Danish bank group first to offer mobile payments with Dankort

Bokis, a collective of more than 60 Danish banks, has become the first organisation in the country to offer mobile payments using the national debit and credit card Dankort. The card is linked to the banking collective’s mobile wallet, which was launched in February. “We have an audience in the customers of Danish banks who are very used to contactless payments and digitalisation,” said Søren Nicolaisen, director at Bokis and the Association of Nationwide Banks. “[The mobile wallet] was the next natural step. If we are not doing it with the banks, then someone will else do it. We want to be frontrunners in this market.”

Fujitsu to Supply Boeing with RFID Technology to Manage Aircraft Components

Fujitsu Limited announced that it has signed a contract to supply The Boeing Company with FUJITSU RFID Integrated Labels, as part of a Boeing project to implement RFID technology that improves the efficiency of lifecycle management for aircraft components.

With this project, by attaching RFID labels to major aircraft components from the manufacturing stage for all aircraft, Boeing will be able to manage individual components, achieve accurate traceability, and raise the efficiency of its aircraft maintenance work.

Fujitsu RFID labels have a track record with major aircraft manufacturers, and Fujitsu continues to provide this robust technology as the de facto standard for RFID part marking in the aviation industry.

Boeing manages information about an aircraft's constituent components and provides airlines with a component list called an Aircraft Readiness Log (ARL) at time of delivery, as a delivered configuration. In order for an aircraft to safely operate for as long as thirty years, strict configuration management of components is necessary, but because this task previously had to be done by an employee visually checking and manually entering the data, it required a great deal of time.

In response to these issues, Boeing is moving forward on automatically generated ARLs by using RFID labels, and has now decided to deploy the labels to its manufacturing lines.

Orange to launch mobile-only bank with NFC payments and AI

Արշավիր

Mobile network operator Orange is to launch a mobile-only bank in France in July this year that will offer customers NFC mobile payments, P2P mobile transfers using SMS and an artificial intelligence-based virtual assistant that will eventually be able to complete tasks including making transfers and putting funds in savings. At launch, Orange Bank will also provide customers with a bank account, a debit card, overdraft protection and an interest-bearing savings account, with additional features including credit and insurance to be “gradually” included in the offering.

Will RFID Drones Take Your Job?

The industrial sector is getting in on the use of drones with parcel delivery services, testing the use of drones to save fuel costs and delivery time such as the recent successful test conducted by package carrier UPS. Inventory management and monitoring in the industrial space is also emerging in a way where RFID equipped drones are being used to reduce costs and time, as well as curb accidents and health hazards. “Using RFID tags in combination with drones is an idea that is already helping companies to make their inventory processes more efficient and effective,” says Dinesh Kithany, senior principal analyst for smart home and appliances at market research firm IHS Markit. “We could potentially see more demand for such uses in the future especially from very large corporations that have to deal, organize and operate very large warehouses and distribution centers.”

GoToTags Releases .NET SDK for NFC, Barcode Scanners and I/O Control

GoToTags announces the release of its commercial .NET SDK, enabling software developers to easily write their own Microsoft Windows based desktop applications using NFC, barcode scanners and input/output control systems. The .NET SDK was designed and tested with over 5 years of experience developing its own applications, including the GoToTags Windows App and GoToTags NFC Encoder software and Reel-Reel NFC Encoder hardware. The SDKs are easy to use and include code documentation and working example code to read and write NFC tags and scan barcodes with barcode scanners.

The .NET NFC SDK works with a variety of NFC readers and NFC tags; allowing developers to read and encode NFC tags with either NDEF or raw data formats along with reading the NFC chip’s UID, chip type (NTAG213, NTAG215..) and other properties. The .NET Barcode SDK works with barcodes scanners from Motorola, Zebra and Leuze and supports all popular 1D and 2D barcode formats including Code 128, UPC, Datamatrix and QR codes. The .NET I/O SDK works with the Velleman VM100N and is used to read and set digital and analog inputs, outputs and counters; allowing developers to easily integrate motor control systems, counters and other sensors and electronic devices.

