Next-Tech News

Cambridge-IBM researchers see new features during Ge nanowire synthesis

Cambridge-IBM researchers see new features during Ge nanowire synthesis

At TLC Care Center, dementia patients wear wristbands with active tags that trigger alerts and lock doors if they approach an exit.

'Wonder material' has yet another wondrous property

'Wonder material' has yet another wondrous property

The Aberdeen Group finds that 57 percent of retailers using or planning to deploy RFID prefer to employ the technology at the item level, and that many are utilizing the technology to improve inventory accuracy, as well as for a range of other applications.

Chinese team reports environmentally friendly strategy for preparing and arranging gold nanoparticles

Spec Performance, a leading Quebec swimming specialty shop and sports events organizer, has announced that after 3 successful pilot runs in June it will now use its newly developed RFID timekeeping system at all its sporting events, including triathlons and swim races.

After years of searching for an accurate and affordable timekeeping solution, Simon Faucher, president of Spec Performance, decided to mandate the Microsoft award-winning TESTeam at Montreal’s Academia RFID Centre of Excellence to design, develop and test a new UHF RFID solution to answer the specific needs and environmental challenges associated with triathlons.

Existing systems using RF antenna-equipped floor-mats didn’t easily lend themselves to swimming and bicycling events and therefore UHF RFID snap-pipe portals were built to create read points at transition areas and the finish line. Waterproof UHF wristbands and bib tags were tested and selected based on size, placement and performance to offer the most accurate read rates.

“This was exactly what I envisioned when I asked the TESTeam six months ago to evaluate the feasibility of this timing solution,” said Faucher. “We worked together to make sure the system would meet the exact criteria of the specific events I organize and I can’t say enough about the experience of creating a new application with existing components without feeling the pressure of working with pre-determined hardware vendors.”

“Every time we start a project, we make sure to clearly define the objectives and then work with a client to guide them step by step through to the process of designing, developing and testing a new solution while remaining vendor-neutral,” added Anthony Palermo, Director at Academia RFID, “this way we can deliver intelligent and application-specific solutions to our clients’ industry-focused business problems.”

The Spec Performance system manages both events and participants; including timing, ranking and simultaneous multi-event reporting and is now being used at events across Quebec.

Lenovo offers ThinkPads with NFC module from NXP Semiconductor, Toppan Printing; Zebra unveils next-gen ultra-wideband real-time locating system; U.S. Marine Corps deploys more RFID tracking kits to forces in Afghanistan; Buffalo, N.Y., Metro to deploy TagMaster RFID train-tracking solution; CAEN RFID announces new UHF desktop reader; more than 2 billion RFID tags to be sold this year, IDTechEx study says; HID Global, Inside Contactless team up on secure NFC mobile phones.

Optimum Path Systems' data center management software is being packaged with RF Code's active RFID tags and readers.

Mountain View, Calif., - Smart Card Alliance - The U.S. Permanent Resident Card (‘Green Card’) supplied by LaserCard Corporation has been judged the world’s leading government ID card in terms of technology and user utility in a new report by Frost & Sullivan.

Thirteen large government ID programs from around the world are assessed in the report. Rankings were based on a combination of factors including security, durability, utility, range of applications, and demand or adoption by end users.

Shyam Krishnan, Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan and author of the LaserCard-sponsored report, said, “Our report identified a representative sample of government ID projects based on a multi-faceted ranking system. The U.S. Green Card scored particularly well due to the extreme levels of security, large data storage capacity, the presence of an RFID chip and the flexibility provided by its optical security media (OSM).”

Other notable card projects mentioned in the report included the chip-based multi-functional Malaysian MyKad national identity card; the OSM-based Costa Rican Foreign Resident Card and the Carabinieri (Italian National Police) ID card, which features a combination of contact and contactless chip, and optical security media.

Robert DeVincenzi, president and CEO at LaserCard, said, “We are pleased that our customers have been recognized for their leadership in the innovative application of security methods and technology. We believe the report points to a growing trend in the application of layered and integrated document security techniques.”

The report examines a number of industry trends and imperatives:

• the growing sophistication of ID card technology and construction
• the importance of multiple layers of visual, physical and digital security
• an increasing requirement for high functionality
• the growing need for scalable government ID solutions that allow for the addition of data over time and the challenges faced in accommodating this feature
• growing interest from governments worldwide in advanced ID cards: Frost & Sullivan forecast global shipments rising from 450 million units in 2009 to 650 million by 2015
• the need for storage of increasingly large volumes of personal data, biometrics and other identification mechanisms on the card itself, which has led to a migration towards chips and optical security media

U.S. Green Card
Through the U.S. government’s Financial Year 2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has issued more than 30 million ID cards incorporating optical security media. There is no known case of the optical security media having been successfully counterfeited or compromised.

The Frost & Sullivan report describes the newly redesigned 2010 U.S. Green Card as ‘among the most physically secure and counterfeit-resistant machine-readable identification cards ever issued’. The new card builds on the success of the legacy OSM-based Green Card, introduced in 1997, and leverages USCIS’ expertise as the world leader in personalizing optical security media ID cards. The new card also features an ICAO-compliant design and its embedded RFID tag ensures compatibility with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).

www.smartcardalliance.org

Combined carbon nanotube and carbon nanosphere structures could be useful for electrochemical devices

Complex nanostructures produced at room temperature using one-step, eco-friendly process

Analysis should benefit the design of future soft nanoimprint lithography layouts

Vedanta is using a UHF EPC Gen 2 RFID system to track the arrival and departure of contractors and employees at its smelter, as well as the weight of coal delivered to its power plant.