TSL Webinar on BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Bluetooth RFID Readers

Technology Solutions UK Ltd (TSL), a developer of best-in-class RFID devices and mobile data capture solutions, and Impinj, the leading UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) technology provider, will host a joint webinar to help users get the most performance and functionality from TSL’s 1128 Bluetooth UHF RFID Reader. Ideal for ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) asset tracking, this Bluetooth-enabled RFID reader is designed to bring UHF RFID scanning to a wide variety of smart phones, tablets and other handheld devices without requiring a customized driver.
The free webinar BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Bluetooth RFID Readers for iOS, Android, and Windows will be presented on April 29 at 10:00 a.m. PST (17:00 GMT). To register for the webinar, visit: Impinj Webinar Series.
Attendees will learn how to quickly and easily enable nearly any host device for RFID scanning using Bluetooth connectivity. The webinar also will instruct users on developing custom apps for the 1128 Bluetooth UHF RFID Reader, allowing even greater functionality and customization with host devices running iOS, Windows Mobile, Android™ or Windows Desktop operating systems. Speakers include Tracy Hillstrom, Sr. Product Line Manager of Impinj Speedway® line, and Dr. David Evans, managing director of TSL.
With a range of interchangeable, high-performance, snap-on antennas, and using the Impinj R2000 core, TSL's 1128 reader offers the utmost in flexibility and productivity for RFID scanning in retail, logistics and hospitality environments. A variety of holders and accessories are available to facilitate hands-free, full-feature RFID scanning and 2D barcode data scanning.

Adobe bolsters Marketing Cloud, launches core services, iBeacon support

Adobe rolled out a series of services for its Marketing Cloud that stitch together audience profiles, advertising mix planning and content management tools across mobile and Web channels. The moves, announced at Adobe's digital marketing conference in Salt Lake City, bolster the software company's marketing cloud. The company also rolled out support for Apple's iBeacon technology. Marketers aren't exactly running toward large scale iBeacon use, but are beginning to experiment with local promotions based on where a customer is, time spent in an area and other data.

Android Bluetooth RFID Reader helps to cut costs

Recently, the Android Bluetooth RFID reader from DAILY is popular among people and it has brought lucrative margins to the businessmen. DAILY has released a series of brand-new Bluetooth RFID reader with reasonable price, which is applicable for item management, personal identification and other applications where a Bluetooth device is required. Industrial UHF Android Tablet Reader DL790, an Android Bluetooth RFID reader which is released by DAILY RFID is available at Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR class 2, Wi-Fi, GPRS and integrating gravity sensor.

Retailers increasing adoption of radio wave tags

Retail companies including Cincinnati-based Macy’s Inc. are accelerating adoption of radio-frequency identification technology that allows items to be identified and tracked wirelessly via radio waves. Retailers are primarily using radio-frequency identification to manage their inventories with greater accuracy, but data derived through item-level tracking is expected to open new opportunities for improving the customer experience as well, industry experts said.

Software Company Anahata Offers Services to Melbourne's Fruit Industry

The fruit Industry comprises perishable products that need to be shipped to the market in the shortest time possible. Due to the lack of cost-effective and efficient solutions managing fruit stocks has posed the greatest challenge to investors in the industry. Anahata has ventured into the market to provide tailor-made ICT solutions that increase profitability and eradicate the loss of perishable stock in the industry.
Anahata specializes in the delivery of cross-platform solutions that are secure, stable and compatible with existing systems and infrastructure. This results in cost reduction over the lifespan of the software application. The firm also issues solutions on the Mac platform that is compatible with Mac applications. Partnerships with leading software vendors have enabled Anahata to venture into and deliver turnkey solutions as well.
Customer support is available through the day and night and on-site training is provided to the staffs to operate the new software applications. Anahata’s expert staffs improve the workflow of the client’s business operations in order to ensure the proper functioning of the ICT solutions it offers. This is coupled to a continuous integration process in order to ensure that the software is fine tuned to assist in realizing the goals and objectives of the customer.

3D Printed RFID Ring

Like many of us, Benjamin Blundell is a bit tired of hearing about wearable technology when it seems that many of the examples just aren't very practical or useful. He decided to do something about that. He created this fantastic example of what wearable technology should be -- aesthetic and functional. Blundell says on his blog that RFID is quite prevalent in London, where he lives, so he carries a card with a passive RFID chip in it. This card grants him access to his local hackerspace and has some other common uses around the city. He set out with the goal of adding the RFID chip to his wedding ring.

