Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) researchers have come up with a tracking device that could be used to monitor the spatial movement of those suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
The device, which is called the Alzheimer's real time location system, could help care-givers monitor the patients remotely in real time. “You can study the patient's behavior and take appropriate actions, for example, if he eats up to 22 times or spends too long in the toilet,” said researcher Assoc Dr Abdul Rashid Mohamed Shariff at UPM here Wednesday. Looks like active WiFi system to me.

Siemens track pharma using rfid

Siemens RFID monitors pharma, sensitive freight

DB Schenker is now using RFID (radiofrequency identification) technology from Siemens to continuously monitor the temperature of its sensitive air freight, such as pharmaceuticals. Siemens together with its partners developed the system that continuously monitors products with the help of RFID chips. The chips feature an integrated temperature sensor, which provides important data about the condition of a product.

Prince Court Medical Center use rfid for baby tagging

The Prince Court Medical Center, located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, recently adopted a new system to heighten security measures involving newborns.

The hospital will begin placing -embedded straps and tags on infants and mothers, to ensure no abduction or misplacement occurs. The center will also tag its equipment and other assets to track.

"What was needed was a preemptive safety measure that would effectively serve as a secondary deterrent and a back-up to the hospital's existing security measures [for tracking patients and assets],” said Shrinita Yogeswaran, PCMC's IT application manager. The hospital’s previous system involved scanning barcodes or using ID numbers on labels to track individuals or assets.

The medical center is a 300-bed, six-floor, multi-speciality-care hospital, meaning the attention needed to keep all assets and patients secure is great. Thus, the efficiency and effectiveness of RFID tags serves as a perfect solution.

Other hospitals have begun adopting similiar systems. The inclusion of RFID tags or barcode software on medicine has allowed medical centers to cut down on the rising amount of counterfeit drugs in the marketplace.

Use TEKLYNX barcode labeling software to create RFID tags with ease.

JUPEM Malaysia tracking maps using RFID

Jupem doing digital maps, now, tracking products using passive RFID. This is to prevent original products from being copied . And if customer is found to have the map without the rfid, they will be fine. Visit www.jupem.gov.my

Resorts World Sentosa using RFID track garments

Garment tracking at RWS Singapore

According to Chan, RWS invested S$5 million (US$3.6 million) in the uniform management system and laundry service which has allowed the integrated resort operator to reap savings from reducing its staff requirements by two-third and floor space by 50 percent.

An example of manpower and cost savings lies in the uniform management platform installed at RWS, which has a “two-way interface” with the laundry vendor’s own IT system, he said. This setup allows his staff to monitor the amount of laundry entering its facility without having to go down to the resort.

Furthermore, the system automates the delivery order (DO) receipt for each day’s garment delivery–sent and received–which helps free up time and manpower for his staff to focus on other areas of business, he added.

With regard to the sorting of garments, Chan revealed that RWS had installed RFID readers at the opening and end of the chute, where employees dispose their used uniforms, to track the movement of the clothing.

To achieve “99 percent accuracy”, readers were installed in two directions so that they can better capture the signal emitted by an RFID tag even if the garment is crumpled as this would distort the signals, he said.

Garment tracking starts and ends at the uniform collection room so employees need not worry that their movements will be monitored throughout the resort, Chan said.

He said the RWS deployment is a “proof-of-concept” that illustrates Laundry Network’s expertise and technical ability to launder and manage up to 20,000 pieces of garment daily. The company is able to handle loads of up to 60,000 garments daily, he added.

Laundry Network also has plans to set up two RFID-based self-service kiosks for consumers at both Anchorpoint and Parkway Parade shopping malls “later in the year”, Chan revealed.

He said this service will be extended to a pool of “VIP customers” that will be given a RFID-enabled “prestige card”. These consumers need only to drop off their soiled clothing at the kiosk, swipe their card through the reader and, once their garments are processed, have their clothing sent back to them.

Each kiosk will set the company back around S$20,000 (US$14,566) and S$30,000 (US$21,849), he added.

Asked about plans to use RFID to track individual consumers’ garments, Chan said the company will only look to implement that in a year’s time. He cited the high investment cost of around S$100,000 (US$72,830) and S$200,000 (US$145,660) as the reason why Laundry Network is reinventing its business in stages.

