software savvy an online community for rfid software … · handheld, fixed or robot readers?; ble...
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www.rfidjournal.com July/August 2015
DEDICATED TO RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIF ICATION AND ITS BUSINESS APPLICATIONS
• VERTICAL FOCUS: SPORTSReal-Time Performance Stats PAGE 20
• PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTSEmbedded RFID Readers Enable Next-Generation Solutions PAGE 30
• SOFTWARE SAVVYAn Online Community For RFID Software Developers PAGE 43
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EXHIBITORS
contents
features
departments
5 Editor’s Note Making big data a big deal.
6 Out in Front RFID for reading people’s
reactions; the Internet of clothing; fashioning the future.
8 Perspective Handheld, fixed or robot readers?;
BLE beacons for business.
columns
38 Tuned In Try it—you’ll like it.
By Bill Hardgrave
41 Health Beat Total cost of RTLS ownership. By Ygal Bendavid and Harold Boeck
43 Software Savvy An online community for RFID
software developers.By Ken Traub
EDITORIAL
mark roberti, [email protected]
andrea Linne, executive editor/[email protected]
paul prince, executive editor/[email protected]
John hull, creative director [email protected]
rich handley, managing [email protected]
Beth Bacheldor, senior [email protected]
claire swedberg, senior [email protected]
edson perin, Brasil [email protected]
sam greengard, contributing [email protected]
Bob Violino, contributing [email protected]
rhea Wessel, contributing Writer/[email protected]
Jennifer Zaino, contributing Writer [email protected]
INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL
mary catherine o’connor, editor [email protected]
RFID JOURNAL EVENTS
kimberly a. ray, Vp of [email protected]
cheryl Johnsonsenior director of events [email protected]
debbie hughes senior editorial director of [email protected]
deborah Lamberteditorial coordinator of [email protected]
SALES
alan mcIntosh, senior director of [email protected]
matt singer, senior director of [email protected]
SUBSCRIPTIONS
ARTICLE REPRINTS
RFID JOURNAL LLC
editorial office:po Box 5874hauppauge, nY 11788
mark roberti, chief executive [email protected]
kathleen knocker, director of finance [email protected]
sonja Valenta, Vp of [email protected]
Quedah Locket, marketing [email protected]
Lydia sum, administrative [email protected]
contents © 2015 rfId Journal LLc
Vol. 12, no. 4 July/august 2015
C O V E R S T O R Y
12 Big Data Now is the time to devise a plan to
store all the RFID data you’recollecting and a strategy to use it—incombination with otherinformation—to gain new insightsthat could transform your businessand provide a competitive advantage.
By Samuel Greengard
V E R T I C A L F O C U S
20 RFID’s Sporting Life Capturing performance data in real
time helps athletes improve theirgame—and coaches and federationsdetermine which players to back.
By Jennifer Zaino
P R O D U C T D E V E L O P M E N T S
30 What You Need to Know AboutEmbedded RFID Readers
These small modules providethe performance of full-sizereaders and can be used to createnext-generation solutions.By Bob Violino
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RFID Journal • July/August 20152
tune in onlineMost-Read Stories in July
• What Are the Leading RFID Companies?
• NSA Offers Block Ciphers to Help Secure RFID Transmissions
• Thinfilm, G World Introduce SmartWine Bottle Solution
• One Small Retailer Abandons RFID
• U.K. Hospital Pilots RFID for Bed andHoist Tracking
Top 10 Search TermsOn RFIDJournal.com
1 Sensors
2 Library
3 Read distance
4 Tenders
5 Beacon
6 NFC
7 Standards
8 Construction
9 Disney
10 Drone
www.rfidjournal.com
The Inside Scoop What are end users sayingbehind the scenes? Whyshould the RFID communitybe optimistic about the industry? Who’s spreadingmisinformation? Get insightand perspective at the RFID Journal Blog.
Ideas Exchange RFID Journal maintains an Ask the Experts forum,where you can submit questions about RFIDtechnology and its applica-tions. Your questions will beanswered by RFID Journaleditors or outside experts.Recent questions include:
• Can passive RFID transpon-ders encrypt data?
• Can I use RFID in the presence of metal?
• How does an RFID readerdifferentiate from among alarge group of tags?
• Are any UHF RFID tags especially designed fortracking logs in the forestindustry?
• How can we track tractors?
• Where can I find a forkliftRFID reader?
“
“
Find New Business OpportunitiesRFID providers now have a source where they can findcompanies worldwide that are actively seeking to deploythe technology. RFID Requests for Proposals is updatedregularly, with new RFPs from companies in diverse industries. Each RFP includes detailed information, contacts and submission deadlines.
Coming Soon to RFIDJournal.comThese live interactive programs offer a con venient way to learn why and howcompanies are using RFID to improve theway they do business. Presenters will answer your questions. If you miss an
event, check our archive for on-demand viewing.RFID for Warehouse & Inventory Management, Sept. 23
Find products that can help youdeploy RFID successfully, such asJuniper Systems’ Mesa RuggedNotepad, an RFID handheldcomputer for data collection. Itfeatures a large screen, finger-friendly keyboard, GPS, camera andbattery that lasts up to 16 hours. It’sdesigned to survive in enegy andother harsh environments.
POLL RESULTS
Cast your vote. Each week, RFID Journal takesthe pulse of the RFID community. See what other peopleare thinking—and make your opinion count.
Deploymentcosts would betoo prohibitive,given our size:
20%
We’re not a largefirm, but RFID hasproven to be agreat fit:25%
Do you consider yourcompany too small for RFID?
We’re stillweighing thebenefits againstthe expense:
55%
THE NEW WEBSITE IS DEVOTED TO COVERING INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGIES, AND FEATURES THE SAME HIGH-QUALITY
EDITORIAL COVERAGE AS RFID JOURNAL.
IoT technologies are being adopted in a wide variety of areas, including:
IOT Journal is the place to turn to understand how Internet of Thingstechnologies are being utilized, and how you can take advantage of themas well. The site’s content includes in-depth feature stories, case studies,
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5RFID Journal • July/August 2015
editor’s note
Big data has been a popular buzzword for sev-eral years now. Most companies collect a lot ofinformation from point-of-sale terminals,manufacturing or other existing systems, andsome have applied data analytics to glean newinsights into their business. But for the mostpart, big data has been more of a goal thansomething companies can point to as a con-
tributor to the bottom line.That is beginning to
change as more companiesin myriad industries em-brace RFID. The technologyis typically deployed as atool to track and manageinventory or assets, butcompanies quickly realizeRFID provides visibilityinto the what, when, whereand why of critical businessprocesses. This insight enables organizations toboost operational efficien-cies and productivity, whilereducing costs and improv-ing customer service.
Mercy health system,for example, has been
using an active RFID-based real-time locationsystem to monitor mobile medical equipment.As our cover story in this issue reveals, Mercy is now exploring how to overlay RFIDdata with other data sources—patient treat-ment information, electronic health recorddata, mortality rate statistics and more—to improve service delivery, medical treatmentcapabilities and overall performance.
“It’s one thing to display a map of the floorand know where all your equipment is,” saysScott Richert, Mercy’s VP of infrastructure. “It’s another thing to understand how to buyequipment, when to maintain and replace it,and where it needs to be located to produce
the best treatment and results.” The professional sports industry has always
focused a great deal on data. Baseball, for instance, has long relied on the traditionalstats of batting average, home runs and runsbatted in, and many general managers now review players’ wins above replacement, on-base plus slugging percentages and de-fense-independent earned run averages. Infootball, hockey, soccer and other sports, it’snot as easy to collect data on player perform-ance, so it’s no surprise that these franchiseshave picked up on RFID’s ability to preciselytrack an athlete’s movements and providefeedback on a player’s performance.
The Montreal Canadiens hockey team isusing an RFID solution to track its players asthey train, to determine what aspects of theirgame need improvement. The system capturesa wealth of data in real time. Coaches can viewthe information on a laptop during a practice orgame, or save it for post-session analysis. Thequantified data provides them with insightsinto risk (understanding when an athlete isbeing overworked and at a greater chance of sustaining a soft-tissue injury); readiness for competition (objectively knowing howphysically prepared an athlete is for a game or training); and return to play (when an injuredathlete can return to competition).
There’s no doubt big data is a big deal andwill continue to be in most industries—infor-mation drives businesses. But until companiesembrace RFID, they will not have visibility into what’s happening within their own organizations, which will hamper their abilityto respond to any insight big data supplies.
