Why you don't need an RFID-blocking wallet

Because I’m a computer security guy, I have friends who like to show off their new RFID-blocking wallets and purses. "Look what I got for Christmas!" they say. My lack of response should be telling, but they don’t seem to pick up on it. They've seen the TV ads about malicious hackers who can “stand on any street corner” and wirelessly steal their credit card and other identity information. I've seen similar demonstrations at Black Hat and other computer security conferences for nearly a decade now. They never fail to wow the audience.

Rebecca Minkoff Adds RFID to More Stores, Boosts Sales

High-end fashion retailer Rebecca Minkoff opened its first RFID-enabled store in New York City's SoHo neighborhood in November 2014 (see Rebecca Minkoff Store Uses RFID to Provide an Immersive Experience). Since then, the retailer has brought radio frequency identification to two of its other stores, one in Los Angeles and the other in San Francisco. The company, known primarily for its chic handbags, reports that the use of RFID to provide higher levels of customer service has led to greater-than-expected apparel sales.

RFID Pops Up in Mobile Interactive Stores

ShopWithMe is setting up modular pop-up stores that offer brand owners a new way to market their products. The stores are designed to enable customers to learn about garments as they pick them up and try them on, and then to make purchases. The system can also remind shoppers to purchase something if they try to take it out the door without paying for it. To accomplish these things, each store employs radio frequency identification technology provided by InMotion and Impinj.

NAB's Visa digital wallet helps block Apple

NAB's first digital wallet out on Monday is backed by Visa, making it the first Australian bank to use a new mobile security system that fights Apple's bid for a share of the $2.5 billion in fees for credit card transactions. NAB's new digital wallet, NAB Pay, will allow customers to use an Android smartphone or other mobile device to make payments via the NAB mobile app with a virtual Visa card. It will later allow credit cards to be used as well. Most of the banks, including Commonwealth, Westpac and numerous regional banks and mutual lenders, already offer similar wallets, but NAB's is the first to use Visa's new Visa Tokenisation Service as the mobile security platform.

CardLogix And Eurocoin Join Forces For Smart Card Solutions In European Casinos And Gaming

CardLogix, a leading supplier of smart cards and software for the international casino and gaming industry, announced that it has appointed Eurocoin to sell its products in Europe. 

The two companies have joined together to serve the rapidly evolving gaming and hospitality markets throughout Europe. Smart cards and related products, such as software, readers, and printers, are in demand for several gaming and resort applications, including Player Tracking, Cashless Gaming, Guest Room/Other physical access, such as key cards, Loyalty, and Multi-Factor Identity Authentication for online gaming. According to KPMG, growth in the online gaming industry alone will grow at a CAGR of 10.6% through 2018.

The alliance between CardLogix and Eurocoin is in response to the rapid convergence of player identity and technology-driven gaming, in casinos and online. A single ID Credential, such as a smart card, is a powerful and versatile way to improve both casino operations and the player experience.

Dynamsoft’s barcode reader SDK adds PHP support

Dynamsoft’s Barcode Reader software development kit (SDK) now includes support for the Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) language so developers can easily enable barcode reading from images and PDFs in their PHP applications. This builds upon existing support for .NET web applications and various desktop application languages. The updated Barcode Reader 4.1 SDK has built-in support for a variety of the most common 1D and 2D barcode symbols. There are nearly 20 different barcode symbols supported. A recent update added support for DATAMATRIX and PDF417 barcode standards. Dynamsoft continually updates the SDK to enhance features and capabilities.

RFID Blood Monitoring Systems Market Is Anticipated To Hit $511.5 Million By 2022

The global RFID blood monitoring systems market is expected to reach USD 511.5 million by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. RFID technology enables automation in data collection, identification, classification and tracking items. Key growth factors attributing for its rapid growth include increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as heart, kidney, lung, liver, and other contagious and non contagious diseases.