Woman in RFID

The 5th edition of the much anticipated corporate event for L’Oréal Malaysia- For Women in Science award ceremony 2010 was held at Hilton Kuala Lumpur on 12 of October to honor the 3 young women researchers that was granted RM20,000 financial assistance to pursue their scientific project in Malaysia. The 2010 National Fellowships recipients are Dr. Widad binti Ismail, Dr. Lim Kue Peng and Chong Pan Pan. Launched in 2006, the L’Oréal Malaysia ‘For Women in Science’ program is in partnership with the Malaysian National Commission for UNESCO and in support with the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Higher Education. This Award is provided in recognition of exceptional women in the field of science and encouraging young women to pursue scientific careers and make their dreams come true.

One of recipients for 2010 is:

Dr. Widad binti Ismail- Senior Lecturer,School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her project focuses on the development and implementation of smart health community using second generation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a technology that uses radio waves to automatically identify people, objects, or place at a distance without a direct line-of- sight. Her work targets to build RFID applications on medicine administration and patient identification, This system also helps to distinguish forged and expired medicines and monitors the availability of medicines to ensure sufficient stocks for emergency requirements. RFID holds significant promises to improve efficiency of service delivery in the healthcare sector.

RFID on Haj Pilgrimage

The RFID System, or ‘Radio Frequency Identification’, invented by researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is expected to be used by those performing the Haj once it receives accreditation from the Saudi Arabian government next year.

The system which makes use of radio frequency to identify a person could help resolve various problems that the Saudi Arabian government faces each year during the Haj. The RFID system will help to manage the millions of pilgrims who flood Mecca, especially from the aspect of safety.

According to Prof. Kamarulaizi Ibrahim, the Director of the Haj Research Cluster, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), the RFID System can store personal information and data of the pilgrims.

With this, it can help the immigration authorities in Saudi Arabia handle matters related to the pilgrims from overseas as the processing is guaranteed to be swifter and more effective than the present system which takes almost three hours.

“The pilgrims do not have to worry about carrying the requisite information for personal identification as the RFID System can store personal information and citizenship such as the person’s name, the next-of-kin, baggage, flight details, traveling arrangements by bus, accommodation and other pertinent information,” he said.

He said this during the press conference after the launching of the ‘4th Seminar on Hajj Best Practices Through Advances in Sciences and Technology’ which was officiated by Special Religious Advisor to the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Dr. Abdullah Md. Zin at Eastin Hotel, Penang.

He added that the concept of the RFISD System has been introduced to Ummu Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia and has been well-received. If there are no objections, the university will assist USM in obtaining confirmation and accreditation from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Saudi Arabia so that it can be used in 2011.

Prior to this, USM has conducted various kinds of research with Ummu Al-Qura University, especially with regard to problems faced by the Saudi Arabian government during the Haj season. These problems include overcrowding, cleanliness, solid waste disposal, accidents and the improvement of air quality throughout the Haj season.

“Currently, almost 100 USM researchers and researchers from Ummu Al-Qura University are working together to upgrade and improve all aspects deemed important during the Haj season. At present, both parties are carrying out research on a subway system for the passage of the pilgrims, including a water system, communication system and an effective system in the event of emergencies,” he added.

LPG customer using RFID tag

Malaysian liquid propane gas (LPG) supplier Elpiji is using radio frequency identification to automate the process of filling gas cylinders, attaching low-frequency (LF) passive RFID tags to several hundred such cylinders at its Penang plant. The technology has enabled the company to reduce the time required for workers to process cylinders from 30 seconds down to two.

To implement the RFID system, Elpiji enlisted the help of New Zealand RFID reader developer EDiT iD, which believes it has created the world's first RFID interrogator certified for use within an explosive environment.

Elpiji provides gas cylinders to domestic customers for use in household kitchens, says Geoffrey Lee, special assistant to the company's executive director. When a cylinder is returned to Elpiji, two critical pieces of information must be determined before it can be refilled. The first is the tare weight, or weight of the empty cylinder. Some cylinders are returned containing residual gas, and if the tare weight is inaccurate, the system will overfill the cylinders, thus wasting gas, or underfill them and distribute a partially filled cylinder to customers.

The second piece of required information is the cylinder's date of manufacture. Most countries have a requirement for cylinders to be tested 10 years after manufacture, and some gas companies also require cylinders to be refurbished every five years.