Making Big Data a Big Deal
Mark Roberti, Founder and EditorPHOTO
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RFID Journal • July/August 20156
radio frequency identification is often seen as a way totake people out of the loop and allow objects to communicatedirectly with IT systems. Disney Research, a part of The WaltDisney Company focused on scientific and technical innova-tion, has developed a low-cost, unobtrusive way to employRFID to determine how people useand interact with daily objects. Thesystem, IDSense, could enable newtypes of interactive play, smarthomes and work environments,and methods for studying con-sumer shopping habits.Alanson Sample, who worked
at Intel Labs, where he exploredRFID’s role in monitoring human-computer interactions, led theproject. “When I joined DisneyResearch, I wanted to revisit RFID sensing and human-objectinteraction in a more scalablemanner using off-the-shelf, passive ultrahigh-frequency RFIDtags,” Sample says. “The latestgeneration of UHF RFID readersreport tag channel parameters,such as received signal strengthindicator [RSSI], radio frequencyphase and Doppler shift. I realizedthese offer a unique snapshot ofthe RF environment of each indi-vidual tag. By monitoring changes in these tag parameters asa function of time, and using machine learning techniques,we are able to identify basic human-object interactions.”RSSI is a measurement of signal power received by the
reader antenna and is affected predominantly by the dis-tance between the tag and the reader. RF phase—the anglebetween the carrier signal emitted by the RFID reader andthe return signal from the tag—is sensitive to small changesin distance. The Doppler shift is a radio frequency shiftcaused by the speed of a moving object.Using these parameters, Sample, his colleague Can Ye, and
Hanchuan Li, a doctoral student in computer science andengineering at the University of Washington, were able tosimultaneously track 20 objects in a room and infer four classes of movements with 93 percent accuracy. They couldtell, for example, whether an object was still or being rotated
or moved, or whether the tag on theobject was covered, indicating theobject was being held, or swipedwith a finger. The Disney team demonstrated
how IDSense could enable aninteractive storytelling game—rocking or petting RFID-taggedstuffed toys triggered actions bydigital characters. In other demon-strations, the researchers usedIDSense to monitor 10 commonlyused household items—includinga drinking glass, a milk containerand a cereal box—to show how thesystem could be used to gatherinformation about daily livingactivities, and how it could aid instudying the browsing behavior ofconsumers in a retail store. Sample believes employing
radio channel parameter informa-tion to infer how people use tech-nology and interact with theirenvironments has a wide range of
potential applications. “There’s more than just object-inter-action detection,” he says. “Understanding the state of anobject or infrastructure in a battery-free, low-cost way isreally interesting.”Other possible applications include determining seat
occupancy and improving security by monitoring the opening and closing of windows and doors. In a video on theDisney Research website, a man sitting on a couch turns onthe lights by swiping the tag on a book. Sample says Disney is exploring ways to commercialize the IDSense system.—Mark Roberti P
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RFID for Reading People’s ReactionsDisney Research has developed a way to use passive UHF tags to determine howpeople interact with objects.
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The Internet of ClothingU.K. researchers have developed a low-cost antenna that performs about as well asmetal ones used in today’s RFID tags.
researchers at the u.k.’s Nottingham TrentUniversity have invented a method of embed-ding radio frequency identification tags intoyarn, which can then be woven or knitted tomake fabric for clothing. “The technology willlead to the integration of electronic textiles into the Internet of Things and, ultimately,clothing-based wearable computing,” saysTilak Dias, a professor at the university’sAdvanced Textiles Research Group of the
School of Art & Design, who heads the team.“Clothing and other textile products will be ableto sense, monitor and record changes in theirsurroundings and respond appropriately.” The team used NXP Ucode G2XM RFID
chips (other chips could be used as well) andintegrated short, thin copper strands attachedto either side of each chip into the yarn fibersto act as an antenna. The chip and antenna areinvisible to the naked eye. The chips aresealed in resin micropods within yarns, so thesmart fabrics can be run through washingmachines and tumble driers without beingdamaged. The technology would add only afew cents to the cost of an apparel item. Morethan one transponder can be added toincrease a garment’s identifiability.Dias sees potential applications in the
retail industry, which could use transpondersin clothing for supply-chain tracking and in-
store theft reduction. Unlike electronic articlesurveillance (EAS) tags and conventional RFIDtransponders, which thieves can remove,embedded tags would be impossible to find. This technology also might have applica-
tions in sports and health care. Tiny sensorsattached to RFID transponders could provideconstant data on a person’s heartbeat, tem-perature, perspiration and so on. “In additionto clothing, sensors in textile-based compos-
ites could provide lifetime monitoring ofstructures in the automotive and aerospaceindustries,” Dias says.Privacy, Dias adds, will not be an issue,
because the tags contain only a serial numberand users can set them to be read at relativelyshort range. The research was supported bySustainable Society Network+. Dias declinedto say if any clothing manufacturers havebeen involved in the research, citing confi-dentiality agreements. The team has secured a patent on elec-
tronically active yarns. The researchers arenow developing a prototype productionmachine to make smart fabrics, and they areseeking potential partners to help commer-cialize the technology. Dias believes smartfabrics will be used in myriad ways, just asRFID and the Internet of Things has spawnedwidespread innovation. —M.R.
7RFID Journal • July/August 2015
Global women’sclothing market in 2013:
$638.1Predicted globalwomen’s clothingmarket by 2018:
$773Global men’s clothingmarket in 2013:
$423.2 Predicted global men’sclothing market by2018:
$571.8Global children’sclothing market in 2013:
$216.2 Predicted globalchildren’s clothingmarket by 2018:
$291.5
—Rich Handley
The chips (shown here at size relative to a pin) are small enough to be integrated into the yarn fibers of a garment.
Fashioning the Future(US$ billions)
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RFID Journal • July/August 20158
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T H E S T O R Y B E H I N D T H E N E W Sperspective
In the early days of radio frequency identification, mostpeople believed the technology would be used to takehumans out of the loop—that is, fixed readers would captureinformation on tagged products or assets without any worker involvement. But retailers found that handheld readers offered a relatively easy and inexpensive way to collect inventory data. Now, overhead readers and newrobotic systems are offering other ways to collect data.
Here are the pros and cons of the three RFID readeroptions for retailers.
Handheld readersHandhelds are relatively inexpensive compared with fixedreaders, which require an Ethernet connection and electricpower if power is not supplied via the Ethernet cable. That
means wiring and potentially interrupting store operations.Depending on reader type and store size, dozens of fixedreaders could be required. Store associates could cover thesame ground with one or two handhelds.
The downside of handheld readers is they require labor—companies must pay people to walk around and take inventory. Another problem is workers don’t always followprocedures. When a store gets busy, workers may not havetime to conduct cycle counts, so items may not be replen-ished in a timely manner and inventory may not be consis-tently accurate. In very large stores, it is particularly difficultto manage workers taking inventory with handhelds.
Fixed overhead and portal readersThe first RFID deployments in retail stores depended on
Handheld,Fixedor RoboticReaders?
R E T A I L
The retail industry ponders the most efficient way tocollect RFID inventory data.
The DOD now hasmore than 4,000 sup-pliers tagging ship-ments.
9RFID Journal • July/August 2015
fixed readers—mainly, portals were installedat receiving bays, and between the back ofthe store, where inventory was kept, and thesales floor. In the past few years, Mojix,Impinj and other RFID hardware companieshave introduced overhead readers, which canmonitor inventory in real time and providelocation information, usually to within a fewfeet. With real-time inventory, retailers canalways know what merchandise is on thesales floor and where. In addition, they canuse kiosks to let customers search for prod-ucts and locate those items on a store map.
But, as mentioned above, fixed readerscan be expensive to buy and install, becausethey require cables for Ethernet connectionsand power. In addition, they need cabling torun to antennas. Fixed readers also candetract from a store’s décor, though someoverhead readers can be installed in ceilingsand vendors have introduced slim-lineantennas that are less obtrusive.
Robotic RFID systemsRobots are the newest option for retailersseeking to capture inventory data. Tescoannounced in June it is trialing an indoorrobotics mapping and analytics system inthe fashion departments of five of its U.K.stores. The solution is from Silicon Valleycompany RFspot, which reports that sixother retailers globally are carrying out similar pilots.
The RFspot robots roam through eachstore’s clothing department. Onboard RFIDreaders perform inventory counts by readingeach garment’s passive ultrahigh-frequencyEPC Gen 2 tag, much the way an employeewould with a handheld. The RFspot robot isfitted with multiple antenna arrays to enabletags to be read from six inches to 12 feetabove the floor. RFspot says the robot isseven times faster than a human using ahandheld.
While robots have some clear advantagesover store associates when it comes to con-ducting inventory, they also have some dis-
advantages. One is cost. Another is having aclunky machine roaming the aisles whilepeople are shopping. Some retailers mightprefer to use robots at night, when stores areclosed. This would mean updating inventoryonly after hours or having employees takeinventory during working hours. Also, theinventory accuracy of robotic data collectionis not yet clear. Tesco and others are aimingto determine more about these factors fromthe robotics trial.
Retailers deploying RFID systems havebeen debating which approach will win out.Long-term, RFID Journal believes a fixedRFID infrastructure will likely become anintegral part of store systems, hidden fromview but constantly monitoring inventory inreal time. Lower infrastructure costs, theability to add readers during renovations ornew construction, and improvements in thetechnology will all contribute to this trend.
But during the next five years, and per-haps much longer, retailers will use hand-helds and robotic solutions. Handhelds are a good option for smaller stores, where asingle associate can update inventory onceor twice a day in less than an hour. The costof paying a store associate for an hour willlikely remain lower than the cost of settingup a fixed infrastructure.
