Wireless Rfid Data Acquisition.

"Wireless RFID data acquisition, value-chain applications and storage networks will create new business models, much like the cell phone has shifted the market from voice-only to a range of messaging, data and transaction services," said England in a keynote address to thousands of attendees at RFID World 2005. "At the edge of wireless and wireless sensor networks, RFID is converging with Electronic Product Code (EPC) and sensor technology to unlock new applications that go beyond identification to include everything from authentication to temperature, time expiration, pressure and condition monitoring."

From inventory control to fast checkouts at the supermarket, the technology is transforming many existing applications and enabling new ones. At the front end, the "signal chain" starts with small tags attached to the units of interest; the tags convey information in the form of a bit stream to an RFID reader that detects when tags are present in a specific area, and reads the information they carry. At the back end, a server-based system maintains and updates the tag database, generating alerts or initiating other information-based processes within the enterprise.

With a growing use in industrial environments, the RFID allows to obtain information of any component using wireless technology. This information allows the location of people and equipment in real time with the possibility of making a geographic monitoring of all the events associated with the production lines. The implementation of an automatic solution for acquisition and control involves the installation of a PLC connected with a PC ( "Supervisor of Production"). Associated to the PLC is a communications board, from which the network database is extended sensor to sensor. Thus, the PLC receives all the data network and controls the parameters of the system actuators. The network management is made on the PC ("Supervision of Production") where the data collected, after their treatment, are stored in the Database Server, for further consultation of SISTRADE PRINT.

PGS has developed a Windows (2000 / XP) compatible program that provides the customer with RFID tag data management and data logging. Tag identification, User/Product name, Time In, Time out, Sensor / Alarm condition, and battery life are easily viewed with this program.

RFID systems are most commonly used in applications for asset identification, tracking and management. Data within an individual RFID tag identifies the asset and can provide information such as the owner or manufacturer, intended destination, current location, serial number, and shipping and handling instructions. These types of applications typically use what is referred to as "passive" RFID tags. In more sophisticated applications, more detailed data, such as assembly instructions, can be included in an "active" RFID tag. For example, an RFID tag in an automotive plant can specify the color of paint for a car body as it enters a paint spray area on the production line.

Texas Instruments has the critical wireless competencies that extend from its number one analog chip position in cell phones to its 15 years of innovation in wireless RFID highlighted by application milestones in automotive anti-theft and library books, to the Exxon/Mobil Speedpass payment system. The company is nearing a production milestone of 500 million RFID tags and is gearing up to produce billions of chips, straps, inlays and reader modules for retail supply chain, contactless commerce and pharmaceutical applications. TI is engaged with leading companies in the enterprise value chain in these markets including consumer packaged goods manufacturers (CPGs), retailers, credit card companies, point-of-sale (POS) terminal providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, label converter companies and systems integrators.

In short, by implementing RFID- a complete system of transceivers and tags-one can achieve visibility to any asset within the RF range. This visibility creates all types of monitoring and data acquisition capabilities and the gathered data can be aggregated and used in innumerable ways. But perhaps more intriguing is the possibility-if RFID systems are cleverly integrated with an organisation's line of business equipment-for that equipment to act (to some degree) almost independently on the information it receives via RFID. In this way, RFID is an important component of the burgeoning M2M (machine-to-machine) communication movement. Once again, however, all of this is contingent upon the RFID system's ability to successfully integrate with the other hardware and software systems found in the environment in which the RFID system is deployed.

In locating, asset management, and muster scenarios RFID tag information may need to be sent to a remote central station(s). PGS provides a wireless 1 20 mile spread spectrum link capable of true peer to peer MESH network transfer of data. The RFID tag READERS can transfer local RFID tag data through a daisy chain network to the remote central station.

Manufacturer of stand-alone & wireless data acquisition & collection systems including remote weather stations. Features of data acquisition systems include aluminum environmental enclosure, datalogger, 12 V battery, wiring panel and color-coded and keyed connectors.

