The stimulus spending package, or American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, authorizes $23B in spending for healthcare information technology, with a key focus on the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) by 2014. Of this, $2B is available immediately to begin the process of building infrastructure and support for EHR deployment. According to [...]

CIT Group’s well-publicized troubles could spell challenges for the U.S. retail and apparel market, which is a concern of the National Retail Federation. Such challenges might have the impact of further delaying several promising RFID apparel projects. CIT is a commercial lender, which provides $5B of funding to the U.S. retail industry in the form [...]

Container Centralen, a European based provider and pool administrator of transport trolleys for the floral industry, will enable its entire fleet of 3.5M trolleys with Gen 2 based RFID by February 1, 2010. The primary application will be to confirm the authenticity of CC containers, but we expect Container Centralen’s 23,000 customers will be able [...]

The July 2009 edition of RFID Monthly is now available. In this edition of the newsletter, we cover several new industry developments, including the following:
Security Increasingly Addressed. The Security Research Group released a white paper on RFID tag security, concluding that some existing security aspects are adequate for several of today’s applications. However, the group also [...]

The Security Research Group (SRG), a work group within BRIDGE, released a white paper on RFID tag security, which indicated that some existing security aspects are adequate for several of today’s applications. However, the report also concluded more emphasis and work must be done to facilitate increased security in order to expand the base of [...]

Datamars introduced IntelliSort, a RFID-based sorting system for mid-sized industrial launderers. The IntelliSort system uses HF RFID tags attached to each garment to provide accurate sequencing information to automated sorting equipment of laundered garments ready for shipment to customers. Most existing systems leverage bar coding, which requires significant labor for scanning. The system has been [...]

Ambient ID introduced its LabTrack solution, which leverages RFID to track specimen samples from hospitals to delivery at diagnostics labs. The solution tags specimen vials with UHF Gen 2 compliant RFID inlays and leverages wireless readers at the point of sample pick up, during transportation and at the lab. The automated process versus traditional bar [...]

Recent press has indicated that Ericsson vice president of systems architecture, Hakan Djuphammer, suggested nearly every new phone will be equipped with near-field communication based (NFC) RFID. Our inquiries to Ericsson do suggest strong interest in the technology, particularly for mobile payment and mobile lock applications. And, while they continue to see progress, they did [...]

In the March edition of RFID Monthly, we discussed the dwindling availability of highway funds given lower tax receipts and that RFID-based tolling was a potential revenue generator. This past June, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in testifying before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee indicated that funding continues to be problematic. Secretary LaHood indicated [...]

The European Commission released “An action plan for Europe” related to the Internet of Things, which will address RFID in key ways. Recall, the Internet of Things is a vision of the future where objects, which might include people, goods, books, cars, trees, electrical appliances and so forth, can be connected together in a complex [...]