In larger stores, with tens of thousands oftagged items, handhelds will consume toomuch time and labor to be practical.Retailers will opt for robots or fixed infra-structure, or perhaps a combination of thetwo. They might use overhead fixed readersto continuously monitor areas of the storethat generate the most profit, while usingrobots to inventory other areas eachevening.
The bottom line is that today there is noone right choice for all retailers. Each company should explore all three optionsand determine which will be most cost-effective, while considering the best long-term data-capture strategy to meet itsneeds. —Mark Roberti
RFID Journalbelieves a fixedRFID infrastructurewill likely becomean integral part ofstore systems,hidden from viewbut constantlymonitoringinventory in realtime.
RFID Journal • July/August 201510
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perspective
apple Introduced the iBeacon protocol in 2013 as a way forBluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) devices to transmit locationinformation to a Bluetooth-enabled device, such as a smart-phone or tablet. While Bluetooth usually requires pairing,iBeacons could communicate with any device and trigger anaction, such as sending a message or launching a browser.
BLE beacons, which function as active RFID tags that trans-mit a unique ID at regular intervals at 2.4 GHz, were quicklypicked up by retailers to send location-based messages to con-sumers. A beacon in the men’s section of a department store,for example, could trigger a message about a sale on men’ssuits or sports coats (see Macy’s Tests Shopkick’s ShopBeaconat New York, San Francisco Stores). Museums use them to trigger contextual information in smartphone applications aspeople view exhibits (see Welsh Museums Deliver ExtraContent Via Bluetooth Beacons). Sports franchises and arenashave adopted the technology to trigger video content, promotional offers and other information at sporting venues
(see Cleveland Cavaliers Use Beacons to Provide InteractiveTeam Experience).
Now, BLE is making inroads into purely business applica-tions. Palm Beach Aggregates, a Florida mining company,processes roughly 2 million tons of crushed limestone, sandand other materials for use in asphalt, cement and concreteproducts, and as base materials for building foundationsand roads. On any given day, 100 to 150 trucks arrive at its facility to pick up one of approximately 20 different products, loaded in quantities specific to each vehicle’sweight limits, and destined for a variety of customers.
Until recently, the company used manual processes,which were error-prone. Trucks queued up at the loadingarea for the appropriate material and waited to receive it.Loaders used the weight limit printed on the side of eachtruck as a guide to indicate how much to load. The truckswere weighed as they exited the facility. Sometimes thewrong product, or too much or too little material, was
BLE Beacons for BusinessOnce used solely for consumer applications, Bluetooth Low-Energy beacons are finding uses in purely business settings.
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loaded onto a truck. If the amount of material was excessive,the driver had to go to a dumping area to discharge the surplus. Since government regulations, in many cases,restrict the use of the excess material, a single error oftencost the company hundreds of dollars.
Now, a Bluetooth beacon is mounted on each truck’swindshield. Upon arrival at the quarry, a driver reports to thescale house, where the truck is weighed. At that location, adispatcher with an Android-based tablet receives the IDtransmitted by the vehicle’s beacon and sends that ID to acloud-based software application. The dispatcher enters theempty truck’s weight into the software, which schedules thetruck for loading. Loaders also have BLE-enabled tablets andget information on what materials—and how much—shouldbe loaded onto a specific truck.
The Port of Aalborg, in North Jutland, Denmark, is usingBLE technology to improve traffic management, enabling itto know where vehicles are located in real time and how fastthey are moving. The port uses BLE to capture data in realtime, and then disseminates that information to drivers,prompting them, when necessary, to select alternate routes
to reduce congestion (see Sensors Track Traffic Congestionat Port of Aalborg).
TimeForge, a provider of online labor-management soft-ware, has introduced a solution that leverages BLE beaconsto help companies view where their personnel and keyassets are and have been (see TimeForge Intros Beacon-based Solution for Managing Staff, Assets). And EmanateWireless has built Bluetooth into its active RFID tags, so theycan communicate with tablets and smartphones.
The big benefit for BLE in business applications is similarto the benefit in consumer applications—beacons can com-municate with almost all tablets and smartphones. Thisreduces infrastructure cost. An active RFID system wouldhave cost Palm Beach Aggregate far more, for example,because the company would have had to install active RFIDreaders around its facilities. And it would have had to purchase seat licenses for the software to locate tagged vehicles on its premises.
BLE is not a replacement for all active RFID solutions, but it is an option companies should consider for purelybusiness—as well as consumer—applications. —M.R.
cover story
BIG DATA
cover story
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ig data. It’s a popular termcharacterized by the threeVs: the volume, varietyand velocity at which
companies collect data thatflows from traditional data-
bases, financial transac-tions, weather patterns,point-of-sale (POS) ter-minals, beacons, sen-sors, clickstreams, social
media, log files and myriad other sources. Now
it’s time to add radio frequencyidentification data to the mix, as organizations track andmanage assets, inventory, tools and other things and peoplein real or near-real time—across supply chains and withinfactories, stores, hospitals, construction sites, stadiums andother venues.
Already, companies that have deployed RFID solutions arecollecting accurate data automatically. They are dramaticallyreducing—if not eliminating—errors that result from manual tracking, including the use of bar codes. These organizations have gained visibility into the what, when,where and why of business processes, so they can turn a basictracking tool into a business-intelligence tool and even a pre-dictive analytics solution that can help them understandevents and boost operational efficiencies and productivitywhile reducing costs and improving customer service.
Yet, beyond the return on investment that accrues from in-dividual RFID deployments lies far greater business value.The ability to plug in and connect RFID data to other datasources for analysis can determine whether a company windsup on the leading edge and achieves a competitive advantageor lags behind. “Big data creates opportunities that can rede-
fine and reinvent an organization,” says Scott Schlesinger,data and information management leader for the Americasat EY IT Advisory.
Consider, for example, a food manufacturer or pharma-ceutical firm that is RFID-tagging perishable goods and tracking them through the supply chain. If the product ismonitored with a temperature sensor, the company can alsoreceive alerts if the item is exposed to conditions that fall out-side acceptable parameters. If that RFID data is also combinedwith historical sales data, weather data, POS data and social-media data, both the manufacturer and logistics provider canget a broader and deeper understanding of demand and consumption patterns and use this information to optimizeproduction and shipments, Schlesinger says.
Similarly, big data can revolutionize interactions with cus-tomers. A department store retailer, for example, could useRFID to track shipments and products at an item level, POSdata to monitor demand and social media sentiment data tounderstand consumer preferences. By combining this data,it’s possible to gain a holistic view of the marketplace. It’s alsopossible to use beacons for real-time, highly customized promotions, says Bill Hardgrave, dean of the Harbert Collegeof Business at Auburn University and founder of the RFIDLab. “A business is able to adopt an omnichannel and highlypersonalized approach that takes customer interactions to anentirely different level,” he says.
Industry experts agree that in the near future RFID andother big data will play an essential role in business, by making new insights possible across a wide swath of industries. “Big data is now at the center of everything,” saysAntonella Mei Pochtler, a senior partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Big data “slides the dial” from a reactive mode based on re-ports and data after the fact to a proactive mode that usessoftware algorithms and predictive analytics to make better
RFID Journal • July/August 2015 13
It’s time to devise a plan to store all the RFID data you’recollecting and a strategy to use it—in combination with other
information—to gain insights that could transform yourbusiness and provide a competitive advantage.
By Samuel Greengard
cover story
decisions, says Mark Beyer, research VP at con-sulting firm Gartner. In this environment,there’s a need for new thinking and new skills.Organizations must identify critical data andhow elements intersect, tie together data sets,and break down silos that prevent them fromachieving maximum returns.
GAINING GREATERVISIBILITYRFID, which takes the errors out of manualprocesses, generates high-quality data thatprovides better visibility into processes andenables companies to make smart business decisions. Airbus Group, for example, increas-ingly uses RFID to capture data that managersthen use to maximize efficiencies at the jetmaker’s manufacturing facilities.
“RFID tells us what is going on in the phys-ical world beyond what humans can track andmeasure on their own—it bridges the gap be-tween the physical and IT worlds,” says CarloK. Nizam, head of digitalization within the Information Communication and Technologyteam at Airbus Group. “The ability to connectobjects and systems provides visibility intocomplex processes. This extra ‘real-world’ con-nectivity leads to an explosion of data that can
have enormous value, especially when com-bined with big-data analytics.”
Recently, the airplane manufacturer begancombining all that RFID data with other datasources to enhance visibility and gain new insights. When the company connected RFIDdata from different types of tools used in man-
ufacturing plants with data from enterprise resource planning (ERP)and maintenance systems, it beganto assemble a much clearer pictureof which tools were used where,when and how within the facilities.Then, using analytics capabilities,Airbus identified optimal locationsfor tool stores that would reducewaste and more accurately predictwhen specific tools need calibrationor replacement based on actual use cycles (rather than time-basedpredictions), and which tools werebeing used more and less fre-quently. This type of insight was un-attainable with paper-based and/ormanual “connectivity,” Nizam says.