RFID tags are attached to blood samples to ensure easy monitoring of the samples in hospitals, blood banks, and diagnostic centers. These RFID tags enable high speed processing of samples without errors and mix-ups. Furthermore, increasing healthcare expenditure, rising demand for preliminary healthcare checkups for early detection and diagnosis are also expected to positively reinforce the market growth in the next seven years.

MegaFon, VimpelCom and Gemalto launch mobile NFC ticketing in Moscow

Gemalto is supplying MegaFon and VimpelCom, the leading Russian mobile network operators with a combined base of 180 millions1 of subscribers, with UpTeq Multi-Tenant NFC SIMs. These cards enable subscribers to enjoy the benefits of Moscow's new mobile ticketing program and can be used with NFC smartphones. With the 'Troika' transport card app downloaded it allows travelers to board metro trains, trams and buses across the Russian capital with simply a tap of the handset on a contactless reader.

MegaFon and VimpelCom are supplying UpTeq Multi-Tenant NFC SIM to their subscribers free of charge. Tickets can be purchased directly via the Troika app, with payment debited automatically from the user's regular phone bill. Travelers no longer need to queue up to buy a printed ticket. Moscow's mobile ticketing scheme was launched in September 2015 and this swift and seamless cash-free ticketing method is expected to have high uptake among the 7 million daily passengers2 over the next few years. Gemalto's UpTeq Multi-Tenant SIM is the proven solution chosen by 12 out of 13 countries that offer mobile NFC ticketing services to their commuters. The cards can also support functions such as mobile NFC payments and provide a ready-made platform for the introduction of additional contactless services.

The tiny chip that could power big changes in how you shop

Next time you’re at the mall, take a closer look at the paper price tag dangling from the clothes you take into the dressing room. If you hold the tag up to a light, you might see a dark, salt-grain-sized speck in it. Or, if you run your thumb over the tag, you might feel an almost imperceptible bump. This is a radio-frequency identification chip — better known as an RFID chip — and you can expect to find a great deal more of them in stores this year as retailers increasingly bet the technology can be a critical part of solving their most vexing problems.

Nxt-ID (NXTD) Says Smart Card Introduced by WorldVent

NXT-ID, Inc. reports the new smart card being developed for WorldVentures Vacation Club Members was introduced at their annual UNITED conference, held in Orlando, Fla.

During the conference, WorldVentures introduced the DreamTrips smart card, being developed exclusively for them by NXT-ID, that will be customized with additional technologies and wireless features, such as the ability to seamlessly integrate with the WorldVentures DreamTrips App to wirelessly check in and earn loyalty points towards free DreamTrips vacations at select restaurants.

WorldVentures currently has approximately 500,000 DreamTrips Members, with as many as 80,000 new Members joining every month. The vision of WorldVentures' executive team is to make the smart card available to every existing Member, and provide a Member kit to every new Member that includes the smart card purchased from NXT-ID.

London Businesses Adopt Reward Technology's RFID Solution

For the past two months, men's clothing and accessories retailer The Dandy Lab has been using Reward Technology's RFID-enabled loyalty-card solution at its store on London's Brushfield Street. As a result, the company reports a 20 percent increase in customer retention—those returning to the store to make additional purchases—according to Julija Bainiaksina, The Dandy Lab's cofounder and head of innovation and technology.

Checkpoint’s Micro RFID Label Designed for Smaller Health, Beauty, Cosmetic Retail Merchandise Applications

Checkpoint Systems, Inc. announced its Micro RFID label for health/beauty/cosmetics categories such as hair care, over-the-counter medication and mid-size cosmetics. Because of small sizes, SKU complexity and densely packed merchandising displays, these categories have specific inventory management challenges. The Micro and its previously released companion labels – the Whisper and Slim – cover the full gamut of products that fall within this merchandise category, allowing retailers to tag more merchandise than ever before to maximize their inventory visibility.