HID Trusted Tag Services offers Internet of Things (IoT) authentication

HID Global, a worldwide leader in secure identity solutions, today announced its HID Trusted Tag Services offering. Combining trusted tags with existing secure cloud authentication services, HID Global’s latest solution confers everyday objects with unique and trusted identities that can be read by NFC-enabled mobile devices in a wide variety of IoT applications.
With NFC technology, smartphones and tablets can interact with everyday objects in new and exciting ways, ranging from tapping a “smart poster” for an interactive brand experience to authenticating the value of a luxury item to verifying the visit of a home health aide in a patient’s home.
HID Trusted Tags can be attached to or embedded into an object and then “tapped” by a smart device to communicate secure information.  HID Trusted Tag Services does not require users to modify their devices or download apps; however, unlike traditional approaches QR codes or static NFC tags that are vulnerable to tag cloning and tampering, the data read from a trusted tag has additional security and privacy attributes that change on every tap, providing a secure audit trail and making the taps uncloneable. HID Global’s patented tag technology optimize security and convenience, eliminates the need for special readers or other equipment for tag authentication, and enables new use cases that require proof of presence.

Court finds removal of barcode does not infringe trademark reputation

Ape & Partners SPA and Balling Brands ApS requested an interim injunction against Streetman ApS, claiming that Streetman was prohibited from marketing and selling products under the trademarks PARAJUMPERS and PJS THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE PARAJUMPERS after it had altered the tags attached to the products. PJS is the owner of a number of EU trademark registrations, including the two trademarks mentioned above, which have been licensed to Ape and Balling. Streetman sells jackets under both trademarks. The original PARAJUMPERS jackets are sold with five tags on a string, of which one is a barcode label. On the jackets sold by Streetman, the tag with the barcode label had been removed and a white sticker had been placed on one side of one of the other tags, covering a PARAJUMPERS trademark.

U.S. retailers insist on PIN requirement in smartcard rules

U.S. retailers are digging in their heels over their need for PIN authentication for Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) smartcard use here. Visa and MasterCard want retailers to migrate to EMV smartcard-ready payment systems by October 2015, but at this point aren't requiring that a Personal Identification Number (PIN) system be used to authenticate cardholders. EMV cards store cardholder data and other sensitive information in a tiny embedded microprocessor. Such cards are considered substantially safer than magnetic stripe cards currently used in the U.S.

Activist group to debut barcode-scanning boycott Israel app

The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is about to come out with a smartphone app that will help people carry out boycotts against Israel, according to the International Business Times. The beta version of this app is slated to be ready in the near future. The app will come with a barcode scanner, allowing users to scan products with their smartphones to see if the manufacturer has ties to Israel. The idea is to give potential boycotters all of the information they need on specific companies before buying a product. The data about the companies has been compiled by BDS, whose mission is to further Palestine rights.

Barcoding, Inc. & AeroScout Industrial To Deliver Hybrid RFID Solutions

Barcoding, Inc. and AeroScout Industrial have partnered to deliver hybrid RFID solutions that combine passive and active RFID (radio frequency identification). By merging the best features of both active and passive RFID, this hybrid system approach creates one, unified visibility solution for tracking assets.

Barcoding and AeroScout’s hybrid RFID system consists of:
◾Active RFID from AeroScout: AeroScout’s Wi-Fi-based, active RFID tags transmit signals to standard wireless access points via their own internal power supply. These signals are then relayed to AeroScout’s MobileView software applications that determine the asset’s location, condition and status. Active RFID technology is used for real-time location tracking of high-value and high-impact mobile assets. 
◾Passive RFID from Barcoding: Although a passive RFID system collects and transmits the same location and status information as active RFID, passive RFID tags rely on readers to pick up their signal and to supply the power necessary to respond and broadcast their data. Passive RFID is used for tracking a high volume of lower-cost items that exist within an area where chokepoint/gateway detection is sufficient.
◾AeroScout MobileView: The hybrid solution collects and aggregates the real-time data from active and passive RFID technologies. This application turns the passive and active visibility data into actionable information, delivering sophisticated mapping, rules-based alerting, role-based visualization and business intelligence (BI) reporting.

What Makes RFID Systems Industrial Strength

In Balluff's new White Paper, Balluff experts explain the three fundamental qualities that determine if RFID systems will perform reliably in demanding production environments. It answers three main questions: will the RFID system integrate seamlessly with industrial control systems?; will it provide the reliability and speed that production and information systems require?; and can it maintain uptime and performance long term?
The retail environments where products are sold look nothing like the industrial environments where they are produced (think of the difference between a new car dealership and an automotive manufacturing plant). Yet the same RFID products developed for retail stores and supply chain operations are heavily marketed to manufacturers for production operations. These products may have different housings or IP ratings than their general-purpose cousins and may work fine in warehouses, but that does not necessarily qualify them as industrial grade. Production environments often have their own ruggedness, performance and connectivity requirements that only purpose-built industrial equipment can reliably satisfy. For example, general-purpose RFID equipment may have the physical Ethernet port needed to connect to a PLC, but will not support EtherNet/IP, Profibus or other industrial protocols that run PLCs and other industrial automation equipment. The reader will need to be supported with additional protocol conversion, which slows system performance and adds to implementation time and expense.

