AUTO-ID Labs at MIT

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RFID Special Interest Group Presents:

RFID in Sports Events

Monday, June 4

RFID technologies have brought a new dimension to sporting events –
information. The right information delivered to the right people at the
right time will add value, opportunity and enjoyment to sports of all kinds.
For years, Boston Marathon has been using RFID solution to time thousands of
runners. In addition, 2006 FIFA World Cup used RFID enabled tickets to
reduce ticketing fraud and acquire more comprehensive customer information.
2008 Beijing Olympics is expected to follow the suite. We welcome you to
participate in this session on such a fun usage of RFID technologies.

Time: Monday, June 4, 6:00p.m. 8:00 p.m.
Location: Stata Center, MIT, Cambridge
Cost: RFID SIG Members Free - All others $10 payable at the door

Registration required
http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/rfid/events/2007-06/register.html

Our Speakers:

Bill Babcock, K2 Sports

K2 Sports manufactures and markets recreational products. The company's
products include snowboards, snowshoes, bikes, in-line skates, and ski
equipment. It markets its products under Tubbs, Morrow, Atlas, Madshus, and
Poweridge brand names. K2 Sports, formerly known as K-2 Corporation, was
founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company
operates as a subsidiary of Sitca Corporation.


 Edward Gonsalves, NXP

Edward Gonsalves has over 25 years of experience in the semiconductor
industry, having held various position s in design, marketing, sales and
business development. Edward has 7 patents, has published numerous papers
and is a frequent speaker on a variety of RFID topics. In his current role,
Edward in responsible for NXP's RFID efforts in North America.

 NXP Background

Founded by Philips, NXP is a top ten semiconductor company with over 50
years of semicondcutor experience. The Identification Business Unit is a
frequency agnostic and standards base organization which has shipped more
than 2 billion RFID ICs.


Louis Bianchin, VDC, on behalf of DAG System

DAG System is the leading manufacturer of long distance HF RFID solutions
and services for any setting, including harsh environments. DAG System
designs and manufactures RFID solutions for a range of demanding industries
including Field Service, Public Safety, Utilities, Field Service,
Transportation & Logistics as well as the Sports industry.

DAG System's solutions help increase the productivity and transmission of
data collection for a wide variety of applications, such as stock control,
access control, timing global solutions for sports, smart marketing, asset
tracking and inspection (vehicle and buildings).

RFID Academic Convocations Bridge Gaps

A recent event in Europe and the upcoming meeting in conjunction with RFID Journal LIVE! bring together end users, vendors and academics to address implementation issues.

By Mark Roberti

The RFID Academic Convocation was conceived as a way of bringing together researchers from the academic world with vendors and end users to address current and future implementation issues. That vision is beginning to bear fruit. The fourth convocation took place in Brussels, March 13 and 14. It drew more than 300 participants. Speakers included policy makers, academics from top universities and industry leaders.

The event was attended by a wide variety of people—a European Commission director general, an American under-secretary of state, senior advisors to the Chinese government, research students, professors, business managers and representatives from consumer groups. Attendees came from across Europe. “This broad spectrum just confirms the breadth and variety of interests captured by the exciting developments taking place in the use of RFID,” says Stephen Miles of the MIT Auto-ID Center, which hosts the convocations. “This breadth was seen in the keynote speeches, presentations and research submissions about work in progress that were heard over the two very full days of the forum.”

Miles says the convocation showed that RFID has moved from the artificial heights of initial over-enthusiasm into a positive, sane and sensible stage of real developments and opportunities. Speakers such as Gerd Wolfram from Metro said RFID could create value for companies, not just reduce cost. But to reach complete item-level deployment, tag prices must fall to less than 1 euro cent (1.33 U.S. cents). That benchmark gives researchers something to focus on. Many researchers in both the commercial and academic sectors are looking at how to move from RFID tags that use silicon microchips to ones that use less expensive polymer integrated circuits.

The fifth <popuplink http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/live/preconfer_academic_convocation.php RFID Academic Convocation> will be held in conjunction with <link http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/live/index.php RFID Journal LIVE! 2007>. It will also bring together a wide range of RFID expertise. The focus is on the health care and life sciences sector and will feature Carolyn Walton of Wal-Mart, Ron Bone of McKesson and Mike Rose of Johnson & Johnson explaining what issues need to be addressed to enhance RFID’s value in the pharmaceutical supply chain and where researchers can help devise new hardware or software to address the need.

Representatives of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will, for the first time, reveal the affects RFID interrogators have on pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators. Other researchers will reveal the results of research into the feasibility of implanting RFID transponders in medical devices, the use of UHF vs. HF transponders in health-care environments, the data standards and IT infrastructure needed to leverage RFID data and much more. <link http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/live/index.php View the full agenda>.

What’s exciting is the collaboration that is now taking place between companies and academia. Wal-Mart recently announced that it will partner with the University of Arkansas and Blue Cross Blue Shield to create a research center to focus on improving the health-care delivery system with the use of information technology. The Center for Innovation in Health Care Logistics will be dedicated to conducting research aimed at identifying and addressing gaps and roadblocks in the application and delivery of health information technology, and highlighting and replicating proven applications that are working to benefit patients and providers. It won’t focus solely on RDID, but RFID will play a part. And companies and consumers will be better off as a result of these kinds of collaborations.

New Inventory tracking system

Unique RFID applications are increasing productivity for fleet operators, local service providers and companies whose businesses require vehicle tracking solutions.  On February 5^th, 2007, the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge will present a panel discussion on Vehicle Tracking Systems, moderated by Joseph F. Abely, the former CEO of LoJack Corporation, premier worldwide provider of tracking and recovery systems for valuable mobile assets and the creator of the stolen vehicle recovery category.   Come listen to Mr. Abely and fellow panelists discuss these important applications and learn how they can affect your enterprise.

The session will be held from 6-8pm in the Stata Center (Bldg. 32) Room 124, 1st floor
32 Vassar Street, Cambridge. 

Go now to http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/rfid/events/2007-02/ to register for the event.