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Focus: RFID and Automated Identification and Data Collection (AIDC)

Feature Article from Our RFID and AIDC Subject Area - See All

 

From SCDigest's OnTarget e-Magazine

- Jan. 7, 2015 -

 

RFID News Round Up for Jan, 7, 2015

 

New GS1 Testing Standards, New Jeans Block "Digital Pickpocketing," Interesting New Flexible, Low Power Chip from Imec

 

SCDigest Editorial Staff

Here are our top RFID stories for the week of Jan. 7, 2015:

 

GS1 Releases New Guideline for RFID Performance Testing

As interest in RFID tagging continues to grow in retail, for the most part each retailer has been on its own in terms of how to conduct all important performance testing on various tag and reader combinations, both generally and for specific types of products. Retailers have been conducting their own testing, using their own unique test methodology to determine which inlays perform well in their store environments.

SCDigest Says:

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Imec says the chip operates at a supply voltage of just 0.55V while consuming only 2.5 micro watts of power. A commercial AAA battery could power the chip for more than 20 years.

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These individual test then result in the retailer producing an approved list of inlays, which are then shared with the supplier community. With no best practices or guidelines in place, these lists may vary from retailer to retailer, and put undue operational costs and constraints on the supplier community.

GS1 has recently stepped into this challenge with what it calls the Tagged-Item Performance Protocol (TIPP) Guideline, a series of documents that aim to providing a standard means to express performance requirements and a standard test protocol to verify the performance of a tagged item (not an inlay).

By specifying performance for tagged items (rather than tags, inlays, labels and such), that performance can be verified independently by retailers, suppliers or any 3rd party, GS1 says.

The TIPP Guideline includes the following four documents:

Tagged Item Grading Overview - provides an overview of the tagged-item grading guideline

Tagged Item Performance Protocol Grade Definition - defines the grade specifications

Tagged Item Performance Protocol Test Methodology - presents the test procedure and measurement methods to qualify or establish the grade for a tagged item

Tagged Item Performance Protocol Test Configuration - defines the orientation for various types of tagged items (which is critical for repeatable testing using the TIPP procedure)

They are available free of charge here: GS1 TIPP Guidelines

SCDigest will look at these new standards in more detail soon.

New Blue Jeans Block RFID Card Reads

There continues to be concerns about surreptitious reads of credit cards with embedded with RFID chips, a move the credit card industry is increasingly moving towards.

Several local television stations, for example, have shows on film just how easy it is for a bad guy to bring a handheld RFID reader close a person’s pocket or purse and quickly read all the detail from the RFID chip on the credit cards inside, giving them all the information needed to use those cards say to order items on line.


(RFID and AIDC Story Continued Below)

 

 
CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON

 
 


Several companies have released products designed to thwart this risk, such as metallic sleeves into which the credit cards can be placed that will block the reader's signals, or a metallically lined full wallet that will be the same thing.

So it should not be a surprise that some company has come up with a new approach, which involves blue jeans with pockets that will also block RFID reader signals.

Developed in a partnership between clothing designer Betabrand and security software company Norton, a new pair of men’s jeans, as well as a women's blazer, will include a liner of blocking material to prevent a trend the two companies are calling "digital pickpocketing."

The READY Active Jeans will include this material on both a front and back pocket, usually the spot where you would store credit or debit cards in a wallet. In addition, the Work-It Blazer for women will include one pocket lined with the blocking material.

But be prepared to spend a bit of dough to get this protection. The regular MSRP on the jeans is priced at $168 and the blazer is priced at $198. However, both can be funded at a discount on the Betabrand site.

 

New Low Power RFID Chip Can Last 20 Years on a AAA Battery


At the recent IEDM 2014 trade show in San Francisco, California, nanoelectronics research center imec demonstrated an ultra-low-power RFID transponder chip. Operating at sub one-volt level and constructed in thin-film transistor technology (TFTs) on plastic film, the company says the chip "paves the way for universal sensing applications, such as item level RFID tagging, body area networks (BAN) and environmental monitoring, that require prolonged remote autonomy, and ultimate thinness, flexibility, and robustness."

 

Well.

The company says the chip operates at a supply voltage of just 0.55V while consuming only 2.5 micro watts of power. A commercial AAA battery could power the chip for more than 20 years.


Moreover, because of its thin foil form factor, imec says the chip addresses the issue of cost and mechanical flexibility, thinness, and robustness. The chip can be embedded in security documents, smart packaging, disposable electronics, or textiles.

The chip is well positioned for Internet of Things applications, the company adds.


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