Mercy health system, which op-erates 46 acute-care and specialty
heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehabilitationhospitals, as well as nearly 700 other clinicsand facilities, in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouriand Oklahoma, is focused on building a next-generation architecture that supports big data.Mercy is using an active RFID real-time loca-tion system to monitor equipment, supplies,staff and patients. Mercy is now exploring howto overlay RTLS data with other data sources—patient treatment information, electronichealth record data, mortality rate statistics andmore—to improve service delivery, medicaltreatment capabilities and overall perform-ance, says Scott Richert, VP of infrastructure.“It’s one thing to display a map of the floor andknow where all your equipment is,” he says.“It’s another thing to understand how to buyequipment, when to maintain and replace it,and where it needs to be located to produce thebest treatment and results.”
Gartner’s Beyer says a logistics and distribu-tion company he worked with RFID-tags cargo
“It’s one thing to display a mapof the floor and know where all your equipment is. It’s another thing to understand howto buy equipment, when tomaintain and replace it, andwhere it needs to be located to produce the best treatment and results.”—scott richert, mercy
RFID Journal • July/August 201514
cover story
but uses the technology for more than trackingthe locations of pallets and other items. “Theyare using it to cube their trucks—they can de-termine how to best arrange items for the max-imum load, as well as delivery efficiency priorto putting all the cargo on the truck,” Beyer ex-plains. The firm achieves this by plugging inrouting data and waypoint information, con-tract information that addresses penalties fordelays, and traffic and weather data that couldimpact delivery times. Because the distributorknows exactly how the truck is cubed, it is pos-sible to reorder and reload at way-points, he explains. “They are able togenerate a modeled representationusing RFID,” he says. “The systemtakes into account a number of key variables, including fuel con-sumption, driver behavior, contractperformance issues, penalties andtaxation.”
Construction companies can alsobenefit from big RFID data, Beyersays. The operation of cranes, for ex-ample, might require maintenanceevery 25 days. But if you RFID-tageach crane for identification andinput that data with weather conditions—humidity, for example—you can increase thesafe operation of the crane. “We can say wehave a potential situation here,” he says, “andwe’re going to make sure we maintain it a littlebit sooner than we normally do.”
DEVELOPING A BIGRFID DATA STRATEGYAt the heart of a big-data initiative is the abil-ity to collect and assemble the right data andmake sense of it. And like any RFID project,any big-data project must begin on the busi-ness side, says Ken Traub, president of KenTraub Consulting. A company first needs toidentify the business case. Then, IT can enablethe new processes and capabilities.
Companies should begin to think abouthow they will develop a big-data strategy,Traub says, adding that you can’t just go out
and hire a big RFID data specialist. Someonein-house—an individual or a team—needs tounderstand the RFID data you’re generatingand how it relates to your business, he says.These people need to think creatively aboutthe benefits of knowing where things were(historically) and are (in real time). Before youcan begin to use analytics software, you needto know what questions you want answered.
Airbus’ big-data initiative focused on twoprimary goals: to make better use of existingdata by tapping into separate systems, and to
expose more granular operational data, Nizamsays. “We asked, ‘What do we want to happen?What do we want to find out? What useful information can we generate and how can we put that to use?’” he explains. “A team thenmapped out different attributes and informa-tion sources, including where the requireddata resided. The final step was connecting allthe data sources to make the desired informa-tion accessible, actionable and meaningful atthe touch of a button. At the center of all thiswas the enabler for real-world data: RFID.”
Although Nizam won’t disclose detailsabout specific big-data projects across the company, he isn’t shy about affirming Airbus’commitment to the technology. “Big data is ahighly strategic topic—not only for the digitaltransformation initiative inside Airbus Groupbut also for each of the divisions in the groupitself,” he states.
In retail, most stores deploy RFID to improveinventory management. The big-data compo-
“The system takes into account anumber of key variables,including fuel consumption,driver behavior, contractperformance issues, penaltiesand taxation.” —mark beyer, gartner
RFID Journal • July/August 2015 15
cover story
nent begins when retail executives ask, Whatdo we want to know about our customers toimprove sales? Companies can then developsystems that allow them to detect changes inconsumer behavior and sentiment and makechanges to stock more quickly, says AdebayoOnigbanjo, senior product manager at ZebraTechnologies. It also might mean knowing acustomer’s preferences and aligning e-mailsand promotions to move stock more efficientlywhile better matching consumer preferences,he adds. The inventory piece remains impor-tant. “You still need to know your inventorycounts,” he points out, “but you are able to usedata and information in a multidimensionalway and across channels and systems.”
It’s essential to hire and train employeeswho can bring the right set of analytics skillsand data science to the enterprise, Onigbanjosays. Transforming data elements into mean-ingful results is no simple task. In many cases,it’s necessary to view the business and variousprocesses from an “outside-in” perspective,and think beyond the narrower domain of adepartment or division, he says. Data expertscan create transparency and determine what
type of data to capture. They also recognizewhich devices, sensors and systems are re-quired and how to connect them to the rightalgorithms and business logic. “As the situa-tion becomes exponentially more complex,you need the right combination of tools andtechnologies,” he notes.
It’s also important for business leaders tolook beyond the four walls of their organiza-
tions when assembling a big-data initiative.This often means establishing new partner-ships and business arrangements that revolvearound shared or pooled data. This can lead to more sophisticated marketing campaigns,improved training and hiring decisions, enhanced research and development, andbetter operational decisions, real estate purchases and other investments.
PUTTING THE PIECESTOGETHERRFID generates a lot of data, and many compa-nies don’t keep it all—once they’ve tracked,say, shipments or inventory on a sales floor,they may assume it’s no longer useful. Don’t dump your data, Traub advises. Even if your company is not ready to plan a big- data strategy, develop a software strategy for storing all your data. “There are many products on the market for managing largequantities of data,” he says. “They have different approaches, so you have to researchthem and decide which works best for you.”
Companies also should begin toinvestigate new tools that do calcu-lations and outputs on an ongoingbasis, to process data in real time,Traub says. These new “large-scalereal-time event-processing tools”are still immature, he notes, butthey will be a major component of abig-data strategy.
In addition, companies will needto build an IT framework that facili-tates the exchange of data, says SuDoyle, senior marketing manager atCheckpoint Systems. This typically
involves clouds and APIs that connect data-bases and systems.
EY’s Schlesinger says the goal isn’t to makedifferent data sets available to different groupsbut, rather, to make the right data available fromthe same central data repository. “Data, includ-ing RFID data, can be used in entirely differentways to achieve completely different insightsthat help run the business better,” he explains.
RFID Journal • July/August 201516
“You still need to know yourinventory counts, but you are ableto use data and information in amultidimensional way and acrosschannels and systems.”—adebayo onigbanjo, zebra technologies
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To facilitate this type of environment, manyorganizations are turning to next-generationcomputing platforms such as Apache Hadoop,which offers a robust framework for storingdata and running applications on computingclusters that rely on commodity hardware. Thehighly scalable open-source environment de-livers massive processing power and vast stor-age. SAP HANA, which relies on an in-memory,column-oriented relational database manage-ment to process large volumes of data fasterand more efficiently than traditional databases,is also gaining favor. Tying together these twotechnology solutions creates what Schlesingercalls an integrated platform that paves the wayfor enterprise analytics. What’s more, thesesystems also make it easier to use clouds andAPIs to streamline data flow. “Without the rightframework in place, the amount of data be-comes untenable and it becomes impossible toget any value from all the data,” he explains.
Regardless of the specific technology, it’scritical to break down data silos and link data
from legacy environments, including ERP andsupply-chain management systems. Hadoop,for example, allows a business to process vastamounts of sensor data and contextualize itbefore it is slotted into a database. Yet, organi-zations must also look beyond technology tobreak down data silos. Too often, Zebra’sOnigbanjo says, RFID projects exist as islands.Because there’s no oversight at the senior ex-ecutive level and no task force or team over-seeing initiatives, groups within the enterprisedon’t share existing knowledge, and organiza-
tions wind up duplicating efforts and losingdata. “There must be executive support and astructure in place,” he points out.
CONNECTING TORESULTSFor many businesses, a sophisticated big-datainitiative may still be a few years away. But ex-perts say now is the time to begin developing astrategy, building a big-data and analytics frame-work—and piloting projects. Digital technolo-gies are advancing rapidly, and without a basicfoundation and structure the task will be evenmore difficult in the months and years ahead.
As the business world transitions to an erawhere data is abundant, it’s vital to adopt a clearstrategy, BCG’s Pochtler says. “A big-data initia-tive cannot be catch-as-catch-can in terms ofsimply collecting data and then trying to figureout what you can do with it. You have to focuson the core questions you want to answer and
what type of data and analytics arenecessary to produce the results thatreally matter.”
When organizations build a big-data framework, it’s possible to createa more agile and flexible businessthat’s better prepared for the chal-lenges of the digital age, Hardgrave atAuburn University says. “By marryinga variety of data sources, a companycan move from running the businessbased on past events to running thebusiness on current and, with predic-tive analytics, future events.”