The Micro features a tiny inlay size of 25mm x 10mm and is integrated with the Impinj Monza RAIN RFID R6 chip for optimal performance with Checkpoint’s RAIN RFID solutions and other Merchandise Visibility solutions. Micro tags can be applied over the packaging of numerous health/beauty/cosmetics products or directly on the products themselves.

The Micro is ISO18000-6C compliant and can be encoded and printed to carry EPC data in several formats, with a 2D printed bar code and human readable text.

Barcode Readers Go Back To The Drawing Board

In a world filled with smartphones and self-driving cars, the barcode seems like an archaic holdover of some other digital retail age. However, the scaling needs of retailers have uncovered some weaknesses in how merchants process barcodes, as well as some promising solutions. The Wall Street Journal reported that a veritable revolution is happening among barcode scanner makers, as companies like Zebra Technologies, the world’s largest such manufacturer, revisit the tech’s design and purpose after decades of innovations.

CaixaBank launches mobile-only bank

Spain’s CaixaBank has launched a mobile-only bank to provide banking services through mobile apps and social networks. “ImaginBank customers manage their products and services via apps,” the bank says. “Everything is run entirely on mobile devices.” An app, initially only available for Android devices, offers ImaginPay NFC payments and the service also supports contactless wristbands and smartwatches.

How Infosys believes it can turn IoT talk into action

When Infosys’ global business unit head of engineering services Sudip Singh looks at the market for IoT, he sees a gap that – if addressed – could be the difference in getting IoT projects over the line. “Over the past two years we have seen a tremendous amount of conversation that has taken place in the boardroom and among CXOs,” Singh told IoT Hub. “There is a lot of intent and excitement about what this IoT space can do.

Firm offers training on barcode

GS1 Tanzania has embarked on an ambitious countrywide entrepreneurship training to enable entrepreneurs, particularly in the agricultural sector, to start businesses and use the barcode technology to penetrate the local and international markets. According to GS1 Tanzania Chief Executive Officer, Ms Fatma Kange, the organisation is partnering with Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA), as well as Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA), to jointly train entrepreneurs in the country.

G-Star RAW Store Finds Many Uses for RFID

This month, Denimwall Inc. launched a radio frequency identification solution at the G-Star RAW clothing store that it owns and operates in New York City's Union Square, to do everything from tracking inventory, managing sales transactions and providing electronic article surveillance (EAS) to letting shoppers view product information on a touchscreen. The solution is provided by a team of vendors led by RIoT Insight, a new RFID solutions firm that aims to bring all-inclusive RFID systems to small and midsize fashion retailers.

Faster checkout with invisible barcodes? New Seasons will give it a try

Nearly everything on supermarket shelves comes with a barcode. Those black-and-white lines make checkout straightforward and reliably consistent. Not necessarily fast, though. Those tiny barcodes often take a second or two for scanners to locate, even with skilled checkers running them across the scanner. Upscale Portland grocery chain New Seasons is about to try something different. It's signing up to use technology from Beaverton-based Digimarc Corp. that embeds invisible barcodes all over a product. They're not visible to human eyes, but scanners equipped with new technology find Digmarc's barcodes right away, because they're everywhere on the packaging.

Global RFID Readers Market Growth of 21% CAGR by 2020

The increasing incorporation of RFID readers is expected to result in its impressive market growth rate of more than 21% by 2020. The ability of RFID readers to reduce errors pertaining to data entry is a key driver for the growth of this market. With the introduction of RFID and barcode systems firms are able to record and recognize data entries automatically with more precision. It not only helps in the automation of data entries but also corrects warehouse errors. The ability of these readers to facilitate the efficient tracking of assets is a significant factor that is expected to foster its adoption during the forecast period.

Nedap introduces high-end UHF RFID solution for vehicle identification

Nedap launches the uPASS Target. This high-end RFID reader offers long-range identification using the Rain RFID (UHF EPC Gen II) Standard. With the uPASS Target, Nedap further expands its leading UHF platform for long-range vehicle and people identification. During the Intersec exhibition in Dubai, from 17th – 19th January, the uPASS Target will be demonstrated to the market.

