UCLA-WINMEC Demonstrates RFID

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October 18, 2005 (7:53 PM EDT)

By Laurie Sullivan , TechWeb Technology News

Radio frequency identification technology is being applied to a variety of applications from supply chain to inventory management to warehousing to asset management. The applications are finding their way into a variety of industries such as retail, entertainment and healthcare. Some applications are being developed by universities. And vendors are rolling out programs to keep deployment hassle free.

The Wireless Internet for the Mobile Enterprise Consortium at the University of California Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct. 26, will host an industry forum to discuss business applications and successes and failures. It also will demonstrate four of the 10 to 15 application projects in development at WINMEC, which is expanding its work with RFID to include sensor technology.

Those applications range from tracking cold and frozen foods through the supply chain to monitor temperature as the goods are in transit to tracking medical supplies at an undisclosed southern California hospital. "We are talking with two companies that are shipping cold foods about conducting collaborative projects with our lab to monitor temperature and humidity," said Rajit Gadh, professor of engineering and director of UCLA-WINMEC. "Many of these applications popping up are turning into pilots and prototypes very quickly."

Gadh, who calls the applications "research projects," said UCLA-WINMEC is working closely to understand the affects of temperature, humidity and vibration sensors when connected to a wide area wireless network. "Suppose you would like a record of exceptions stored in an RFID chip, or you would like information on temperatures sent back to your network in real time," he said. If the temperature in a supplier's truck transporting chicken to a grocery store's distribution center reached 50 degrees rather than maintaining a required 10 degrees, the RFID chip would record the change and alert the retail store when the shipment arrived. These are some of the applications being made possible with RFID technology.

The sensor application combines hardware and software technology, which makes it a little more complicated than previous projects, said Gadh. UCLA-WINMEC has been working on the project since last year. This increase in sophisticated systems is prompting companies such as Symbol Technologies Inc. to create programs that reduce deployment times and implement interoperable enterprise system for companies that want to embed RFID applications in their supply. Symbol on Tuesday launched the Solutions Validation Program and the SymbolPLUS Partner Program. Both are designed to validate third-party technologies with Symbol hardware.

Phil Lazo, vice president and general manger of RFID infrastructure at Symbol is among the scheduled speakers at the UCLA-WINMEC forum. Some of the other demonstrations will include a supply chain application that comes with systems for Packaging, Warehouse Check-in, Smart Shelf for Item Management and Point of Sale.

The Packaging System prepares tags, manages data on pallets, cases and items. Then writes the data onto pallet, case and item level tags, respectively. The Warehouse Check-in System reads all the information on pallet tag via WinRFID middleware send it into the enterprise database. The Smart Shelf for Item Management can verify the position of merchandise to keep them from being misplaced in a storeroom. The Point of Sale System serves as a self-checkout when products pass through a smart reader portal.

The library application can check in or check out up to seven books simultaneously. The Security Portal generates an alarm and sends message to a security guard when an un-deactivated tag passes through the portal by a library exit door. The Inventory system helps managers track, check and sort books and digital media using mobile reader. Key technology features include support for bar code technology, real-time event notification, and easy third-party hardware integration