NeoMedia Adds New Patent Licensee to Mobile Barcode Patent Family

NeoMedia Technologies, Inc. announced that 4GQR LLC., a provider of QR code technology, is a new patent licensee to its portfolio of barcode related patents. 4GQR joins a growing list of companies actively licensed to use NeoMedia's patents, a list which includes industry-leading companies such as Microsoft. “The mobile barcode industry continues to grow at an explosive rate across a variety of brands and industries,” said Laura Marriott, Chief Executive Officer, NeoMedia. “In the last year alone, we’ve seen smartphone adoption rise to over 950 million and QR code scans increase by nearly 120 percent from the same period last year. As a leader in the space, we are encouraged by this growth and the value brands continue to see by leveraging our IP portfolio.”
 

Isis RFID mobile payment system launches in Salt Lake City

AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless on Monday launched a pilot program in the Salt Lake City area aimed at getting Utah consumers to embrace the idea of paying for merchandise with the wave of their mobile phones instead of presenting a credit or debit card. The program, which the three wireless carriers are operating under a joint venture known as Isis, also includes Austin, Texas. It is part of a major push by the credit card and online payment industry to get U.S. consumers and businesses to adopt mobile phone payment systems.

Kraft Foods conserves time by upgrading to image-based barcode readers

Allergen management is playing an increasingly important role in the packaged foods industry. Manufacturers are taking better care to avoid labelling mix-ups that sometimes lead to expensive recalls and potential liability concerns. In order to address these matters, Kraft Foods Canada scans each label after it has been affixed on the packaging line to ensure that it matches the package contents.
The barbeque sauce product line at the plant in Québec, Canada, produces 30 different stock keeping units (SKUs) at a rate of up to 265 bottles per minute. When the line is changed over to produce a different SKU number, the proper labels are manually loaded into the filling machine.
The possibility exists, however, that the machine operator might load the wrong labels or that a few wrong labels might be accidentally mixed in. To address this concern, Kraft deployed laser-based barcode scanners to read the 1-D barcode on each label and send the results to the programmable logic controller (PLC) that runs the machine.
The problem with the laser-based scanners is that they are only capable of reading codes located within a small field of view. When the labels are changed to a new SKU, the code may be in a different position depending on the label design. This required that the laser scanners be adjusted whenever the product line changed, taking a considerable amount of the technical team’s time. They were repeatedly called out to make adjustments to the laser scanners and often struggled to determine why they generated no read failures.
“I suggested to Kraft that they consider image-based code reading technology,” said Mike Palmieri, Senior Technical Sales Representative for Cadence Automation, a Cognex integrator. The basic idea behind image-based technology is that the reader uses a series of algorithms to process a captured image to make it easier to read the codes no matter the orientation or print quality. Palmieri recommended the Cognex DataMan 300 ID reader because its 800 by 600 pixel image resolution was able to see the entire label and easily read the code regardless of its position. “The DataMan 300 also provides built-in Ethernet which makes it easy to communicate with a PLC,” Palmieri said.
The DataMan 300 uses a new 1DMax algorithm, which incorporates Hotbars technology designed to handle difficult linear barcode-reading applications on high speed lines. The DataMan 300 series also offers the flexibility of integrated and controllable modular lighting and optics.
Kraft started by replacing one laser scanner with a DataMan 300 reader on the barbeque sauce line. From the moment it was installed, the image-based reader virtually eliminated read failures, providing 99.9%+ read rates. Kraft replaced the three other ID readers on the line spurs and has since also replaced the scanners on three additional lines. No adjustment is required so the technical staff has been freed from managing the product changeovers.
“DataMan 300 ID readers have significantly improved the efficiency of our packaging lines,” said Dave Fortin, Technician for Kraft Foods Canada. “In the past, our technical team had to spend a considerable amount of time adjusting laser scanners and had to deal with the many bottles with good labels that the laser scanners were not able to read. The new image-based ID readers have solved these problems by providing near-perfect read rates. They are also economical to purchase and easy to install and maintain.”

Wireless Joint Venture Isis To Launch NFC Mobile Payments

NFC mobile payments through Isis will be enabled in Salt Lake City and in Austin, Texas. A map listing equipped commercial establishments is posted on an Isis Web site, paywithisis.com. Stores will have a purple "Isis Ready" emblem displayed in the window. More details on the Isis NFC payments service will be released on Monday. Google currently offers mobile payments with its Google Wallet application, using MasterCard's PayPass and Visa's Paywave system, and Square -- created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey -- accepts payments through a phone attachment or by entering card numbers in an app. Square this week ended a trial run in New York City taxis that began in March, utilizing card readers attached to back-seat iPads.