The introduction of the uPASS Target is Nedap’s reply to the growing demand for high performance UHF readers in applications where vehicles and other moving objects should be identified automatically using passive RFID tags. The new UHF RFID reader offers a read range of up to 10 meters (33 ft.) which makes it a solid solution for long-range identification of vehicles, people and rolling stock at industrial sites and logistic depots.


The uPASS Target identifies vehicles and drivers at a distance of up to 10 meters (33 ft.) and a travelling speed of up to 200 km/h (125 mph) by using passive UHF RFID technology (±900 MHz). Standard features include configurable 3 color LED indication, robust housing with modern design, support of common industry interfacing standards (IP, Serial, Wiegand), optional connection of second external antenna, read range limitation option, reader output formatting and easy installation. The circular polarized antenna offers orientation freedom when offering tags.

Columbia's Dental College Finds RFID Instrumental

When students attend the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM), they traditionally purchase their own dental instruments for use on patients at the school's dental clinic, and are responsible for ensuring that those tools are not lost. Instruments commonly used include mirrors, probes and explorers, each of which is approximately 6 inches in length, cylindrical and composed mostly of steel. Tracking such items has been a difficult task for students, however, as well as for the clinic, which cleans and sterilizes them. Lost tools must be replaced, something that is costly for both the facility and the students.

Fujitsu Launches UHF RFID Tags for Fashion Apparel and Accessories

Fujitsu Frontech North America Inc has announced that it has developed a new, low cost, Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) RFID tag suitable for fashion apparel, garments, and accessories. The new Fujitsu WT-A522L Fashion tag, which is about the size of a typical shirt collar stay, is virtually imperceptible when installed in the sheerest of garments. Fujitsu will be showing the new WT-A522L Fashion tag at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Annual 2016 Convention & Expo in booth number 3805 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, January 17-19, 2016.

Unlike most garment RFID tags, this new low cost washable tag is made from transparent materials and is virtually invisible when sewn into clothing or accessories. From fine silks and lace to sheer evening gowns, the new WT-A522L Fashion tag provides Fashion Designers and Retailers protection against counterfeiting and fraud. Fashion Apparel Rental enterprises will also benefit by providing precise tracking of rental garments and accessories at the item level, without having to individually read a bar code.

Designed for permanent installation into fashion apparel, suits, formal wear, jeans, shoes, handbags, and accessories, the washable WT-A522L can easily be sewn into hems, seams, or under manufacturer’s labels. Fujitsu will also offer an adhesive version of the tag for shoes, handbags, and accessories. Availability of the WT-A522L tag is targeted at the end of first quarter 2016.
 

Video shows how mobile network operator Econet is deploying NFC payments in Africa

Mobile money specialist Mahindra Comviva has produced a video that shows how NFC payments are being deployed in Africa by Zimbabwe-based carrier Econet Wireless. The film provides an overview of the mobile network operator’s EcoCash service and explains how it has been expanded since its launch as a peer-to-peer money transfer solution in 2011. Mahindra Comviva“Econet Wireless is altering the way financial transactions are performed in Zimbabwe by making EcoCash the primary way for people to transfer money and pay for goods and services,” Mahindra Comviva says.

Broadcom Rolls Out New NFC Controller for Mobile Payments

While much of the time, we’re concerned with the user-facing applications of mobile payments, we must remember to give thought to the underlying infrastructure that makes it all possible. Broadcom is driving this infrastructure forward in a big way with the release of a new near-field communications (NFC) controller specifically for the mobile payments field.

