There is an interesting change of thinking going on in the construction industry. For years, construction professionals had little awareness and less interest in RFID; it was up to RFID companies to introduce the technology and its business benefits to the industry. Today construction companies see the value RFID can create and are coming to AWID with technical questions about how they can get the technology to work in their environment.

Consulting and market analysis firm ChainLink Research partnered with industry association RAIN RFID to present its latest market research and points of view on the direction of the UHF RFID industry. Much of the presentation focused on tags and the retail market, but there were some nuggets of interest about other RFID use cases and how RFID readers are evolving. Here are some highlights of the presentation, along with AWID’s own commentary.

Choosing an RFID reader that will be used inside another device such as a kiosk, smart shelf, packaging line, etc. can be tricky. The physical and mechanical characteristics of the host device influence RFID read/write performance, and the ability to place and orient the reader and external antennas may be limited. Some of the specifications that are typically key to reader selection are not especially useful for embedded environments. Here are some points to consider when considering an embedded RFID reader.

There are a lot of references, and hype, about the Internet of Things (IoT). Cisco has predicted there will be 20 billion connected devices, while Intel puts the number at 200 billion.  In the most touted visions of IoT, items are intelligent, uniquely identified and connected to a network that can provide remote monitoring and take proactive action. Examples include the popular Nest thermostat that senses when to turn up the heat, or the proverbial smart fridge that will order milk when you’re running low – which is an application that has been talked about since the early 2000s but hasn’t driven the pen-and-paper shopping list to extinction.

RFID-enabled automated dispensing is in the news again thanks to the release of several new products, including a dispenser for distributing towels and robes at health clubs to a materials management solution that delivers printed circuit boards and components for electronics manufacturing. While these systems may seem novel, RFID-enabled automated dispensing is a $200 million industry that is expanding by more than 10 percent each year. Self-checkout tool cribs and automated medication dispensers used in hospitals are among the most common automated dispensing systems.

Embedded RFID can protect your products – embedding RFID components from AWID will protect your investment.

Each year millions of RFID tags are being embedded into products ranging from luxury goods to industrial components as part of the effort to deter counterfeiting and diversion. RFID protects products by providing a secure, discrete and automated way to capture an item’s true identity and chain of custody.

Give your systems the ability to sense and respond...

AWID provides industry-standard RFID components designed for integration into products and systems, and the expert engineering services and support to make RFID-enabeld systems a reality.

Give users the convenience of automated check-in/check-out and gain the confidence that items will be accurately accounted for...

RFID is enabling an interesting range of self-service processes, from letting workers check out their own office supplies, to getting high-value equipment from a tool crib and accessing all kinds of other items from kiosks. Self-service check-in/check-out lets workers and customers get the item they need without requiring a clerk or supervisor to manage the transaction.