Ruling Elite are Conditioning Us to Accept RFID Monitoring Devices, Electronic Money and Electronic IDs

IDTronic Announces New RFID-enabled Wristband

November 25, 2010

RFID Journal - IDTronic, an RFID hardware provider based in Germany, has introduced its Wristband Wrist Fit, an RFID-enabled wristband that fits like a watch and can be used, for example, as an access-control device at health clubs and leisure parks.

The Wristband Wrist Fit, like the company's other RFID-enabled wristbands, has a sealed electronic unit and is waterproof, but features new ABS housing with a transparent PVC inlay.

The wristband is available with a variety of low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) RFID inlays, including those made with NXP Semiconductors' Mifare chips, as well as those with chips from Legic Identsystems. IDTronic's products support all common standards, the company reports, including the ISO 15693 and ISO 14443 standards.

The Wristband Wrist Fit is available now with red, green, yellow, blue or black nylon bands; the standard housing is a black ABS material with a white face.

Columbia Taps Digital Angel for Cattle ID Program

November 30, 2010

RFID News - Digital Angel announced that through its subsidiary Destron Fearing it has been approved to supply RFID-equipped animal identification technology to support a government cattle identification program in Columbia.

Destron Fearing RFID tags and DTR4 handheld readers will be used to help SINIGAN, the government organization responsible for cattle identification in Columbia, track and identify the current population of approximately 30 million head of cattle. The initial order consists of 200,000 visual and electronic tags and a number of readers.

In February 2011, SINIGAN intends to begin operating a new cattle identification system, and farmers and breeders associations are expected to purchase identification tags and readers through ERAGRO LTDA, the Colombian distributor of Destron Fearing products.

Tagsys Develops Reusable RFID Contactless Loyalty Card That Customers Can Use as Permanent Boarding Pass, Identification and Baggage Tag

December 2, 2010

Business Wire - TAGSYS, the leading provider of item-level RFID infrastructure, today announced that Qantas, Australia's leading airline, has deployed an RFID reusable baggage tag using TAGSYS technology as part of its Next Generation airport check-in system.

“By expanding the value proposition of RFID from the point the customer checks their baggage and throughout the handling and sortation process, Qantas has positioned itself on the leading edge of RFID utilization.”

No longer will paper barcode labels need to be applied to passenger’s luggage. Now, with the Qantas electronic bag tag permanently attached to their bags, passengers will avoid long queues and enjoy rapid baggage drop at self check-in stations. Significantly improving baggage handling efficiency, while reducing the paper waste of disposable barcode labels, this highly innovative solution is both cost effective and customer service focused.

Qantas RFID reusable baggage tags can store details of up to four flights and can be reprogrammed for future flights. The RFID baggage tags are used to speed the baggage check-in process as well as allow more accurate baggage sorting and tracking.

TAGSYS and Qantas worked closely together to develop the UHF EPC Gen 2 compliant "Q Bag Tag". While Qantas knew that RFID could greatly improve its baggage check-in processes, the RFID tags currently available on the market did not meet its requirements.

TAGSYS was able to design a medallion-style RFID passive inlay with a small footprint and very high electronic reading and writing performance for all orientations of the bag tag. Based on the Impinj Monza 4 chip, the tag is encased in a distinctive custom-built plastic housing designed by Marc Newson and produced by creative product agency Buzz Products.

In collaboration with its partner Buzz Products, TAGSYS developed a very robust RFID inlay to meet the high reliability and long life necessary for the often challenging baggage handling environment.

Qantas has launched its innovative RFID based automated baggage handling system at its Sydney and Perth domestic terminals. This will be followed by deployments in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra in 2011. The Q Bag Tags are used in conjunction with contactless loyalty cards from ST Microelectronics that customers can use as a permanent boarding pass and to facilitate passenger identification at the automated self check-in baggage drop stations.

The use of RFID will not only help speed baggage check-in and loading, but staff will also be able to use hand-held RFID readers locate baggage quickly in the hold of an airplane if an item has to be offloaded.