Marvell’s NFC controller enables tiny antennas for mobile, IoT, wearables

Marvell, a connectivity and semiconductor company, has launched its Near Field Communication (NFC) 88NF100 Controller with Active Load Modulation (ALM) to support the smallest antenna sizes critical to mobile, IoT, wearable and automotive applications. Adhering to the NFC Controller Interface (NCI) Technical Specification version 1.1, the 88NF100 provides an extended operating range and is extremely energy-efficient to enable extended battery life for power critical applications.

Brazil ranks low in IoT economic impact

Brazil ranks at the bottom of a list of several countries worldwide in terms of its ability to generate economic impact from technologies based on the Internet of Things (IoT) environment. The report by Accenture considered 20 nations globally and Brazil ranks 17th - only Italy, India and Russia performed worse when it comes to the ability to absorb IoT technologies for overall economic advancement. China and United States top the list.

Brazilian Coffee Cooperative Uses RFID to Manage Inventory

The Cooperativa dos Cafeicultores de Campos Gerais e Campo do Meio Ltda (Coopercam)—the Cooperative of Coffee Growers of Campos Gerais and Campo do Meio—is employing radio frequency identification technology to automatically manage its inventory of coffee beans. The cooperative, which is composed coffee growers, as well as producers of milk and other agricultural and livestock products, is located in Campos Gerais (near the southern tip of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais), a city with a high number of small farms and an annual production of 600,000 bags of coffee beans.

SmartCard Marketing Systems Inc. Announces Deal with Loyalty SuperStore

SmartCard Marketing Systems Inc announced a partnership with Loyalty SuperStore Inc (LSS) which will create a value added exchange of offers & incentives for real-time redemption such as promotions, rebates and rewards including a points offering that will be offered through the payment platform of SmartCard Marketing and the loyalty, added benefits and incentive B2B and B2B2C programs of Loyalty Superstore.  

In addition the partnership will also create an important leap forward as SmartCard Marketing through its pending acquisition of CT will bring a suite of new capabilities to LSS allowing it to grow through infrastructure of EMV Payments, NFC, Ecommerce & BIN routing for real-time redemption & reconciliation of transactions and will be offering the LSS Local Thanks platform to our 60,000 merchant processing base.

The partnership creates multiple levels of synergies that will benefit retailers and consumers in North America and opens a new stream of capabilities for Asian and worldwide markets which will be able to benefit from targeting travellers with the existing offers.

Bar-Code Readers Get Makeover to Spur Bustling Warehouses

Scanner guns—the bar-code readers used in warehouses world-wide—are getting a makeover, as retailers scramble to boost productivity amid a surge in online orders. The goal: shave a few precious seconds off the time it takes for workers to select, pack and ship items. Warehouse workers use scanners thousands of times a day. Retailers rely on the devices to keep track of hundreds of thousands of goods stored in, and moving around, massive distribution centers.

NEXT Biometrics Takes Aim At Smart Card Market

NEXT Biometrics has issued an update for the second half of 2015, looking ahead to the new year. In a letter to investors, company CEO Tore Etholm-Idsoe indicated that NEXT will be focusing on the smart card market in 2016, where there is a demand for cost-effective and reliable fingerprint sensors. The letter also detailed the H2 accomplishments of NEXT, which were also published in a press release which lists the following excerpted bullet points:

Looking beyond the Internet of Things

Imagine if almost everything — streets, car bumpers, doors, hydroelectric dams — had a tiny sensor. That is already happening through so-called Internet-of-Things projects run by big companies like General Electric and IBM. All those devices and sensors would also wirelessly connect to far-off data centres, where millions of computer servers manage and learn from all that information. Those servers would then send back commands to help whatever the sensors are connected to operate more effectively: A home automatically turns up the heat ahead of cold weather moving in, or streetlights behave differently when traffic gets bad. Or imagine an insurance company instantly resolving who has to pay for what an instant after a fender-bender because it has been automatically fed information about the accident.

What will the Internet of Things be when it grows up?