Swipe out?

The mobile payments industry floats on oceans of hype and buoyed expectations as any industry in its infancy must. NFC, long the poster child for mobile payments, has suffered as key players brought products to the plate that swung and missed, or at best connected but went foul. There are no North American NFC home runs, a winner that delighted consumers and merchants alike by providing them services that made their interactions demonstrably better, faster or cheaper. So is any of this the fault of NFC? Sure, NFC is expensive to deploy. And there hasn't exactly been a flood of handsets that support NFC, so most merchants and consumers can't currently use NFC without upgrading their hardware.

ShopWiki Launches Barcode Scanning, Price Comparison App

ShopWiki, which operates an Internet shopping search engine, has released a new, barcode scanning app for iOS. The site--which is owned by Los Angeles-based Oversee.net--said the barcode app lets users check online prices while shopping at brick and mortar retail stores.

NFC is not an easy task, but mobile payments are already here

NFC has long been heralded as the holy grail for mobile. Paying with your phone is something that seems so futuristic and rightly so. The idea of getting rid of your wallet and just carrying a phone is tantalizing indeed, but most movements to kill the wallet have gone nowhere. Google Wallet has been around for a while now, but it's yet to see much traction around the world, let alone in the USA. There's a few places you can pay, a few compatible handsets and a few different credit card companies that support it, but you have to really want it to actually bother getting it.

TAGSYS Partners With Hilden

TAGSYS RFID, a provider of item-level inventory management systems that streamline the supply chain, has announced a partnership with Hilden, UK's leading supplier of linen products and related services. The partnership will see Hilden become the first company to offer RFID-enabled textile products to its customer base of hotel and hospitality clients in the UK and Ireland. Hilden, part of Vision Support Services, will leverage TASGYS' 15+years of expertise in RFID technology and its proven track record in the textile services market to help its customers better monitor and control linen use.
With the RFID-enabled products, Hilden's customers can take advantage of TAGSYS' item-level inventory management system based on the industry's most complete and scalable RFID-based infrastructure. The system, developed specifically for the textile services industry, includes RFID technologies, materials, software and consulting services to satisfy the entire management and logistics process of textile items from, to, and within the laundry and its customers, all from a single source.
As part of the agreement, TAGSYS will provide Hilden with UHF RFID tags in the form of discreet woven labels, which can be seamlessly integrated into textile items. This unique application of RFID technology offers the best read performance, resilience and quality/price ratio on the market compared to other industrial tags. It can sustain pressure of up to 60 bars and a temperature of 200 degrees C.

Happy Birthday! Barcode turns 60

Barcode, the distinctive black-and-white stripes that provide details relating to an object you purchase, has turned 60. There are more than five million individual barcodes in use around the world, according to regulator GS1 UK. Although barcodes were filed in the US on October 7, 1952, they did not make their first appearance in a US shop until 1974 - because the laser technology used to read them did not exist, the 'BBC News' reported.

Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium details plans for commercializing technology to track and monitor blood products

The Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium announced today that S3Edge Inc., the software partner for the consortium has been selected to exclusively commercialize the RFID and barcode based Blood Product Tracking suite of applications designed and built under a private, academic, and public initiative funded by the NIH. The system, consisting of mobile, desktop, and server software applications provides greater visibility to the physical movement of blood products, while improving the efficiency of Blood Center operations.  The RFID consortium includes BloodCenter of Wisconsin, SysLogic Inc., S3Edge Inc., Carter Bloodcare, Mississippi Blood Services, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Mississippi Baptist Health System, University of Wisconsin Madison – RFID Laboratory, and Mediware Corp.
The suite of applications has been deployed in a production pilot at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) with promising results. "Thanks to the outstanding work of the entire consortium team, we have successfully piloted the new system to track blood products as they move from fixed and mobile donation sites, through the blood center and to distribution. After 24 weeks of running the system in a pilot mode here at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin, we have seen process efficiency and traceability gains, as well as marked improvements in reconciliation," said Lynne Briggs, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for BloodCenter of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
The hospital transfusion services tracking module was piloted at the DeGowin Blood Center at UIHC where it was run in parallel with IPR, an internally developed barcode-based tracking system.  "The RFID system provided equivalent capabilities to those of IPR in terms of detecting and resolving process errors.  It additionally provided the blood bank staff real-time visibility for blood products in transit from the hospital blood bank to the point-of-care and in remote storage in our emergency department." said Dr. Thomas J. Raife, MD, Clinical Professor & Medical Director, UIHC DeGowin Blood Center.
The initiative to introduce RFID technology in transfusion medicine is also a showcase of how ground-breaking solutions can be very effectively designed, developed, and commercialized via private-academic-public initiatives for the healthcare industry. "This effort represents the culmination of years of hard work by the consortium members in bringing a much needed innovation to the market in a collaborative manner. We are pleased to see S3Edge taking the next steps to ensure that the cumulative efforts of the consortium benefit the transfusion medicine industry as a whole," said Rodeina Davis  who was the principal investigator for the STTR grant, and a luminary in the transfusion medicine field recognized for her role in advancing this new technology from idea to adoption.
SysLogic Inc., one of the founding members of the consortium and awardee of the STTR grant allowing for creation of the system will continue to spearhead efforts to obtain the 510(k) clearance for the blood product tracking suite of applications developed by the consortium. "Today's announcement solidifies our commitment not just to create compelling technology, but to realize the vision of creating a successful product for the transfusion medicine industry. We look forward to completing the requirements for the 510(k) clearance and facilitate the technology's potential to transform current operations in the transfusion medicine industry for all end-users," said Tina Chang, CEO of SysLogic Inc., a Brookfield, Wisconsin-based information systems consulting and services firm.
"S3Edge is extremely pleased to lead the commercialization effort and make the technology broadly available to the transfusion medicine industry. This significant milestone could not have happened without the efforts, guidance and leadership of the consortium. We look forward to working in tandem with this team of health care stakeholders and distinguished researchers to ensure Blood Centers around the world can take full advantage of this new system," said Mark Anastas, President of S3Edge Inc.

