Tag Europe '99 took place under the auspices of the Automatic Identification Manufacturers Association (AIM) on 6-7 May 1999, in Antwerp Belgium. Danie Lategan and Kevin Phillips from Automatic Identification Technologies (AIT), South Africa, together with their specialist consultant Bill Halkett, attended the conference on their way to the annual IFSEC exhibition in Birmingham, where AIT launched its Link-it active asset-tagging product in Europe.
More than 30 papers were delivered over the two day period, covering a wide range of topics related to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), with specific reference to passive RF tagging in the retail industry, a very fast developing element in retailing, with tremendous growth and application potential. AIM is providing good guidance to its members, and established many workgroups ensuring structured and organic growth in this fast emerging market. "Virtually no mention was made of active tagging", says AIT's Danie Lategan. "Either the support for the passive small 'chip-device' is too strong and the price too competitive, or there are no active RFID products available to fill the appropriate niche markets segments. However, it was clear that many of the applications described were made more complex and expensive than necessary because active tags had not been used," says Lategan.
Standards and common protocols
Speaker after speaker, pleaded for standards and common protocols, to ensure interchangeability between tagging and reader systems, and for standard applications methods which will allow a wide common use of this new technology across industries and technology suppliers. Certainly a challenge, but with no clear-cut answer. All involved were asked to bring ideas to the table and to participate in the many work groups and ISO committees. The implementation of a set of standard frequencies is of course another issue, and whether common ground will be found on this sensitive issue, is to be seen.
The absence of active RFID tagging as a solution in the automatic identification of assets and people on the International scene is a challenge for the Link-it product range. Kevin Phillips, operations manager of AIT is of the opinion that the inherent differences of the AIT product, compared to what was previously available, will make a difference, in the market.
Says Phillips, "The price of a single item cannot be used to evaluate the competitiveness of the product in the market, the cost of the total solution must be used to compare the different technologies."
AIT is concentrating on finding integrators and distributors for its core products, the Link-it tags and readers, to be used in the various applications with unique client driven software applications.
"Our product lends itself to the automatic identification of property, people and items, as well as their location. Because we also provide a Time and Date stamp for each of the events, integrators can provide their clients with Real Time Resource Control", concludes Lategan. "We are very keen to observe the reaction of the International market to our product. IFSEC'99 will be a good indicator for AIT."
For details contact Danie Lategan of AIT on tel: (011) 325 0320 or fax: (011) 325 0341.
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