As IoT expands and evolves throughout what can seem like all elements of our lives, more and more devices flood the market. Last year, more than 900 companies showcased IoT-enabled technologies at CES, and that number is expected to grow significantly in 2016. In fact, given the promise and preponderance of connected devices, you could say all of CES showcases IoT technology.

We are just starting now to see the remarkable consumer benefits of IoT. The best examples of IoT-enabled devices improve efficiency, reduce costs and make better use of resources. Most importantly, they often solve issues real people like you and I actually face – in some cases long before we were able to identify the problem even existed.

Carwash celebrates sale of four millionth RFID tag

Tidal Wave Auto Spa, located in Peachtree City, Georgia, sold DRB Systems’ four millionth FastPass RFID Tag, according to a press release. Scott Blackstock, owner of Tidal Wave, attributes more than 20 percent of the wash’s customer growth to the monthly pass program, stated the release. DRB Systems introduced the FastPass Wireless Acceptance System in 2006, reported the release, which uses RFID technology to automate wash menu selections, payment options and reduce lengthy wait times for frequent, on-the-go customers.

Texas Direct Auto Use RFID to Manage Vehicles

Automotive seller Texas Direct Auto has boosted the throughput time of the 3,000 cars and trucks that pass through its facility each month by 30 percent, with the help of a radio frequency identification solution that tracks vehicles as they are received, maintained, test-driven, stored and permanently removed from the site by a buyer.

Coin Looks Beyond Smart Cards By Teaming With MasterCard

The future for Coin, a buzzy startup pushing a smart credit card that can store several cards simultaneously, is in finding another use for its technology, CEO Kanishk Parashar recently told Fortune. On Wednesday the company pushed ahead with that idea by announcing a partnership with MasterCard. The plan is to use Coin’s technology to make it easier for smaller companies building fitness trackers and other wearable devices to add payment services to their respective products

London startup develops NFC-enabled bitcoin mobile app

Plutus, a London-based startup, has announced the development of a new NFC-enabled mobile app that will enable users to send bitcoin payments to more than 32 million merchants worldwide, according to a press release. The company said the app will use the blockchain to enable users to convert bitcoin to fiat currency and then load those funds into a virtual debit account that can be used at stores with contactless payment systems.

Montreal tests transit mobile payments

Montreal's public transit network has begun testing Android-based NFC mobile payments on some of its buses and trains thanks to a partnership with Suretap, a wallet provider owned by the major wireless network operators in Canada. The Société de transport de Montréal will terst the new system with a few hundred employees.

How RFID Technology Improves Hospital Care

When redesigning the new and expanded emergency room at the Mayo Clinic’s Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, Mayo leaders didn’t just want to add more rooms and square feet. They saw it as an opportunity to completely transform the operation to improve care and the patient experience and to lower costs.

Chipped Credit Cards, ATMs and Life’s Other Mysteries

Since October 1, 2015, when you go into a store, sometimes you slide your credit card and sometimes you insert the card (called card dipping) and key in your Personal Identification Number (PIN) to process payment. Why the difference? All banks and financial institutions are slowly replacing all the credit and debit cards in your wallet with cards that have computer chips embedded in them. All credit card readers in retail locations (gas stations exempted) had to be able to read the chips by October 1, 2015

The Internet of Things is already here—just not the way you expected

2016 was supposed to be the Year of the Internet of Things. In fact, it was the third year in a row that was going to mark the arrival of the connected home, according to everyone from experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to industry leaders like Cisco. Despite missing the mark in 2013, and 2014, 2015 was for sure going to be when IoT took over, according to the hype generated at the Consumer Electronics Show that kicked off the year.

Bangladesh government extends deadline for installing RFID-tagged license plates

The deadline for installing license plates made of retro-reflective material with RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags on vehicles has been extended by three months. All vehicles will have to use license plates with RFID tags from Jan 1  A circular issued by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) said automobile owners will have to collect these plates issued for them by BRTA latest by Mar 31.