RFID consortium to bring blood product tracking technology to market

The Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium, which seeks to improve safety and reduce costs in the blood supply chain through use of radio-frequency identification technology, announced Friday that Beaverton, Ore.-based S3Edge has been tapped to commercialize a new RFID and barcode-based blood product tracking technology. Designed and built under a private, academic and public initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Blood Product Tracking suite consists of mobile, desktop and server software applications that offer greater visibility to the physical movement of blood products, while improving the efficiency of blood center operations, officials say.

Accusoft Releases Barcode Reader App

Accusoft, the leading provider of document, content and imaging solutions, today releases Accusoft Barcode Scanner app for Android, utilizing the barcode engine of the Barcode Xpress Mobile software development toolkit (SDK), with barcode reader support for over 30 barcodes including DataMatrix, PDF417 and more.
The easy to use Accusoft Barcode Scanner app demonstrates the powerful performance of the Barcode Xpress Mobile SDK and its newly extended library of barcode support. After opening the app, simply aim the mobile device over the intended barcode inside the viewfinder rectangle to scan it. Results will immediately appear on the device with a variety of options to choose. For example, scanning an ISBN barcode will perform a book search on that title or scanning a URI barcode will jump to a web address at the click of a button.
The Accusoft Barcode Scanner app can read 1D and 2D barcodes, including DataMatrix, UPC, EAN and more. Today several industries utilize barcode technology to track inventory, index records, access medical records and more, for industries such as retail, industrial, transportation and medical. For example, the Retail industry relies on barcodes to gain valuable product information, receive special pricing or to educate their customers by watching a short video when making purchasing decisions.
The Barcode Xpress Mobile SDK for iOS has also been updated to include the extended library of barcode support and is available for download. Additionally, GS1 Databar support is coming soon to Barcode Xpress Mobile.

Explore Downtown Tampa Architecture On QR Code Tour

AIA Tampa Bay is hosting an architect-led walking tour of downtown Tampa's unique architecture on Friday, Oct. 5, from noon to 1 p.m. The one-hour tour, beginning at Lykes Gaslight Square Park in downtown Tampa, will include five to six historically significant buildings that contribute to the city's sense of place. The event is free and open to the public. Participants can start the tour by visiting Tour Tampa Bay Architecture, where they will find maps of the sites and pictures showing where the QR codes can be found. Some codes are obscure, whereas others stand out on windows and can be found while passing by. The website also includes historic sites in Ybor City and Hyde Park.

iPhone 5 NFC snub won't hinder contactless uptake

Apple has overlooked near-field communication (NFC) for its new iPhone 5, but it won't stymie the growth of NFC contactless payments, according to Datacard director of mobile solutions business development Sebastien Tormos. Pundits previously said that if Apple released an NFC-enabled phone, it would be a giant leap for the adoption of the contactless technology. There was speculation that the iPhone 5 would include the necessary hardware, but those rumours were proven wrong when the phone came out last week.

RFID Credit Cards: Is Your Identity Safe?

So-called "smart cards" are now common among major credit card issuers. They make shopping easier and faster for the holder and can add additional protection against traditional forms of credit card theft. Some users and identity theft watchdogs, however, raise an alarm about the safety and security of the information embedded in the card.