Airport Trcking luggage With RFID

Airport Authority Hong Kong, which operates the facility, believes RFID tracking will greatly improve customer satisfaction and security. It will also, according to Matrics, significantly cut the airport’s operating costs. Hong Kong International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world, and a major hub for passengers transferring from flights to and from China. Approximately 35 million passengers use the airport annually, and 40 percent of the luggage handled there comes from transfer flights. Passenger numbers are also expected to grow significantly as the number of flights to and from the Chinese mainland continues to grow.

RFID technology will be deployed across Hong Kong airport’s extensive baggage-handling facilities alongside the existing bar code system. All items of luggage (both those checked in at the airport and those transferred from incoming flights) will continue to be fitted with a bar-coded label bearing a 10-digit IATA (International Air Transport Association) number. However, as each item arrives at the luggage-handling conveyor, a machine will automatically stick a smart label to each piece of luggage, a bar code scanner will read the bag’s bar-coded label, and the label’s IATA number will be written to the bag’s RFID tag. Whenever a bag’s bar-coded label isn’t read properly, that bag will be diverted and the process of writing the IATA number to the RFID tag will be handled manually.

One key aspect of deploying RFID is to improve the accuracy of the existing bar code system. "The current bar code system is 85 to 95 percent accurate," Shoemaker says. To identify luggage ready for loading onto planes, readers will be deployed on the luggage-holding system’s four huge luggage carousels. Readers will be deployed also at the lateral conveyors, which take luggage to loading piers where luggage is manually transferred to unit load devices (ULD)—large containers that are loaded onto the plane. An RFID reader will be clipped temporarily to each ULD to ensure that the correct luggage is loaded into the correct ULD, and then unclipped once loading is completed. The system will automatically create a manifest so that items of luggage can be traced to specific ULDs.


http://www.rfidjournal.com

RFID and cancer

As if pain, conspiracy big brother, and lack of necessity weren't already enough to deter you, the average Joe or Jane, from getting a subcutaneous RFID chip implant, a number of studies over the past decade have amassed which link the chips to malignant tumors in animal tests. Besides the potential foul play going on at the FDA and VeriChip Corp. that got the chips approved for human use in 2004, studies showing as little as 1% cancer rates in lab animals led researchers to note that the aggressive tumors which immediately encased RFID implants with cancerous cells were "clearly due to the implanted microchips", and not random occurrences. That isn't to say RFID itself is dangerous -- we put far more powerful radios up to our heads every day using a cellphone or even a Bluetooth headset. But implants are still looking mighty sketchy all of a sudden; probably not the news some 2,000 US RFID implantees (including Mythbuster Kari Byron, who got a chip injection on-camera last week) want to hear, but the sooner you can deal with it, the better, says we.

http://www.americaii.com/press/

RFID for Livestock and Animal Identification

1-RFID technology has been used to identify millions of livestock animals around the world. These systems track meat and dairy animals, valuable breeding stock and laboratory animals involved in lengthy and expensive research projects. The Australian National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) is the first and the largest implementation of RFID for animal tracking in the world.RFID transponders are worn as ear tags or as an inter-ruminal capsules. Farm management can be fully automated for such processes as feeding, weighing, disease management, and breeding practices.
2-IBM has developed radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking technology to track chickens from farms to supermarket shelves. The supplier is working with a Norwegian food producer Nortura to build a proof of concept item-level tagging application for the food industry. RFID has been used successfully to track animal movements, such as the movement of cattle during the BSE outbreak, and to protect high-value items such as whisky and clothing, But it is unusual to find examples of item-level RFID tagging in food production, according to Stefan Pique, European director at GS1, the supply chain data standards body.
http://www.electrocom.com.au/rfid_animalid.htm
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles

RFID car tracking system

RFID systems can be used to manage inventory of automobiles in new and used car dealerships and in rental car lots. Use RFID technology to track the location of each car in the lot at any time. In addition, our advanced RFID technology can automatically check cars into and out of the lot in real time. Benefits of using RFID systems include: total visibility of all cars in the lot, facilitate just-in-time delivery of cars as they are needed, allow inventory of less popular cars to be reduced, full inventory history of cars at each location, full control of inventory content and location for cars in the facility, automatic notification when a car enters or leaves the lot, alarm when a car disappears from inventory and eliminate manual record keeping, thereby increasing accuracy and staff productivity. A complete solution for the Car Dealerships asset tracking applications will contain three main RFID components: RFID Tags, RFID Readers, and software to collect and manage the RFID data. The diagram below illustrates how a car lot can be monitored in real time with active RFID readers placed such that the entire auto yard is covered. Each vehicle is equipped with an active RFID tags that can be set communicate with the reader network and report on location and movement. RFID Asset Tracking LocateWare software can report on actual location and also gather historic movement information

RFID Tracks Jewelry Sales

Fifty jewelry stores in the Middle East have begun using an RFID system designed to monitor the movement of each piece of jewelry. The system was designed by The Jewellery Store (TJS), a startup in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, specifically launched in October 2005 to develop and market the jewelry-tracking system. Other retailers throughout the world have shown an interest in the RFID solution, according to Gabriel Nasser, TJS' IT director. Currently, stores in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Bahrain are using the system, including showrooms of the multinational chain Damas Jewellery.
Jewelers in the Middle East have a special incentive to implement an RFID inventory-tracking solution. The jewelry industry there is dictated largely by the price of gold, Nasser says. For example, a gold chain's value depends strictly on its weight. Because of that, insurance costs can rise and fall with the fluctuations of the price of gold. When that price rises, Nasser says, many Middle Eastern stores can be forced out of business, unable to pay the additional cost of keeping that jewelry in their inventory.
http://www.rfidjournal.com

Two latest news about RFID application

Tag identifies vehicles traveling at 300+ MPH

1st Choice Security Solution announced its T-8000 vehicle identification tag series, designed to identify cars, trucks, buses and towed trailers traveling at 300+ MPH.

With an adjustable read range up to 2,000+ feet, the T-8000 tag can be mounted out of the driver’s sight behind the rear view mirror. Metallic windshields, metal mirrors and grills do not affect the signal, thus the tag can be mounted under the hood of the vehicle for high security applications.

RFID enables courts, law firms to track files

In courthouses and law firms keeping track of records can be a hassle. Who checked them out? Did they sign them back in? The amount of time it can take to locate a missing record eats up valuable resources.

Courts and law firms around the country are looking to RFID to keep track of files. Some of the systems are more elaborate than others, says Tom Pemberton with San Jose, Calif.-based FileTrail Inc. Some deploy RFID systems that can track a file in transit, while others track who checked it out and when it occurred. Often handheld devices are used to track missing files.

RFID inventory control

As we know many companies are now using sophisticated Warehouse Management Systems integrated with Supply Chain Systems, Enterprise Systems, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the movement and tracking of goods through the manufacturing and supply chain process is still a complex procedure which is difficult to manage.

Currently, most material tracking systems employ two-dimensional barcodes that must be close to and within the "line of sight" of the barcode reader. This requires manual scanning or a conveyor-like process to position the barcode and scanner. Barcodes can run the risk of getting wet or scratched due to mishandling or a harsh environment, which often prevents accurate reading by the scanner. Manual intervention is labor intensive, costly, and error-prone. In addition, scheduled scanning or manual methods cannot ensure the inventory remains up-to-date, due to oversights, errors, and internal shrinkage.

With RFID solution, inventory can be updated in real time without product movement, scanning or human involvement. Our fully automated system allows inventory status to be determined, and shipping & receiving documents to be generated automatically. The system could also trigger automatic orders for products that are low in inventory.

Benefits of using RFID Systems:

• Provides total asset visibility
• Gives full inventory history
• Allows reduced inventory-stocking levels
• Facilitates "Just-in-Time" deliveries
• Provides full process control for products in the facility
• Reduces lead-time
• Shortens cross docking time
• Speeds up sort/pick rate
• Reduces shelf space
• Provides higher-level security
• Reduces errors
• Reduces overall cost of operations

http://www.activewaveinc.com/