“The business world is undergoing a para-digm shift,” Airbus’ Nizam says. “There is agrowing awareness that data is important, andit unlocks answers to complex questions. Thenext stage in the paradigm shift will be to ask,Where does data come from and how is it col-lected? This is where technologies like RFIDwill play an important role in building greaterconnectivity and insight into the industrial‘Internet of Things.’ Together with big data- analytics, this has the potential to truly trans-form business and industry.”
RFID Journal • July/August 201518
“The business world is undergoinga paradigm shift. There is agrowing awareness that data isimportant, and it unlocks answersto complex questions.”—carlo k. nizam, airbus
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RFID’s Sporting LifeCapturing performance data in real timehelps athletes improve their game—and coaches and federations determinewhich players to back. BY JENNIFER ZAINO
vertical focus: sports
21RFID Journal • July/August 2015
PHOTO: CANADIENS.COM
Montreal CanadiensThe MonTreal Canadiens lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the NationalHockey League Stanley Cup playoffs this year, but the players headed off the ice with their headsheld high. The team posted 110 points in regular season play, finishing second overall in theEastern Conference, just behind the New York Rangers.
The Canadiens attribute much of their 2014-15 season success to their enhanced training efforts, which includes the use of Sport Testing’s athlete assessment solution, particularly during summer development and training camp sessions. The solution consists of Sport ID passive ultrahigh-frequency RFID bands to identify athletes via an RFID handheld reader beforethey perform a particular drill; wireless Sport Gate photoelectric timing gates that use Sport IDdata and the company’s Core Capture algorithms to match athletes with the measurement resultsfrom specific drills in real time; Sport Hub software for collecting results that can be displayed onany screen or even a leaderboard to motivate players; and Athlete Manager database software,which provides reports on which to base analyses of player performance.
The Canadiens use the solution to test a number of variables relevant to the sport of hockey,says Pierre Allard, the team’s strength and conditioning coach. During a circuit, for example, itwill benchmark how quickly a player reacts to lights and colors that indicate whether he shouldmove right or left. “That’s a good test, because you want to see if the players controlling a puckcan make good decisions,” he says. “Another test is to measure the capacity to repeat sprints,which is also an important value for hockey players.” The results, he adds, help him determine
RFID Journal • July/August 201522
what aspects of play a team member needs towork on, and develop ways to improve them.
The RFID bands make the whole processconvenient, Allard says, because they accu-rately and quickly match players to results.“Once you set up the system and get used to it,you save a lot of time, because you can start tocollect data,” he says. “And with RFID, you areable to go fast.”
Over time, Allard can use the collected datafrom players running different drill combina-tions to create standards, such as minimumand maximum values of speed, strength andpower. Understanding what constitutes goodvalues for NHL players, for example, can helpmonitor the progression of young draft players, he says, “to see if they are going in the right direction over time from a physicalcondition standpoint.”
In addition to the Canadiens and a fewother professional hockey and football teams,company founder Jamie Hollins says SportTesting has relationships with sports organi-zations including: the Canadian HockeyLeague, which represents major junior ice-hockey leagues for players 16 to 20 years of age;National Lacrosse League, North America’sprofessional indoor lacrosse league; AmateurAthletic Union, a U.S.-based organization pro-moting the development of amateur sports;
American Youth Football, an international organization; and Canadian Sports Institutefor Olympic and Paralympic training.
Sport Testing also maintains a global data-base of up-and-comers’ test results that organ-izations can access to monitor individuals’performance in sport-specific drills. The in-formation helps them “make proper decisionsabout who should progress or be dropped forthe draft or scholarship,” Hollins says. “Every-thing is moving into the data world and intomore analytics, and RFID lets us gather thatdata efficiently.”
IT’S A NEW GAMEUsing RFID to capture real-time performancestatistics on male and female athletes is agrowing trend, and solution providers arestepping into the sports arena. “New digitaltechnologies and new applications of old dig-ital technologies are being used to quantifyeverything related to sports, providing a different insight and the option for a lot ofanalysis,” says Henry Hanson, sports equip-ment specialist and co-creator of the SportsTechnology Podcast. “For training, any extrainformation gathered—if gathered and inter-preted correctly—can only benefit the athleteby providing a more complete picture of whatis going on.” P
HOTO: SPORT TESTING
Sport Testing’s RFIDbands, readers andtiming gates matchathletes withmeasurement resultsfrom specific drills inreal time.
vertical focus: sports
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vertical focus: sports
RFID Journal • July/August 201524
SportRFID, for example, offers a solutionthat uses passive UHF RFID sticker tags thatcan be affixed to a snowboarder’s helmet during training or competition. RFID readersplaced strategically along a course—such as atpoints where snowboarders do a 180-degreespin—recognize the RFID stickers and activatemulti-angle video cameras. The videos are up-loaded to the cloud for review by the athletes,their coaches and others, such as the CanadaSnowboard federation.
“Federations want to know who is progress-ing, at what rate and so on, so they can ma-neuver their resources to get behind thosewith the best chance of medaling at variouscompetitions,” says SportRFID CEO GeorgeEaston. “We dovetailed nicely with whatCanada Snowboard wanted to do.” The solu-tion, Easton adds, can also be used for down-hill skiing, bike racing and other sports with aprogressive course that provides an opportu-nity to set up defined video-capture points.
The New York Knicks, Dallas Cowboys andSan Antonio Spurs are among the professionalorganizations using Catapult’s technology togain scientific insights into their athletes’ per-formance, says Boden Westover, the com-pany’s marketing director. Catapult’s ClearSkyis an RFID-based active real-time location sys-tem (RTLS) that can be deployed in indoor or
outdoor sports environments. OptimEye, thecompany’s original satellite-based system, requires an outdoor or open-roof venue.
“ClearSky uses RFID because of its accuracyand ability to be used in a range of environ-ments, which is important with our clientstraining in different venues on a regular basis,”Westover says. An athlete’s location is calcu-lated via triangulation using small wirelessnodes that are easy to install around theperimeter of a playing area, he explains. Ath-letes wear a small tracking device under theiruniforms that measures and records theirphysical movements every few seconds, in-cluding distance covered, accelerations, veloc-ity and direction changes, as well as heart rate.
The data is accumulated in real time socoaches can view it on a laptop during a prac-tice or game, and saved for post-session analy-sis in Catapult’s OpenField software. Coachescan gain insights into risk (understandingwhen an athlete is being overworked and at agreater chance of sustaining a soft-tissue in-jury); readiness for competition (objectivelyknowing how physically prepared an athlete isfor a game or training); and return to play(when an injured athlete can return to compe-tition), Westover says. The tracking deviceswill continue to become smaller and more so-phisticated, he says, but the real developmentsP
HOTO: CATAPULT
Football players onAustralia’s GreaterWestern Sydney Giantsteam wear Catapult’stracking devices, tomonitor theirmovements.
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vertical focus: sports
RFID Journal • July/August 201526
ahead “will be in the data and the sport-spe-cific and position-specific algorithms we buildinto the system, to ensure the information isas relevant and valuable as possible to theteams using it.”
At the University of North Carolina, women’svarsity soccer and several other teams havebeen using the OptimEye solution. “If you lookat where we were before we had this, you werejust kind of guessing about whether an athletewas stressed out or had a chance of gettinghurt,” says Greg Gatz, UNC’s director of strengthand conditioning for Olympic Sports. “It’s notan exact science but at least now we have a reference point.”
Vert uses Bluetooth Low Energy technologyto track and analyze jump height, an importantfactor in basketball and volleyball. Jump heightalso comes into play in some facets of othersports; in football, for example, a wide receivermay need to jump to catch a pass. A Vert deviceis worn on an athlete’s waist or integrated intoan article of clothing, such as the company’s active waistband. A proprietary algorithmmeasures the jump, and Vert transmits the datato any smartphone or device that supports BLE.
Every player on the U.S. Women’s NationalVolleyball Team wears a Vert during training,says Jamie Morrison, assistant coach. The sys-tem helps coaches with talent preservation. Itrecords information such as how many jumpsa player makes and how many times a playerhits her maximum jump height. The datacould reveal that a player is risking injury bytaking too many jumps, or getting tired and
consistently declining in jump height. Twelveplayers from this group will be picked for theU.S. Women’s Olympics team.
“There are a lot of overuse injuries in oursport—there is a lot of pounding,” Morrisonsays. “We’re more interested in longevity, andup until now there has been no tool to managethe workload and make sure we are workingathletes the right amount.”
Active RFID technology using Wi-Fi net-works may be part of the future for Vert, saysfounder Martin Matak, especially given the interest in the solution by national and profes-sional sports teams. The company has con-ducted lab experiments with the technology,and Matak thinks it could bring extra value because it is “simpler to triangulate where people are in a field of space, so you can createdifferent elements” to accompany the verticaldata. “In a football scenario,” he says, “youwould want to measure verticals, speed and lo-cation, and technologies like RFID could comeinto play to be part of that platform solution.”