Previously, when an empty cylinder arrived at the refilling plant, an operator manually read and keyed in the cylinder's tare weight, then visually verified it was within the requirements for testing or refurbishment. If the cylinder had passed its use-by date, it was manually removed from the conveyor. The process could take an average of 30 seconds per cylinder, thereby creating bottlenecks on the filling line.

"We wanted to develop a system that did not require staff to manually input information such as the tare weight," Lee says. "RFID is more accurate when reading information and, unlike bar codes, will not be damaged as easily."

EDiT iD's first task was to develop an RFID interrogator that could be safely used within the hazardous area of an LPG filling plant. To that end, the company developed the Model 0205 reader, certified for compliance with IECEx standards for electronic equipment used in explosive environments.

The system also utilizes 125 kHz LF tags from German company Tectus that comply with the ISO-IEC 18000-2 standards, and also meet the ATEX hazardous environment requirements established by the European Union.

Because of the potential danger inherent in operating RFID within an explosive environment, Lee says, the development and approval process took more than five years. "Ensuring the readers, tags and antennas were explosion-proof was the biggest challenge," he states, "as was ensuring there was no interference because of the amount of steel in the plant. So it is important to continue fine-tuning the system."

The tag is matched to a database record that includes the tare weight and manufacture date, says EDiT iD's general manager, Mark Powell. Now, when a cylinder is placed on the conveyor belt, two fixed-position readers identify each cylinder and verify its eligibility to be refilled and reissued.

If no tag is attached to the cylinder, it is automatically pushed to a side conveyor for rejected cylinders. Likewise, if the manufacturing date exceeds regulations, the gas cylinder is rejected.

Each cylinder meeting all necessary requirements is forwarded to the next stage, where a dispenser pumps in the exact amount of gas required to fill that cylinder. The cylinders are then automatically routed to inspection, cleaning and other stations. The whole process takes two seconds, requiring no human intervention.

Elpiji uses production control software from Kosel Industries, which modified its system to accept the RFID information.

By using radio frequency identification, Powell says, Elpiji will eventually be able to process as many as 700 cylinders an hour at its small processing plants, and up to 3,600 cylinders per hour at its larger factories. "Without RFID," he says, "that is not possible because of the human intervention, such as reading the date of manufacture, and reading and manually keying in the tare weight of cylinders."

According to Powell, there is significant potential to expand the RFID system at Elpiji's factories throughout the Asia Pacific region. "At the moment, Elpiji has no way of knowing where its gas cylinders are once they leave the filling plant," he explains. "In some countries, gas cylinders can be stolen by other gas companies, or stolen and sold for scrap metal."

Guard House using RFID

Last week, i visit an old friend in Cahaya SPK, in Shah Alam and guess what? The guard house is using RFID Barrier gate system to read tags when residents arrive at the gate (5m read range). Another moment in rfid application for the property segment (No more touch n go!). Cost from RM16K onwards. check out www.mmdt.cc/MDTI/

TECH.ED delegates track by RFID

Microsoft on Monday announced plans to track Australian delegates attending its annual Tech.Ed conference in Sydney 2008 using RFID tags embedded in conference badges.
The move comes months after 50 academics, researchers and students at the University of Washington (UW) began a social networking experiment, which has seen participants voluntarily tag themselves. The system records the location of tags every 5 seconds and publishes movements to a Web page.

In Australia, human-targeted deployments of RFID tags have largely been limited to state prison systems. ACT Corrective Services in April said it had commissioned U.S. RFID provider Alanco and NEC Australia to install a Wi-Fi-compatible inmate-tracking system within its walls.
Microsoft's social experiment can take place only over the five days of the conference, although it could involve a much larger sample size than the UW experiment, with the conference typically attracting no fewer than 1,000 delegates.

The software giant will allow delegates to opt out of the tracking experiment, but they will be enticed to participate with the offer of greater access to conference information. Delegates who opt out will have standard barcodes printed on their badges instead.

The benefits promoted to delegates to partake the RFID tag experiment include access to real-time information on when sessions are filling up, the ability to see what sessions others are interested in, and tracking where Microsoft so-called MVPs (most valuable players) and regional directors are.

Microsoft will also track sessions that each delegate attends and will use that information to customize sessions, the company said in a press statement. It will also send delegates an instant record of what sessions they have attended.

The RFID tracking system took just three weeks to build and deploy, according to Microsoft.