Just the ticket

In June 1974 history was made at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, with a ten-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum. It was the first time a commercial item bearing a Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned by a cashier at the checkout. Forty years on, what became known as a barcode has transformed the world of commerce by providing reliable product identification, tracking and pricing. Nearly everything now comes with a barcode. As revolutionary as it was, the barcode has limited abilities. It can impart only the information it was printed with, represented by a series of horizontal stripes or a matrix pattern that can be read by an optical device, like a laser. The next generation of labelling will be more adept, containing tiny printable electronics able to generate, store and share information. These smart labels are about to become a big part of “the internet of things”.

High security RFID component provides anti counterfeiting solution

A high security ISO/IEC15693 compliant device from EM Microelectronic is said to act as a universal identity card and as an encrypted tamperproof digital certificate to convey the guarantee of good quality. The developer says the part offers 'unequalled' RF performance while enabling efficient and secure solutions for anti counterfeiting and brand protection. Called the EM4237, the uses public stream cipher technology to safeguard data integrity and to ensure confidential communication between the IC and the reader.

Concise Analysis of the International RFID Semiconductor Market

In recent years, the vendors in the Global RFID Semiconductor market in the Apparel industry are increasing their R&D spending on RFID semiconductors. Leading vendors such as NXP Semiconductors, Impinj, Alien Technology, and EM Microelectronics have increased their investment in the R&D of RFID semiconductors. Moreover, they are partnering with software and hardware suppliers and value-added resellers for making significant investments in R&D.
Further, the focus on R&D is helping vendors to introduce RFIDs that are inexpensive and more effective. Thus, high accuracy, lower price, and better integration ability is leading to the faster adoption of RFID solutions among major end-users in the market. According to the report, one of the major drivers in this market is the mandates made by major retail giants that require their suppliers to use RFID devices.
Most of the retail giants such as Wal-Mart have instructed their suppliers to use RFID tags on every pallet that they supply.

Swaddling a baby in QR codes encourages greater care

Parents can now obtain advice about their babies by scanning quick response codes on their blankets. If there are two things that all parents of new babies have in common, it is that they will all swaddle their children in a blanket at some point and they will all have questions about how to provide those infants with the best care, and this is exactly how a new program based on QR codes plans to help. A company called Swaddle Designs has launched a tech-enabled blanket that allows parents to scan and learn.

Travel now, pay later concept tested by public transport smart card

The company behind the public transport smart card OV-chipkaart is beginning experiments with billing people for the journeys they have made on a monthly basis. Trans Link Systems hopes the concept will make it easier for people who forget to load up their cards to travel by public transport.

LitePoint Announces First Volume Manufacturing Test Solution for NFC Devices at Mobile World Congress

LitePoint, an provider of wireless test solutions, today released its LitePoint IQnfc, the first volume production-optimized test system designed to measure and verify the physical layer performance of Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled devices. LitePoint will be demonstrating its IQnfc solution at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 24th – 27th in booth 5H31 Hall 5.
Until today, the primary method for production testing of NFC-enabled devices such as smartphones was a “pass/no-pass” approach, often utilizing an off-the-shelf NFC card reader or “passive tag.” This method, however, provides little useful data about system performance, allows marginal or even defective devices to ship to consumers and offers no information about the failure mechanism of devices that do not pass the production test.

PrivatBank launches HCE-based mobile NFC payments service

Beating banks around the world to the punch, Ukraine's PrivatBank has launched a host card emulation-based mobile NFC payments service. The Liqpay app, now available in beta, works with NFC smartphones running on Android 4.4 KitKat, letting users register any MasterCard or Visa card in order to fund payments made with a tap of their phone at contactless terminals.

C-SAM and HyperSoft to Announce the Development of NFC- and Barcode-based Coupon Services

C-SAM, Inc. and HyperSoft Co., Ltd. announced the development of a new value added service with KDDI CORPORATION for the “Salon de Wallet” application – a mobile membership card application for the Japanese beauty salon market. The application will allow for NFC- (near field communication) and Barcode-based coupon redemption to acquire new customers and to facilitate revisits of existing users to the salon.
“Salon de Wallet” has originally been developed by C-SAM and HyperSoft in cooperation with DNP (Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.) to manage multiple membership cards of beauty salons based on barcode. Each customer’s beauty profile and transaction history is captured, enabling salon owners to communicate directly with each customer. Customers can view their reward point status, make appointments, receive beauty tips, feeds for beauty, healthcare, fashion, and gourmet, free-sampling and other lifestyle trends, and also access an exclusive e-commerce site where they can shop at the salon. Furthermore, they can take a picture (hair, nail and face) after the beauty session in the salon and save it to their personalized beauty album or share it via social networks.
The “Salon de Wallet” app is based on C-SAM’s mobile transaction platform (MTP) and is fully integrated into HyperSoft’s POS (point-of-sale) system, serving more than 7.5 million customers in more than 2,200 beauty salons in Japan. For the new NFC- and Barcode-based coupon service, KDDI adds its Trusted Service Management (TSM) solution and NFC mobile technologies. HyperSoft will promote the coupon services to the beauty salons with C-SAM, and DNP provides the NFC reader/writers to the beauty salons through HyperSoft.