BROADCASTING PERFORMANCE DATAPlayers’ stats have long been part of the sport-ing game, so it’s no surprise that the media andfans are interested in RFID-generated per-formance stats. Last year, during a NationalCollegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) liveevent, members of the University of Floridawomen’s volleyball team wore Vert devices,and their jump height data was displayed inreal time on a Jumbotron. An ESPN broadcastof a women’s volleyball game between the Uni-versity of Florida and the University of SouthCarolina also featured Vert jump stats.
“Being the first wearable technology in anNCAA event, we are going down that road tocreate new experiences in sports analytics andentertainment,” Matak says. Vert is building anapplication to engage socially with fans at stadiums and at home on smartphones.“Everyone wants instant information that isimportant to them,” he says. “We are buildinga platform that has the consumer in charge oftheir own experience.”
SportRFID has explored broadcast options PHOTOS: ISTOCK (LEFT), VERT (RIGHT)
Vert uses BluetoothLow Energy technologyto track and analyzejump height, animportant factor inbasketball andvolleyball.
vertical focus: sports
27RFID Journal • July/August 2015
PHOTO: JOLT
Radio Alerts Could ReduceBrain Injuries
Concussions are an unfortunate fact of life for manyathletes, both professional and amateur. Adults and kidssuffer head traumas playing football, soccer, hockey andother sports. Wrestlers, boxers and cheerleaders are alsosusceptible to head injuries. Often, a player who sus-tains a concussion stays in the game, although repeatedconcussions can lead to permanent brain damage.
Wireless sensor technologies can’t prevent or diag-nose concussions, but they can measure head accelera-tions (the force and rotation with which the brain hitsthe skull). This real-time information can alert coachesthat a player should be examined by a doctor and, per-haps, pulled from the game.
Jolt’s wearable sensor and smartphone application,for example, lets parents and coaches track and evaluatethe impact to a child’s head. The Jolt Sensor, which canbe attached to headbands, helmets and other headgear,measures and records head accelerations, and streamsthe data and corresponding alerts to smartphones usingBluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. Following a suc-cessful Kickstarter campaign and certification from theU.S. Federal Communications Commission, Jolt beganshipping products in July, says founder and CEO BenHarvatine.
Riddell, which manufactures professional footballhelmets and other protective equipment, offers RiddellIQ, a smart football platform that includes the SidelineResponse System and InSite Impact Response System.InSite features a sensor pad that is positioned in helmetliners to measure impact severity and BLE technology tosend alerts to handheld devices, by player name andnumber, when an impact or sequence of impacts ex-ceeds a predetermined threshold. Riddell says membersof the National Collegiate Athletic Association are usingthe SRS solution largely for research, while close to 500high-school and youth programs have adopted InSite.
“Concussions are more complicated than accelera-tions,” says Henry Hanson, co-creator of the SportsTechnology Podcast. “But any extra information aboutwhat the head experienced could help doctors betterunderstand the severity of the incident.” —J.Z.
RFID Journal • July/August 2015
to enhance the fan experience, but Eastonnotes it’s not the company’s current focus. “AllI can tell you is that the interest is quite high,but the path to execution is riddled with manyhoops to jump through,” he says, citing con-tractual obligations and licensing agreements.
Catapult’s Westover says there are a few offshoots from its core business “that largelycenter around the media and working withbroadcast partners, but because of the propri-etary nature of the data, it is not as straightfor-ward as a lot of people believe. We’ve had somesuccessful examples in Australian football,and it’s something we’re keeping an eye ongoing forward.”
Meanwhile, the National Football League,which adopted Zebra Technologies’ Motion-Works Sports Solution to monitor players, in-stalled the ultrawide-band RTLS at 17 stadiumsduring the 2014-15 season and plans to RFID-
enable the remaining 14 stadiums for the 2015-16 season (see Zebra’s Next-Gen TechnologyPowers Next-Gen Stats). More than 100 millionfans, including viewers of CBS Sports’ Thurs-day Night Football TV, saw what the NFL andZebra call “next-generation statistics.”
The NFL is gearing up to build what Eric Petrosinelli, Zebra’s general manager of sports,calls an ecosystem for digital fan offerings. In April, the NFL signed a multiyear agreementwith Sportradar US to be its exclusive distributor of official real-time scores, playerstatistics and play-by-play data, as well as theNFL’s proprietary next-gen stats.
“The MotionWorks system’s reliability wasnearly 100 percent in the past year—no tag failures,” Petrosinelli says. “It smoothly passedthe information to broadcast partners. On thecommercial side, they are just at the start ofrolling out next-gen stats, and we’ll start
28
“TheMotionWorkssystem’sreliability wasnearly 100percent in thepast year—notag failures. Itsmoothlypassed theinformation tobroadcastpartners.”
eric petrosinelli,zebra technologies
vertical focus: sports
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: M
OTIONWORKS SPORTS SOLUTIONS
vertical focus: sports
29RFID Journal • July/August 2015
seeing where they are setting up differentchannels through which the data is mone-tized.” There remain protocols to work out re-garding data distribution for the clubs thatown the NFL as an entity, he says. Some, for ex-ample, might not want to share all their play-ers’ data with external parties or other clubs.
Zebra Sports is rolling out a complementaryproduct with similar functionality to Motion-Works to track football players and their per-formance during practice. So far, the DetroitLions, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco49ers have adopted it. The solution enablescoaches to optimize training schedules for topgame-day output; if, for example, a playerworked really hard at drills, they could scaleback his practice the next day. Coaches can also use player positioning and timing stats tobetter understand how plays were run, so theycan address incomplete passes and other
errors during practice. “Just as Zebra does forits enterprise asset-intelligence solutions,we’ll provide operational visibility to man-agers and coaches to make better, faster andsmarter decisions,” Petrosinelli says.
Those coaching and managing sports todaythink real-time performance solutions are becoming an increasingly important asset,though they caution against losing the humanconnection when it comes to assessing andpreparing athletes. These are “tools to usewithin the system, not something to base awhole program on,” says UNC’s Gatz.
“The human factor is still the best for usright now to evaluate and determine the pro-gression of the players’ conditioning,” concursthe Canadiens’ Allard. But, he adds, “We are in a data era” and RFID-enhanced sports solutions that help gather that data are usefulin supporting those decisions.”
Each player wears two quarter-size battery-powered RFID tags, one undereach shoulder pad, which emit their IDsto RFID readers more than a dozen timesa second.
At each participating stadium, an averageof 20 readers are mounted between theupper and lower decks. They read the tags from all 22 players on the field, pinpointing each player’s position, andtracking their speed, acceleration and distance traveled in real time.
Algorithms aggregate players’ stats fromthe data and display it on MotionWorksanalytics software, which allows Zebrastaff members to add context to the data.
Sports Solutions generates playermetrics on proprietary softwaredashboards for professional andconsumer applications.
Media producers use the MotionWorksdata to create graphics for viewers thatcan be displayed on a variety of digitaldevices in real time.
ILLU
STRATION: ISTOCKPHOTO
by bob violino
Embedded
product developments: embedded readers
What You Need to Know About
RFID Readers
31RFID Journal • July/August 2015
These small modules providethe performance of full-size readersand can be used to create next-
generation solutions.
Interstate Batteries deployed smart storage and displayracks to track and manage batteries at 2,000 dealershipsin five U.S. markets. Interstate, which partnered with RFID provider Seeonic to develop the smart devices, saysthe solution eliminates the need to send personnel todealerships to count battery stock, a process that wastime-consuming and error-prone.
The University of California San Francisco MedicalCenter installed a refrigerated vending machine, Pantry,to dispense fresh food automatically. San-Francisco-basedstartup PantryLabs developed the RFID solution, whichgives hospital personnel and visitors better dining optionswhen the café closes at night.
What these three very different businesses have incommon is that each RFID solution for tracking and man-aging tagged items, whether costumes, batteries or food,depends on a small RFID reader embedded in the kiosks,racks or vending machines. The companies are using
ultrahigh-frequency embedded readers from ThingMagic,a division of Trimble.
Elatec RFID Systems and IDtronic are two other leadingproviders of embedded readers, also referred to as modules.Elatec offers low-frequency, high-frequency and Near-FieldCommunication embedded readers. IDtronic makes UHFembedded RFID readers, as well LF and HF versions.
In addition to the solutions mentioned above, embedded RFID readers are enabling a variety of new applications, including: forklifts that can locate ship-ments in warehouses; “magic mirrors” in retail dressingrooms, which can improve customer service and boostsales; smart medical cabinets in hospitals, for managinginventory and replenishing items on demand; and photobooths at events, to engage attendees and market products. But developing a solution that incorporatesthese devices is not as straightforward as purchasing a fixed or handheld reader. Here’s what you need to
Disney is using self-serve checkout kiosks to track and manage itslarge inventory of costumes, worth roughly $100 million, worn by characters at its theme parks and on cruise ships. The RFID solution, developed in-house, has saved the company more than$1 million, increasing inventory accuracy and reducing labor.
product developments: embedded readers
product developments: embedded readers
RFID Journal • July/August 201532
PHOTO
: THINGMAGIC
know to create a next-generation solution foryour business.