Best Barcode Scanning Apps for iOS

There are a ton of barcode scanning apps for iOS out there. If you do not know what a barcode scanning app does, it basically will allow you to improve your life whether you are shopping or reading books at the library. You can tell a lot of information about a product by the barcode. These barcode apps help you because it gives you the ability to see more information about the product. Some of these barcode scanning apps will tell you nutrition information, while other apps will show you the reviews of products and prices at other stores that sell the product.

New solutions advance retail services and the health supply chain to give consumers trust in goods delivered

NXP Semiconductors recently unveiled new solutions to capitalize on the inherent security and interactive capabilities of NFC for advanced product authentication, integrity assurance and enhanced user engagement across consumer manufactured goods, healthcare, retail and other industries.

Fake products, improper product handling and counterfeit transactions are part of the daily challenges faced by major businesses and can destroy consumer confidence and trust in brands and services. NXP’s new devices that combat counterfeiting and tampering and work without a dedicated application, include:

•NTAG 413 DNA: The device enables cryptographic authentication with Secure Unique NFC (SUN), which generates a secure one-time authentication code each time the tag is tapped by an NFC-enabled mobile device. Brand manufacturers and other organizations can now use multi-layered security to enable a broad range of trusted services, such as advanced anti-counterfeiting, unique user experiences, protected monetary offers, verified physical tag presence and authenticated documents. 

•NTAG 213 Tag Tamper: The device features a digital signature and tamper-evident feature. Tamper-evident NFC tags can be placed on a product’s label, seal, closure or container, and information can be accessed with a simple tap of any mobile NFC device. In addition, brands can engage consumers with relevant messages prompted by real-time product status.


Additionally, NXP NTAG SmartSensor devices can be applied in solutions used to enhance patient and medicine adherence. Integrated in smart drug delivery devices — such as pill blisters, bottles, injection pens, inhalers or syringes — and combined with a smartphone application, SmartSensor devices provide patients and their caregivers with reminders and stimuli to alert them to follow their drug intake prescriptions.

RFID played essential role during Alberta wildfires, says Suncor VP

When last year’s ferocious Alberta wildfire threatened Suncor Energy’s oilsands upgrader near Fort McMurray, the rush to safely remove hundreds from the area provided a rare large-scale test of technology that can let companies know the location of every single worker. RFID played essential role during Alberta wildfires, says Suncor VP. The evacuation highlighted how radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology — long used to track products in warehouses, equipment in mines and even cattle in feedlots — is increasingly being used to monitor workers on big Canadian industrial sites.

How To Avoid Being Lost In The IoT Explosion

IoT is having a profound effect on business. 57 per cent of all global businesses have adopted IoT practices and 72 per cent of those believe their company is more profitable since embracing IoT. With this large scalability, however, comes the potential for catastrophe. More connected devices bring new business challenges around scale, interoperability, security and the management of devices and endpoints. Businesses need to think strategically about IoT adoption and not become caught up in the next wave of innovation. Any size organisation can benefit by connecting IoT to business processes – but, if a strategy is not in place, companies will find themselves throwing endless resources into connecting everything to the internet, rather than just those devices that are critical to their business. As a result, businesses may find themselves tangled in the web of connected devices and lost in the IoT explosion.

Compact Barcode Reader

Cognex Corp. has introduced the DataMan 70 series to its line of compact fixed-mount barcode readers. Its flexible configuration options and small size make it suitable for mounting in tight spaces on production lines and in machinery. It offers more advanced image formation to read even damaged or distorted label-based codes, and is designed with no moving parts.

Beacons in the Internet of Things (IoT)

Beacons are small devices that detect fine-tuned proximity within any beacon-enabled device, and they’re helping to make IoT applications work together harmoniously in the ecosystem of smart things. While the retail space has proven to be a good launch pad for beacon technology, in the long term this kind of technology-based engagement will drive consumers to use more modern, dynamic web applications, with push-notification capabilities driven by proximity technology. With beacon protocols (such as Apple’s iBeacon and Google’s Eddystone), developers can leverage a new technique to enhance their overall app experience, and discover new ways to influence how people interact with their surroundings.