Helveta RFID tiimber tracking

Amajor pilot of Helveta’s timber tracking software and radio frequency identification system has been completed in Malaysia. And the

Oxford-based company now predicts take-up

of its technology growing worldwide as pressure

mounts on supplier countries and individual supplier companies to verify wood legality and sustainability. The Malaysian project was carried out in a 129,143ha concession in the state of Terengganu in conjunction with the Forestry Department of PeninsularMalaysia (FDPM) and Terengganu State Forestry Department. All trees tracked through the chain of custody were tagged using one of two passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags compliant with the EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6C standards. The tags were selected based on availability and form-factor criteria. One tag operated at a frequency of 860 to 960 MHz, the other at 865 to 869 MHz.

RFID tags were either stapled to a tree or log, or nailed in with a hammer, to determine the best method of attachment. None of the tags were damaged during the process, despite the fact that they lacked special protective coverings. Four RFID-enabled Teklogix Workabout handheld computers, running Helveta's CI Mobile data-capture software, were used in the field to read a unique ID reference number encoded to each tag. From there, RFID-enabled Workabout devices were utilized to confirm the ID number at the various checkpoints along the supply chain as trees were felled, and as logs were processed.

Rfid for AT870 PDA

Thin, rugged design from its the needs of the mobile worker 256K Color, Transflective TFT, LCD backlight give the color definitionand clarify the screen from ATID. It can read tags between 1~4m (UHF is depended on tag) & output power max 0.6W

RFID in Hospital

The article taken from The Star, discussed the application of RFID in hospital. Some of the facts discussed:

1. RFID tag stores information
2. Doctors and nurses carrying RFID tag readers, perhaps attached to Portable PCs or personal digital assistants (PDAs), could retrieve up-to-date information from the patient’s wristband if the hospital information system is down.
3. Convenient for doctors who could refer to or update patient records from the bedside, as they make clinical observations, prescribe medication or order medical procedures.
4. Implementing RFID in a hospital information system could help cut down on errors as well as reduce the clerical workload for nurses, freeing them to get on with actual nursing.
5. RFID tags are more physically robust than barcode tags, are reusable.

However, the limitations faced are:
1. Not all Malaysian private hospital has converted from its barcode-based information system to an RFID-based one.
2. Cost is an issue, with RFID tagging systems costing over twice as much as barcode-based ones. RFID tags cost from 15 cents (54 sen) to over US$30 (RM100) each – depending on data capacity and whether the tag is “active” (carries a radio transmitter), among other things – as compare to barcode tag only costs as much as the paper it is printed on.
3. Issuing doctors and nurses with additional IT equipment ranging from Tablet PCs to PDAs.
adding to the implementation costs to the hospital,
4. Raise potential security and privacy risks for confidential patient data if the devices are lost or stolen.

Sooner or later, RFID will be a common application in hospitals, and may be in schools, Theme Parks, Car parks, you name it.

CISC Tag emulator

This Tag emulator will be able to set various tag parameters as per the intended application and the emulated tags could be fully controlled and adjusted as per parameters decided upon. The performance and timing parameters can be adjusted to match different situations. Not only common test scenarios but even reader evaluation at the edge of specifications can be achieved. If it had been the normal RFID tags evaluation would have been difficult since borderline parameters could not be adjusted in this case. What else the Emulator can even imitate complex standards such as EPCglobalTM Class 1 Gen 2 UHF RFID Protocol and even upcoming protocols. Looks pretty good to me!!

Fancy 2D-Tag on Magazines

What is Semapedia?

The goal is to connect the virtual and physical world by bringing the right information from the internet to the relevant place in physical space.

To accomplish this, we invite you to create Semapedia-Tags which are in fact cellphone-readable physical hyperlinks. You can create such 2D Barcode Tags easily yourself by choosing and pasting a Wikipedia URL into the form above. Once created, you put the Tags up at their according physical location. You just hyperlinked your world! Others can now use their cellphone to 'click' your Tag and access the information you provided them. Pretty cool!

RFID for Roller shutter

This is the system architecture for tracking roller shutter during maintenance in Frankfurt Airport. Custom tag is using 13.56MHz, attach to metallic shutter which the technician will read the tag using mobile RFID device displaying eg. last inspection date. After inspection any defects are noted, later the technician will download data back to SAP back-end server via docking station. Hopefully, Malaysia's own SKB Shutter Manufacturing can emulate this rfid application.