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
Dec. 6 , 2011
RFID and AIDC News: Dayton RFID Business Incubator Gaining Critical Mass
16 Supported Companies are Developing Breakthrough Technologies, Executive Director Brad Proctor Says; Many Large Companies Actively Involved in the Program
SCDigest Editorial Staff
An RFID technology "incubator" started in Dayton in 2009 is really beginning to gain critical mass, and shows the diversity of business opportunities based in RFID, according to executive director Brad Proctor.
SCDigest Says:
The Center really looks for unique intellectual property for a company that is accepted into the program, and that strategy has definitely hit the mark thus far.
The Dayton area has a rich auto ID heritage, going back to NCR and the Uniform Code Council (UCC) among others . The first live UPC bar code was scanned in a Marsh grocery store in Troy, OH north of Dayton using an NCR point of sale system in 1974, and for many years the UCC was headquartered in Dayton before later moving to New Jersey (the UCC is now GS1, but still has a strong presence in Dayton)
Monarch Marking Systems (now part of Avery) and Standard Register were also early bar code pioneers in the Daytom area , and the Wright Patterson Airforce Base nearby is a key center for the US Dept. of Defense's RFID programs. Alien Technology has its RFID lab in south Dayton.
Therefore, it was not surprising when the Dayton Development Corporation and other organizations provided funding to stand up the RFID Convergence
Center in downtown Dayton.
In a recent video interview with SCDigest Editor Dan Gilmore, Proctor said "We are a business incubator that concentrates on only one technology, which is radio frequency identification."
He said that in the two years the Convergence Center has been open, it has "stood up" 16 RFID-based companies, most in the Dayton center but a few outside the area. He said one start up has just moved itself from the Florida area to the Dayton facility.
Proctor said that in this mode, the Dayton RFID Convergence Center "helps these companies with their business underpinnings, while they focus on the technology.We're having some great successes already."
But the incubator isn't just connected to small RFID start ups. Many very large companies are involved in helping to guide the Center's misson and understanding how the technology being developed at the incubator might help them.
"We're looked at as a farm team for these large companies," Proctor said. He noted that members of the Center's advisory board include Procter & Gamble, Lexmark, Avery Dennison, Computer Sciences, Alien Technology, and Texas Instruments.
Interview with Dayton RFID Convergence Center
Executive Director Brad Proctor
(RFID and AIDC Story Continued Below)
CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON
"These companies know globally where the RFID movement is going, but they don't really know where the RFID entrepreneur market is headed," Proctor said. "By identifying potential suppliers of RFID technology, that's where we added a lot of value to these large corporations."
Proctor also noted that facilitating collaboration among the start up companies is another powerful benefit of the
Center.
He added that the Center really looks for unique intellectual property for a company that is accepted into the program, and that strategy has definitely hit the mark thus far.
He noted thst one of the Center's start ups has technology that can provide an X, Y, and Z coordinate for both passive and active RFID tag technologies at the same time, which he called "very groundbreaking technology."
Proctor said another company in the Convergence Center was the first to develop technology that would identify assets on the ground so that aircraft and drones can do even more precision bombing.
Even with 16 companies - 13 in Dayton, three outside the area - Proctor said the the Center is looking for more members and has opened up the second floor of its Dayton facility. The Center provides member companies with a variety of services, on-going networking opportunities and access to business planning and other experts, as well as potential financing options.
There is a formal application process, but Proctor says a decision on acceptance will be delivered within a month.
"These companies know globally where the RFID movement is going, but they don't really know where the RFID entrepreneur market is headed," Proctor said. "By identifying potential suppliers of RFID technology, that's where we added a lot of value to these large corporations."