Port to implement RFID control system

(WT-en) Ravikiran Rao

            

(WT-en) Ravikiran Rao

Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) has decided to implement radio frequency identification (RFID) based access control systems. M/S Keltron (Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation) has been awarded the project of implementing RFID in Visakhapatnam Port Trust for Rs 6.95 crore in seven years.

RFID microchip implants on humans will jeopardize their security

RFID microchip implants will become the thing of the future because there will come a time that every human being alive will have an implant. At present, microchip implants are voluntary but time will come that all humans will be forced to have implants in order to live. However, it will lead to total loss of security and privacy and eventually a loss of the chance to live eternally in the presence of the Almighty. The headline of a news carried by Express says “Mark Of The Beast: Secret plan to ‘implant us all with ID chips by 2017’. This has been considered as a conspiracy theory that all humans will have chips either on their right hands or foreheads for various reasons.

Complete Inspection Systems launches HD Barcode for determining the authenticity of printed packages

Complete Inspection Systems has developed HD Barcode, a security technology incorporated in the manufacturing process for instantly determining the authenticity of printed packages, materials or products.

When comparing methodologies for security, Complete Inspection Systems said HD Barcode has the ability to embed large amounts of data, including 50,000 times more than UPC Codes or 200 times more than QR codes, all contained within a small, configurable 2D barcode.

This can incorporate changing the barcode as required to indicate; the location and type of other variable covert data printed on the label or product; matching embedded code information to visible lot numbers or unique symbols; and where the product should be sold or distributed.

Demise of Softcard affected NFC SIM shipments in 2016

While the global NFC picture presents an expanding ecosystem, consumer uptake of SIM-based mobile payments has been lower in recent years than expected, according to a new report from the SIMalliance on 2016 global SIM shipments. The organization said that slow uptake of SIM-based mobile payments led to a contraction in NFC SIM shipments in 2016. In addition, the impact of the demise of Softcard in North America was still being felt in 2016.

How RFID is changing the experience of skiing and snowboarding

For decades, ski resorts have been behind the technology curve. The business of buying a ski pass and using the lift system at your favorite mountain was pretty old-school. Skiers and snowboarders know the drill: Pay for your lift ticket and get a small metal triangle, a piece of paper with a bar code and sticky backing on it, which you use to put the ticket on your jacket or ski pants. But now, with RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology, you can just place a credit card-sized pass in a pocket on your left side at upper arm height.

Medicines in Dubai to have distinct barcodes

Medicines dispensed by pharmacies at Dubai Health Authority (DHA) health centres and hospitals will now have barcodes to reduce the possibility of errors, a senior official said. Humaid Al Qutami, chairman of the board and director-general of DHA, said the barcode system provides comprehensive and intelligent solutions in the management of pharmaceuticals and drug dispensations, relying on the world’s most widely used barcode system, GS1 Standards, which is implemented by the majority of international companies and pharmaceutical companies

Wells Fargo to add NFC mobile withdrawals to ATMs later this year

Ken Teegardin

Customers of US bank Wells Fargo will be able to withdraw cash from ATMs using an NFC-based mobile payments service such as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay when the bank rolls out an upgrade across the US “later this year”. “When this feature is live, a customer will be able to initiate a transaction by signing into a leading mobile wallet — Wells Fargo Wallet, Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay — and holding the phone near an NFC-enabled ATM terminal,” Wells Fargo says.

UAE residents to use NFC for ‘a wide range’ of mobile payments services

Consumers across the United Arab Emirates will soon be able to make payments across a “variety of services” using their mobile phone and Empay, a common mobile payment platform based on NFC. The solution forms part of Dubai’s Smart Government Initiative which aims to transform Dubai into the world’s smartest city. The Empay service will incorporate a “number of service providers including commercial banks, government departments, exchange houses, retailers, educational institutions and transportation companies” into a common platform to allow consumers to pay for a variety of services with a tap of their mobile phone or wearable device.