ANATOMY OF AN EMBEDDEDRFID READER RFID reader modules are small. The Nano, for example, part of ThingMagic’s Mercury6e family of embedded readers, is the size of apostage stamp. But the modules are designedto provide the performance of full-size readers.They transmit and receive radio signals thatcarry information, such as the identificationnumber of a product equipped with an RFIDtag. They use low power consumption, whichmakes them suitable for mobile applications.Many feature read-write capabilities for label printing and applications with handheldand mobile devices. Zebra Technologies, for example, is using embedded readers fromThingMagic for its R170Xi RFID bar-codeprinter-encoder. The modules also have one ormore connectors to support external antennas.
RFID providers that supply these productsnote the modules must be combined withother components in order to be of practicaluse. “The module is the heart of the RFIDreader system,” says Debbie Power, sales man-
ager at ThingMagic. “For a complete workingsystem, you need to include a small processorto tell the module what to do, what settings touse for operation and how to handle the data.You also need to provide a power supply, anantenna, and some type of enclosure” to houseall the components.
“Some of our customers already produceelectronic devices that have power, CPU and anenclosure,” Power says. “They want to add RFIDreading or writing capability to that device.Adding a finished UHF RFID reader introducesredundant components in a large form factor,whereas a UHF RFID module can often be embedded into an existing device with nochange in form factor.”
For the most part, embedded readers are de-signed for original equipment manufacturers(OEMs) that integrate the modules in products,such as industrial machines, point-of-sale ter-minals, and library-management, rental andticketing systems. Some end users work withsystems integrators to develop specific appli-cations that use embedded readers.
Zebra is making ThingMagic’s embeddedRFID readers part of Zebra’s Zatar cloud-basedplatform, designed for connecting printers,
“Adding a finishedUHF RFID readerintroducesredundantcomponents in alarge form factor,whereas a UHFRFID module canoften be embeddedinto an existingdevice with nochange in formfactor.”Debbie Power, ThingMagic
The Nano, part ofThingMagic’sMercury6e familyof embeddedreaders, is thesize of a postagestamp.
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RFID Journal holds several face-to-face conferencesevery year, as well as a number of online virtual eventsand webinars. These events feature end users speakingobjectively about the business reasons that theydeployed an RFID system, the technical hurdles theyovercame in doing so and the benefits they nowachieve as a result, as well as presentations byacademics, vendors and other experts. Many of thesessions were recorded, and we have compiled theserecordings into seven DVDs that are available forpurchase for only $99 or free with a one-year premiummembership to RFID Journal.
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product developments: embedded readers
35RFID Journal • July/August 2015
Some Leading Providers of Embedded RFID Readers
beacons and other devices to the Internet sothey can be managed remotely. IntegratingRFID into the Zatar platform enables the connected devices to share data with any application, according to Zebra. An automobilecompany, for example, could equip its manu-facturing tools with embedded readers and usethe Zatar platform to receive real-time infor-mation from its production floors to ensurethe tools are operating within compliance parameters.
ThingMagic also supplies its embeddedreaders to companies that make smart cabi-nets and display systems. Keonn Technologies,for example, uses ThingMagic embedded readers in its AdvanLook interactive displays,which can be used in retail stores to help customers get information about a variety ofin-store products. Munich Sports, a Spanishfootwear company that installed the system ata children’s shoe store in 2014, reports that it’spopular with customers, makes employeesmore productive and boosts the store’s imagefor innovation.
IDtronic integrates its embedded readers inthe company’s handheld computers and termi-nals, and in its stationary Bluebox IndustrialRFID readers, designed for industrial automa-tion or logistics applications, says PatrickKochendörfer, a project manager at the firm.“We also have partners and customers usingthe embedded RFID modules to build theirown RFID readers or [integrate] those modulesinto industrial production machines,” he says.
IDtronic customers also use embedded readers for vehicle-based applications, logisticsand access control. Due to nondisclosure agreements, Kochendörfer says, IDtronic can’tidentify customers or partners using its embedded RFID readers. But, he says, one is acompany that produces forklifts and other industrial vehicles. “They took our embeddedRFID reader modules and integrated them intotheir latest industrial terminals,” he explains.“Those terminals are mounted on the vehiclesto manage all vehicle settings or run their industry-specific application on it. For this com-pany, RFID is not the key business, it is just an-
“We also havepartners andcustomers usingthe embeddedRFID modules tobuild their ownRFID readers or[integrate] thosemodules intoindustrialproductionmachines.” Patrick Kochendörfer, IDtronic
COMPANY PRODUCTS FREQUENCIES CUSTOMERS DEVELOPMENT KITS
Elatec RFID Systemswww.elatec-rfid.com
Two product families:TWN3 (single-frequency)and TWN4(multifrequency)readers-writers
LF, HF and NFC OEMs and systemintegrators technicalsupport ¸
IDtronicwww.idtronic-rfid.com
The UHF Modules line(M800, M900 andM950) is the company’slatest and mostsophisticated offering
LF, HF and UHF;read/writemodules forLegic systems
OEMs, technologypartners and end-usercompanies ¸
ThingMagicA DIVISION OF TRIMBLE
www.thingmagic.com
Mercury6e family,including M6e, Micro,Micro-LTE and Nano
UHF OEMs, technologypartners and end-usercompanies ¸
product developments: embedded readers
RFID Journal • July/August 201536
other option to stay ahead of the competition.”Elatec RFID Systems provides embedded
readers designed for integration with point-of-sale systems, to support applications such asphysical access control and mobile payments,and managed print solutions for secure printing. The company does not market embedded readers to end-user companies.
DEVELOPING YOUR OWN SOLUTIONWhile embedded reader providers typicallymarket to OEMs, end-user companies such asDisney and Interstate can develop their ownsolutions. Large companies with internal resources are more likely to do this on theirown, while smaller firms tend to turn to sys-tems integrators for help. The companies thatare successful with these projects have a visionof what they want to achieve with RFID andbring in the resources they need, says Thing-Magic’s Power.
Companies “need the experience and re-sources to develop their own products andprojects,” says IDtronic’s Kochendörfer. “Mostof the end users we know are big enterprisecompanies. They have their own system integration departments for providing the
resources to accomplish a project.”IDtronic offers development kits for cus-
tomers. “Both our partners and end users canuse them,” Kochendörfer says. The starter kitcomes with all necessary hardware, softwareand documentation, providing a way to morequickly develop solutions, he says.
ThingMagic also offers a development kit tohelp companies build RFID solutions basedaround its modules. In nearly all cases, the kitsare used by OEMs, but the company is open toselling these kits to end-user companies as well,Power says. It’s important that companies attempting to build their own solutions hirepeople who understand the technology and areexperienced in building a complete system, she adds. If a company has an idea for using em-bedded readers to create a solution, the best wayto proceed is to find a systems integrator thatcan help with the development process or buildthe in-house capabilities needed, Power says.
When evaluating modules, companiesshould consider features such as performance,output power, power consumption, form factor and the number of antennas that can beattached, Power notes. The types of featuresand capabilities required depend on the appli- P
HOTO
: IDTR
ONIC
It’s important thatcompaniesattempting to buildtheir own solutionshire people whounderstand thetechnology and areexperienced inbuilding acomplete system. Debbie Power, ThingMagic
Due to its smallsize, IDtronic’sembedded module M950 fitsinto almost all devices and housings.
product developments: embedded readers
cation. If, for example, a retailer wants to builda small device that can be carried around in astore or fit on an employee’s belt, the Nanowould offer the most flexibility. It also offerslower power consumption, which allows for acombination of a smaller, lighter batteryand/or longer battery life, she adds. Perform-ance features such as autonomous operationcan decrease power consumption, because the“read on power up” mode allows the reader toconsume power only when it is on.
In another scenario, a health-care companymight require a cabinet that reads a large num-ber of tagged supplies in many drawers andshelves. “Here, form factor is less importantand a more powerful, high-performance mod-ule such as our ThingMagic M6e” is more appropriate, Power says. It offers four portsthat can be multiplexed up to 64 antennas fora large number of read points throughout thecabinet, which typically has metal separatingcompartments. It also can accommodate RFloss across connectors and cabling, so each antenna gets sufficient power. Performancefeatures can be optimized to accommodate adense tag population.
Due to its small size, the embedded module
M950 from IDtronic fits into almost all devices and housings. “End customers havesuccessfully integrated our UHF modules intohandheld computers and PDAs from third-party suppliers, or used them as a basis forOEM desktop and stationary systems,”Kochendörfer says. “The wide-range M950,with an output power of 30 decibels per milli-watt, offers read ranges up to 10 meters, fourantenna ports and an integrated multiplexer.This allows, for example, portal applicationsfor logistics, vehicle access control or the iden-tification of moving goods.”
The IDtronic UHF Stick Reader R830 is idealfor a desktop reader in custom housing, or theintegration into terminals and wall scanners,Kochendörfer says.
ThingMagic and IDtronic are both seeing increased interest in their modules from end-user companies. “We tend to match them with a systems integrator in their area and industry,” Power says.