"The Qantas Q Bag Tag represents a revolutionary approach to utilizing RFID in airline applications," says Alain Fanet, CEO of TAGSYS. "By expanding the value proposition of RFID from the point the customer checks their baggage and throughout the handling and sortation process, Qantas has positioned itself on the leading edge of RFID utilization."

The deployment of a permanent, RFID-based baggage tag is unique in the airline industry. Previous RFID-based baggage tracking solutions relied on wasteful, disposable tags, and focused exclusively on improving the efficiency and accuracy of baggage sortation after the check-in process. The Qantas solution, offers an environmentally friendly reusable tag, which improves the accuracy and speed of after check-in processes, while offering new customer service benefits at the front-end of the process as well.

The baggage tags have been being distributed to Qantas premium frequent flyers. Once the solution is fully deployed, Qantas hopes to eliminate paper baggage tags for all its frequent flyers.

Inside Contactless Unveils SecuRead Solution for NFC Mobile Devices

November 30, 2010

Pradeep's Point - INSIDE Contactless has unveiled SecuRead, a breakthrough NFC solution for the mobile handset market. This chip will be integrated into production handsets by mid-2011.

SecuRead is a complete, system-in-package (SIP) NFC solution that makes it simple for mobile device manufacturers and NFC infrastructure providers to integrate all of the contactless, security and application functions required for a broad range of contactless NFC payment, transit, ID and access control applications.

According to the company, SecuRead features INSIDE’s award-winning MicroRead NFC controller, a high-performance, highly secure SLE 97-family secure element from Infineon, a GlobalPlatform-compliant Java Card OS from Giesecke & Devrient and INSIDE’s Open NFC protocol stack to provide a best-of-breed solution that helps mobile device manufacturers bring rich NFC capabilities to market more quickly.

Loic Hamon, VP of products and marketing for NFC at INSIDE Contactless, said that 2011 will be the inflection point for NFC with over 50Mu devices. There are multiple committed handset ecosystems. Also, there are wireless carrier commitments, consortia, initiatives, etc. Android is now a major market driver – outselling the iPhone.

As for the regional situation, the US is witnessing mobile payment (embedded secure element). Korea is seeing a replacement of T-money (transport, payment, loyalty), UICC based. In Nice, France, there will be multi-carrier, multi-service, UICC-based, national rollout in 2011.

Ecosystem alignments are needed, and business models have to be proven. Also, NFC peripherals will contribute to market acceleration.

NXP Launches SmartMX2 Family of Secure Microcontrollers

December 2, 2010

Embedded System News.Com - NXP Semiconductors launched the SmartMX2™ – an all-new family of secure microcontrollers built on the groundbreaking IntegralSecurity™ architecture. The SmartMX2 is designed to provide unprecedented levels of security for multi-applications without compromising on convenience, performance or design productivity. With its flexibility and scalability, the SmartMX2 covers a wide range of applications such as eGovernment, banking, PayTV, mobile transactions, public transport, access management and device authentication.

The SmartMX2 removes much of the complexity associated with designing identification cards supporting multiple applications, while integrating the highest possible levels of security and performance.

The new SmartMX2 offers customers industry-leading performance and transactions times. According to a Dhrystone benchmark, SmartMX2 delivers CPU and crypto performance – on both contact and contactless interfaces – that is up to 5.7x faster than its highest performing SmartMX predecessor, while consuming less energy. Its unique family concept encompasses enhanced memory options for ROM, RAM, EEPROM and FLASH, utilizing the same architecture and interface options. SmartMX2 fully supports NXP’s MIFARE™ technology – including MIFARE DESFire™, MIFARE Plus™ and MIFARE Classic – which is now ubiquitous in access control and contactless transport deployments, including 650 cities in more than 60 major cities around the world.

Key features of the SmartMX2 include:

• IntegralSecurity architecture with more than 100 security features for attack protection, targeting CC EAL 6+
• High-performance SmartMX2 CPU with enhance 8- to 32-bit application instruction set
• Power-efficient, high-speed crypto coprocessors for RSA/ECC and DES/AES
• Optimized ISO/IEC 14443 interface including support for small antenna dimensions
• Supports MIFARE DESFire, MIFARE Plus, and MIFARE Classic for applications convergence