New Research Highlights Critical Importance of RFID Technology to Ensure Inventory Accuracy and Enable Unified Commerce

Tyco Retail Solutions partnered with several industry groups to examine the value of RFID technology to help ensure inventory accuracy and enable store-level fulfillment. This new research validates the use of RFID to combat inventory distortion and increase inventory accuracy and visibility as the essential foundation for today's unified commerce.

IHL Group's study, Retail's Inventory Distortion Problem: Sizing it all up, spotlights the enormous global inventory distortion problem for retailers today. This combination of out-of-stocks (OOS) and overstocks is an estimated $1.1 trillion problem for the retail industry1. Because of this issue, retailers lack confidence in their availability to promise on-hand stock and, as a result, are cautious in leveraging all item quantities for online sales and store fulfillment options such as buy online, pick-up in store (BOPIS). The risk to the customer experience is too high and the average loss of 8.7% of total sales due to inaccuracy is too much.


The key to offering various fulfillment options is having visibility into the true real-time inventory in every store enabled through item-level RFID. Adopting this technology and regular cycle counting processes helps retailers to prevent inventory distortion and can increase inventory accuracy up to 99% and maintain it at 95-99%⁴. With enhanced inventory accuracy, the number of shoppers who can find the inventory they want can increase sales by 5% to 25%⁵.

Deutsche Bank rolls out mobile NFC payments for Android handsets

Thomas Wolf

In a first for cash-loving Germany, Deutsche Bank has added host card emulation-based contactless payments to its Android app. Customers with NFC-enabled Android handsets will be able to link their Mastercard debit or debit card and make contactless payments of up to EUR25 by unlocking their phones and holding them against a POS terminal. For larger payments, they will need to enter a PIN.

The rise of the IoT marketplace is under way

As companies seek to transform themselves with IoT technologies, they are confronted by an incredibly complex and diverse supplier market from which to build IoT solutions, according to ABI Research. To address this challenge, suppliers are leveraging ecosystem partnerships to provide end-users with a one-stop-shop portfolio of hardware, software, and services. These emerging IoT Marketplaces not only simplify IoT solution creation and adoption, but they also facilitate supplier and buyer interactions ultimately creating open networks that encourage innovation.

Growth of RFID because of IOT

RFID equipment revenue – transponders, readers, software and services – is expected to double to $22 billion by 2020! As an integral layer of the Internet of things (IOT), RFID has regained its space as an important and growing technology for the future. Nina Turner, a research manager at IDC, notes that while RFID failed to live up to its lofty initial expectations, "its future is far from hopeless".   Near field communications is another newer technology that is gaining traction as a last-mile information linking standard. NFC is a version of RFID that works in a more finely honed fashion with a maximum range of about 10 centimetres, and can be set up for one- or two-way communications.

Traffic management through RFID

After installing CCTV cameras on important roads under Islamabad Safe City project, government is firming up another project that will not only aid in security matters but also help address the issue of traffic snarls on the roads. Chairing a meeting on Thursday, Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan directed Islamabad traffic police to install Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) barriers at all entry and exit points by end of May. In many modern cities, RFID technology is being used to ensure smooth flow of traffic and avoid congestions. RFID tags in fact are wireless devices, using radio frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data, which are used for identifying and tracking objects. Each vehicle can be installed with an RFID tag.

RFID Brings Temperature Visibility to Pizza Chain

Mar Pizza, one of the largest business owners of Domino's Pizza franchises, is installing an Internet of Things system with ZigBee-based technology from Unified Office to manage temperatures at its approximately 70 restaurants. The system consists of wireless temperature sensors transmitting information to a hub at each site, and a cloud-based server on which the collected sensor data can be managed. The system is designed to enhance food-safety compliance and eliminate waste by improving food inventory management. In addition, Robert Scheiper, Mar Pizza's VP, says he expects the solution to reduce energy consumption.