The RFID Tag can be set to a range of between 3 and 300 feet. When the RFID Receiver detects a Tag it first determines if the decoded ID is a valid Tag ID. At this point, the reader stores the tags entry and exit time in its database and also provides a real time data stream to a host computer.

IntelliTrack, Inc., the leading developer of affordable software for barcode and RFID data collection, has partnered with Lowry Computer Products, Inc., a national manufacturer and systems integrator providing premier technology in wireless, RFID-EPC, barcode and data collection solutions. The new team is providing a complete RFID Asset Management solution. The companies have worked collectively to offer a starter kit for IntelliTrack's recent release of DMS version 5.2, Fixed Assets RFID software.

For the key elements to lead to the best business processes with strategic methods, managed services are introduced. Managed services aging data more efficiently and delivering results according to management tasks experienced radical change in the move to multiple locations within the business scale, rather than the single location scenario of the past. Logistics, manufacturing, retailing, and telecom, are all verticals requiring heavy data capture at the edge domain. In the near future, the number of verticals will keep rising, according to IDATE. At this point, wireless M2M is propelling communication to strike sparks between data and data centers.

Current automated data capture systems combine technologies with applications for more efficient processes and accurate data reporting. You can carry out multiple applications, such as bar code scanning, mobile computing, voice and RFID recording, with hand-held data capture devices. Now supply chain systems using data capture technology can make decisions from real-time reporting.

RFID (radio frequency identification) enablement, opened up to wireless M2M solutions by its technological maturity and readiness for commercialization, is the answer to this challenge. Industrial data acquisition expert, ICP DAS, taps its DAQ solutions with RFID into IBM's gigantic multi-to-multi system architecture to offer considerable amounts of real-time information. The purpose of this combination, other than just being able to utilise RFID technology, is to validate service right at the edge domain. It's a kind of reverse of the data center mindset, according to which services can only be accessed or provided from a data center.

Manufacturer of portable and wireless data collection and acquisition systems. Data collection systems include customized hardware and software. Data collection hardware includes hand held scanners, cordless barcode scanners, batch terminals, wireless terminals, barcode printers and wireless networks.

IBM's SOA topology, now redirects data in a progressive way, as the service is activated by the message and data through the applications from the antenna & reader domain and edge domain. RFID is perfect for an advancing system architecture migration, with the passive tags, ZigBee tag, receivers, handheld reader, dock / door reader, visual indicators, and switches and sensors.

Let's examine this point a bit more closely. Over the last ten years Ethernet networking has grown increasingly popular as a communications medium for industrial applications, largely due to the fact that Ethernet has the ability to reach beyond the plant floor. Indeed, Ethernet is already entrenched as the standard in most corporate business settings, that is, most corporations' entire networking infrastructures are Ethernet-based. Suddenly, thanks to the Ethernet networking interface, you now have the ability to access the controllers operating the systems and equipment on your plant floor, and send and receive production data, alarm messages, status information over that network to any database running on any computer or server. This is commonly referred to as PC-based control and data acquisition.

G-TALK is 25mW/500mW wireless repeater designed to extend the operating range of the G-TELEMETRY RFID Sensors network. It is based on GT&T Ultra-Low-Power technology offering a battery life of up to several years with zero or minimal installation work. This module provides a long range radio repeater function between devices (G-THERM, G-SENSE, etc.) in a secondary network and a central data collection point which can monitors several secondary networks.

Researchers are also devising ways to deal with the many technical challenges involved in sorting RFID data. As data floods in, the researchers would like to make sense of it. They also want to develop a main database where people can find the information they need, but can't abuse it by looking at too much of other people's personal information. Proposals include systems that would impose a cost for looking up certain types of information, or that would let people see who is accessing their data.

A return on investment of this technology can also be realized in other industrial and government sectors. Using building sensors that intelligently target the application of fire suppression sprinklers within a building, businesses can recover from small fires more quickly and insurance costs can be reduced. By embedding sensors into bridges that cooperate to automatically verify the safety of these structures after an earthquake, city infrastructures can quickly return to normal operation. Over time, such applications of wireless sensor networking can reduce the cost of doing business.