the market where the analog behavior can be tuned in a closed and sealed transponder for increased performance. By eliminating the need to open the transponder for tuning, the on-chip AFE register helps simplify the design and production process significantly.
The brick package molding makes the transponder robust so that it can be used in rugged environments that are challenging for competing RFID devices, including underwater, on metal or in dirt.
The on-chip memory contains an Atmel-pre-programmed unique ID (UID) in two additional memory blocks. These locked blocks assure a unique, worldwide traceable Atmel number consisting of the Atmel lot number, wafer lot and sequential die number. This makes the device suitable for use in applications that only require a low, basic level of security, while at the same time ensuring compatibility with all kinds of existing RFID systems. The ISO11784/ ISO11785 code structure, along with the de-facto-standard-unique format, can be configured according to the requirements of specific 125kHz applications.

Wasp Barcode launches new thermal printers

Wasp Barcode Technologies has announced the launch of the WPL25 Desktop Barcode Printer and the WHC25 Desktop Wristband Printer. Designed specifically for speed and durability, both products use direct thermal technology to provide accurate images and barcodes of the highest quality. The thermal printing technology used in both printers uses heat as opposed to ink, making the printed label or wristband smudge proof and durable.
Wasp's WPL25 Desktop Barcode Printer features a high-quality clamshell design that makes the WPL25 ideal for printing high performance labels for healthcare, retail, shipping, and office environments. The WPL25 barcode printer uses a 200 MHz processor that prints labels at speeds up to 5 inches per second at 203 dpi print resolution. For easy integrationinto various business environments, the Wasp WPL25 comes standard with USB and serial interfaces. The WPL25 also comes with optional peeler, cutter, and stand-alone keyboard making it easy to create an all-in-one barcoding and scanning solution.
The WHC25 specializes in printing wristbands that contain text, graphics, or barcodes to increase accuracy and eliminate the need formanual, handwritten, or stick on label wristbands. These secure, long-lasting wristbands are designed for applications such as healthcare patient ID tracking and entertainment ticketing. The WHC25 LCD screen displays the printer's status and makes it easy to troubleshoot away from a PC. The WHC25 can also be a standalone printing station and can be configured to print wristbands should your computer go down by simply plugging a keyboard into the printer. The 8MB SDRAM and 4MB Flash ensures quick wristband print speeds up to 5 inches persecond, while the 32-bit RISC processor allows for faster throughput and higher levels of productivity.
"The purpose of both the WPL25 and the WHC25 is to promptly print high quality, durable thermal barcodes that continue to increase efficiency for today's office environment," said Brian Sutter, director of marketing at Wasp Barcode Technologies. "Unlike inkjet printers, thermal printers offer high printing speeds and are extremely reliable. By using heat instead of ink, the WPL25 and WHC25 create durable images that remain readable for up to 50 years."
The WPL25 Desktop Barcode Printer is being introduced at a list price of $295. The WHC25 Desktop Wristband Printer is priced at $499.

NFC Keychain for iPhones and Android Devices from China RFID

China RFID (DAILY RFID) has released latest NFC tag-03 in a keychain form to read with iPhones and Android devices. This NFC keychain (NFC: Near field communication) is easily carried to bring comforts to NFC payment, such as mobile payment and loyalty services. And as an ISO/IEC 14443 NFC tag, each NFC keychain-03 contains a unique NFC chip to let people pay easier by just tapping the tags on the mobile phone.
The NFC keychains provide excellent performance for iPhones and android devices in payment since they give stable performances in NFC application. By attaching the NFC keychain to mobile phones, people can go out to events and do not need to take a wallet to make a payment. As for paying with the NFC tags, users simply need to tap their prepaid tags within a read range of 5 cm, and no longer need to dip a card, enter a PIN or provide a signature.