The Battle For The Mobile Wallet

Deutsche Bank will this week begin letting customers pay with their MasterCard using an App and their Android smartphones, amid reports that Apple Pay is about to enter the market. If it does, it will engage in a power struggle with German banks for the greatest asset of the banks – contact to their customers. So far, Deutsche Bank’s mobile app only works with  Google’s operating system Android and the first step of its mobile payment service will only reach the 300,000 bank customers with a MasterCard, Handelsblatt has learnt.

ThingMagic Enhances The Sargas RAIN RFID Reader

ThingMagic, a JADAK brand, has just introduced enhancements to the ThingMagic Sargas 2-port UHF RFID Reader. The main enhancements add support for more RFID protocols, RAINstream application to add an easier integration to data and easier implementation of the reader into other existing eco-systems.

The ThingMagic Sargas RAIN readers will now support the AEI ATA, IP-X and ISO 18000-6B protocols along w the current support class 1 gen 2 protocol. The AEI (Automatic Equipment Identification) and ATA (American Trucking Association) protocols are normally used in the trucking and railroad verticals.

RAINstream is a licensable on-reader application for the Sargas reader that removes the middleware between the RFID reader and the backend system. “When you install the license key, users can write script software to obtain the tag data from the reader. Reader control is not required. The script to use is then stripped down to a half a dozen lines of code.” said Harinath Reddy, Director of RFID Innovation, at JADAK.

A real-life company is implanting microchips in employees

After a semi-painless injection between the thumb and index finger, a microchip is implanted in another employee. A cyborg is now created, and this human/machine mashup runs off to buy a smoothie using his or her new sub-dermal implant. If that sounds futuristic, it’s because we’re conditioned to this as a sort of science fiction trope: human gets implanted, its overlords are now in control. For a Swedish company, however, the practice of implanting microchips into its employees has become routine, popular even. At Epicenter, a Stockholm-based co-working space, employees and renters are eagerly lining up as volunteers to get the microchip implant. Its not mandatory, but over 150 people at Epicenter are already walking around with the implant

RFID Reader for Warehouse Tracking

The new version of Feig Electronics’ UHF Long Range Reader—the LRU1002—adds new capabilities, easier installation and integration with RAIN RFID and FEIG’s reader and antenna product family.

With a range of up to 40 feet, the UHF Long Range Reader is designed for systems where the reading distance and the number of tags read simultaneously are important, such as warehouse forklift/logistics tracking and automatic vehicle identification.

Fishers launches RFID research project

Fishers, the commercial laundry and textile rental business, has launched a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University of Strathclyde designed to help the company to capitalise on its innovative radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled bed linen and towels. The company plans to investigate what other applications the technology may have in the future. The two-year project is being co-funded by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Scottish Funding Council. The UK’s KTP programme is run by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

RFID Predicted As 'Killer App'

According to a new Juniper Research report, IoT in Retail: Strategies for Customer Experience, Engagement & Optimization 2017-2021, retailers will connect 12.5 Billion business assets, such as products, digital signs and Bluetooth beacons, to IoT platforms by 2021, rising from 2.7 Billion in 2016, representing a 350% increase. In addition, Juniper predicts that RFID (radio-frequency identification), will re-emerge as the industry’s ‘killer app,’ becoming the key factor in the IoT retail ecosystem, says the report. RFID tags, used to identify and locate retail assets in real-time, are now at a low enough price point for mass deployment.

Australian banks lose fight to gain access to NFC functionality in Apple iPhones

The group of Australian banks seeking stronger negotiating powers with Apple over the NFC technology within its iPhone handsets have been denied access to it by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on the grounds that the proposed conduct would “reduce or distort competition in a number of markets” and that the benefits are “outweighed by the detriments”. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Bank, National Australia Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank began their campaign to encourage Apple to open access to the NFC technology within its handsets in July 2016. The banks say they are “disappointed” with the ACCC’s ruling and will now “individually review and determine their future strategy for mobile wallets and mobile payments in order to best serve their customers”.