“We see that the interest from end users ispicking up,” Kochendörfer concurs. “Biggercompanies that can provide the resources for integration projects are interested in ourproducts.”P
HOTO
: ELA
TEC
“We see that theinterest from endusers is picking up.Bigger companiesthat can providethe resources forintegrationprojects areinterested in ourproducts.”Patrick Kochendörfer, IDtronic
Elatec RFID Systems’most popular embedded module is the TWN4 reader-writer.
37RFID Journal • July/August 2015
RFID Journal • July/August 201538
EvEry JunE for the pastfive years, the RFID Labhas analyzed RFID adop-tion by U.S. retailers.While it’s not a scientificstudy—the analysis isbased on publicly avail-able information and thelab’s work with various
retailers—it has provided a reliable snapshotof both new and existing adopters. Followingthree years of slow adoption, the past twoyears have witnessed tremendous growth inboth the number of retailers testing RFID andthose deploying solutions. And we’re seeingthis among all types of retailers—from largedepartment store chains to smaller specialtyshops, though mostly in the apparel sector.
For the study, we consider whether a retailer is conducting a proof of concept(POC), pilot or deployment. A POC, which typically involves one or two stores and a limited number of merchandise categories, isdesigned to demonstrate RFID’s effectivenessin the retailer’s environment. The next step isa pilot, which generally involves more storesand categories, to determine if the RFID application, and the resulting benefits, canscale. If the pilot is successful, retailers thenmove to deployment. Large department storestypically roll out RFID to the entire chain inone or more categories; over time, they addother categories. Specialty retailers tend toRFID-tag all items in one store at a time, untilall stores are RFID-enabled.
The 2015 study reveals a pattern of move-ment expected in a healthy adoption environ-ment. The graphic shows the stage of adop-tion of U.S. retailers currently investigatingRFID solutions. More retailers are deployingRFID, so even though some of the percentagesare similar, the total number of retailers in
each category is higher this year than it waslast year. In fact, new retailers adopting RFIDincreased a whopping 23 percent from 2014 to2015; most are new entrants conducting POCs.Many of the retailers that conducted POCs in2014 moved to pilots in 2015 (some are stillconducting POCs). Most retailers that con-ducted pilots in 2014 moved to deployment in2015 (the others are still doing pilots).
I suspect the healthy adoption rate is due in large part to the growing awareness
among retailers that RFID is necessary foromnichannel retailing, a service retailersmust provide to remain competitive. For theupcoming year, we expect both the number ofnew adopters and those deploying solutionsto exceed this year’s growth.
Bill Hardgrave is dean of Auburn University’sHarbert College of Business and founder of theRFID Lab. He will address other RFID adoptionand business case issues in this column. Send yourquestions to [email protected]. Follow himon twitter at @bhardgrave.
Try It—You’ll Like It!The RFID Lab’s annual state-of-adoption report of U.S. retailers shows companiesthat trial and pilot RFID solutions for inventory management are deploying them.
By Bill Hardgrave
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health-care beat
In our prevIous column, An RTLS Self-Exam, we suggested a set of questions hospi-tal managers should ask when selecting anRFID-based real-time location system. Onceyou’ve defined your business and technologyrequirements and issued a call for tender,you’ll likely receive proposals from providersof both active and passive RTLS solutions.
We acknowledged that total cost of owner-ship can vary greatly between these kinds ofsystems. Moreover, TCO can vary among thedifferent passive systems—not only thosethat use traditional reader portals in door-ways, hallways and other choke points, butalso newer systems that feature phased-arrayantennas for zone monitoring. So rather thancompare active versus passive systems, werecommend you assess the options on a solu-tion-by-solution basis, taking into accountthe stages of an RTLS project life cycle.
Procurement. Vendor proposals typicallyinclude detailed costs of individual compo-nents and consultants, but the project costsare based on similar deployments. Ask whatand how many resources—equipment andpeople—your deployment will require.
Active tags are more expensive than passivetags, but some passive systems may demandmore readers and antennas. Ask how manyreaders and antennas and, perhaps, beacons or exciters you’ll need to provide the location
accuracy and tag-detection immediacyrequired for your business case.
In addition, look into software license fees;some providers charge based on how manytags you’ll need and others on the number ofusers per year. One solution could be moreexpensive to acquire but cheaper to maintain.
Implementation. What is the cost ofdeploying the system? In addition to consid-ering cable placement and other installationissues, ask about the implementation plan.Active systems typically require a greatamount of time to calibrate and test for loca-tion accuracy. The plan should also includethe cost of configuring and integrating thesoftware platform.
Maintenance. Thebatteries in active tagsmust be changed peri-odically. Do the tagshave a sleep mode orother feature to reducebattery consumption?What’s involved inmonitoring all the read-ers in a passive system?
Future plans. Assuggested in our col-umn To RTLS or Not toRTLS, you’ve prioritized your use cases anddetermined which to address first. But youneed to know what will be involved—andwhat it will cost—to address the other usecases on your list. When you know the specific costs of the active and passive RTLSsolutions that meet your needs, you’ll be ableto make a smart business decision.
Ygal Bendavid and Harold Boeck are professorsin the school of management at the Universitédu Québec à Montréal, and members of RFIDAcademia’s research board.
41RFID Journal • July/August 2015
Total Cost of RTLS OwnershipSeveral active and passive real-time location systems may meet your needs, so it’sbest to evaluate your options solution by solution.
By Ygal Bendavid and Harold Boeck
Learn how to assessyour potential returnon investment (ROI)from employing RFIDto track apparel,footwear andaccessories in stores.This interactivespreadsheet comeswith supporting notesthat explain theassumptions in thecalculator.
THE CALCULATOR ENABLES RETAIL FIRMS TO:
› Enter their average number of units on the sales floorand in the back room, as well as their average unit cost,inventory turns and retail margins
› Enter the number of hours that staff members spendreceiving goods, conducting cycle counts andreplenishing product inventory
› Estimate the reduction in labor costs
THE CALCULATOR ALSO:
› Allows a user to estimate the potential increase in sales
› Enables companies to estimate hardware, software andintegration costs, based on their store layout andoperations
› Provides a sample case for a fictional company
To download this free calculator, simply visit: www.rfidjournal.com/store/fashion-retail-roi-calculator
APPAREL RETAIL ROI CALCULATOR
ESTIMATE WHAT RFID CAN DO FOR YOUR BOTTOM LINE
43RFID Journal • July/August 2015
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software savvy
Last month, the RAINAlliance—an industryconsortium dedicated topromoting adoption ofultrahigh-frequency RFIDtechnology based on theISO 18000-63/EPC Gen 2air interface—met inPortland, Ore. A RAIN
subcommittee made three observations abouthow to improve life for software developers.
First, there needs to be an online commu-nity where developers can learn what othersare doing and get answers to questions. A typ-ical developer community includes discus-sion groups and links to educational materialand open-source software. Online communi-ties can thrive only if there is critical mass.This means there has to be some commonali-ty in the software interfaces provided by thevarious reader manufacturers. RFID isn’t bigenough to support different developer com-munities for, say, Alien Technology, Impinjand Zebra Technologies, but it is big enoughto support one community for all of them.
Second, software engineers must be able towork in familiar ways. Most RFID reader devel-opment kits are based on a decade-old style ofprogramming, when the World Wide Web wasin its infancy and only weather forecasterstalked about clouds. Today’s software engineersare accustomed to working in high-level scripting languages oriented toward Web computing and cloud computing. Reader inter-faces have to support that paradigm.
Third, the industry needs standardizedreader interfaces that operate at a higher levelthan what’s available today. Many readers sup-port the GS1 Low-Level Reader Protocol (LLRP).But as the name says, it is a low-level interfacethat was never intended as a starting point forbuilding applications. Using LLRP requires too
much hardware-specific knowledge, and thedata that comes out is raw binary data, not adecoded application-level identifier such as aSerialized Global Trade Item Number.
Consequently, application developers mustresort to middleware to get a high-level interface, but that adds complexity andexpense that can be justified only when net-works of many readers areemployed. Reader companiesusually provide free softwaredevelopment kits akin to alightweight middleware layer,but most of these are low-level, too. Nearly all of them,for example, deliver only rawbinary data to an application.
RAIN is in the process ofestablishing a developer com-munity. That could helpaddress the other two issues.As I wrote in my May/Junecolumn, The State of ReaderInterfaces, the GS1 Applica -tion-Level Events (ALE) stan-dard can deliver RFID data ina format most application programminglanguages are designed to understand. Butmost reader vendors don’t support it. A robustdeveloper community could lobby readervendors to support ALE or a similar protocol.Or developers could create open-source soft-ware that supports ALE and works with pro-prietary readers. ALE also supports high-levelscripting languages, so that issue would beaddressed, too.
Ken Traub is the founder of Ken TraubConsulting, a Mass.-based firm providing servicesto com panies that rely on advanced softwaretechnology to run their businesses. Send yoursoftware questions to [email protected].
An Online Community for RFIDSoftware DevelopersThe EPC UHF industry must take steps to welcome innovators.
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