Dunkin’ Donuts customers get mobile ordering through Google’s navigation app

Customers of coffee chain Dunkin’ Donuts across the US can now place orders and complete a payment before leaving the house using their mobile phone and a new feature that has been added to Google-owned traffic and navigation app Waze. Dunkin’ Donuts is the first brand to make use of Waze’s Order Ahead function, which is set to be rolled out to more Waze brand advertisers in “the near future”.

General purpose sensor doesn't fit IoT

As more and more devices are getting connected day-by-day, carrier providers are finding it difficult to collect, process, and dispatch information from one device to another device because of the limitation of interoperability of general purpose sensor. That is creating a separate need of IoT processors. For instance, IoT processors in wearable devices do a lot of controlling, sensing, processing, storing, and interpreting information while consuming very little power area. This would not have possible had vendors of wearable devices such Apple Inc. and Xiaomi would have deployed general purpose processors in their devices.

Despite the big opportunity IoT market present for processor makers, some processor companies have hesitated to make significant investment in this sector. The greatest issue is that products within the IoT sector tend to appeal to niche market and generate relatively low sales volume. But in coming couple of years more semiconductor companies will invest in IoT processor market.

RFID Technology for Deepwater Drilling and Completions Challenges

Deepwater operators continually face technical and environmental challenges to drilling and completing wells safely and efficiently. To address these challenges, the industry has used radio-frequency-identification (RFID) technology to reduce risk, rig time, and nonproductive time and to perform operations that traditional tools cannot. RFID technology has been integrated into drilling and completions applications. One application of RFID technology is for drilling automation and drillpipe identification. RFID tags attached to drillpipe identify individual-joint dimensions, track inspection information, and allow inventory tracking. These tags can be used also to create an automatic pipe tally as drillpipe joints are run in hole past a reader located below the rotary.

Avery Dennison RFID Announces Partnership with Target

Avery Dennison has announced a global Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) partnership agreement with Target Corporation, as part of Target’s deployment of RFID technology to more than 1,600 stores to help maximize inventory availability and deliver an enhanced guest experience. This deployment is the largest of its kind.

Target is leveraging Avery Dennison's broad UHF RFID portfolio for a variety of category and performance needs, including apparel and a number of home products. In addition, Avery Dennison RFID tags have been seamlessly integrated with current trim products to optimize the branding of the garments being tagged.

“In the apparel industry, having an accurate picture of stock availability is an important driver for retailers to deliver an optimized omnichannel experience. We are honored to be selected by Target as a key business partner for this initiative,” said Bill Toney, vice president for RFID Market Development at Avery Dennison.

RFID technology uses radio waves to identify and track tags attached to objects and the tags can store information electronically. It is increasingly relied upon by retailers not only for supply chain activity, but also to create a seamless experience for apparel customers.

Avery Dennison, the world’s largest UHF RFID partner in the retail industry with more than 800 patents and applications, is driving much of that technology.

Valid Produces Prepaid Payment Bracelet

Valid, a global provider of customized secure solutions, has produced BPPTag payment wristbands, recently launched by Brasil Pré-Pagos (BPP) and Visa. The device works with Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID technology. The communication technology allows the secure exchange of proximity-encrypted data with a debit machine. In Brazil, there are approximately 2.8 million such machines that already offer this functionality.

RFID Brings Omnichannel to the Physical Store

Italian footwear retailer Store of the Future (SOTF) opened its new Florence shop in September 2016, with an EPC ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID-based system to bring more personalized service to customers as they try on shoes, while also enabling omnichannel sales. The solution, provided by systems integrator Temera, uses RFID technology from Keonn for smart fitting room technology and inventory management. Since the system was taken live, the retailer reports, the technology has helped define the store's image as a cutting-edge business, while also bringing visibility to its inventory