INTELLIGENT TAG RADAR™

Intelligent Tag Radar Expands RFID Applicability and ROI

As RFID expands into more applications, the simple knowledge that a given tag with a certain number was seen at a certain read point is sometimes inadequate to draw a complete conclusion.  For some applications we’d like to know more.  Was the tag moving or stationary?  Which direction?  How fast?  How far away? 

For example, in a sea of stationary DVDs on a retail shelf, maybe I only care about the one that is moving.  From that information I can determine what movie trailer to display to the customer.  Maybe I can draw inferences about the relative interest level in different products based on how long customers handle them.  Perhaps this information can be integrated into a theft control system, raising an alarm when the product is removed from a designated area.

Alien’s new Intelligent Tag Radar provides this and other information about the tag.  ITR enables the reader to not only know what data is in a tag, but to infer where it is going, how fast and in what direction.  This capability enables the RFID system to enhance a number of fundamental applications of passive, Gen 2 RFID, and will open up many new applications and sources of ROI for users. 

ITR has already been applied in the airline baggage tagging space by Alien’s subsidiary Quatrotec.  One of the challenges of using RFID with conveyor belts is the difficulty in isolating individual tagged objects as they pass the antenna.  Standard solutions to this problem entail reduced conveyor speed or greater separation between tagged objects, reducing throughput.  ITR-Singulation™ enables the isolation of the one tag that is “top-dead-center” with respect to the antenna, enabling bag-specific action to be taken without the cost of special equipment or reduction of system throughput.  ITR-Singulation will be useful in many other applications, including manufacturing and logistics.

The Intelligent Tag Radar reader platform includes these capabilities:

• ITR- Singulation™, enables the reader to discriminate among adjacent tagged objects on a conveyor. 
• ITR-Velocity™ - provides real-time information on the speed of a tagged object, enabling discrimination between stationary and moving objects and automated decision-making based on speed and location.
• ITR-Directionality™ - identifies whether an item is coming or going as well as the direction of the item.
• ITR-Range™ enables the system to associate tagged items with a given zone, with sufficient precision for most applications, but with much lower cost than competitive technologies like active and WiFi tags.

Alien’s patented Intelligent Tag Radar software is an extension to the popular Alien Reader Protocol for Alien’s Enterprise Class reader family, which is composed of the ALR-9900, 9800 and 8800 models.  New firmware and an updated Software Development Kit with sample application code can be downloaded starting June 30 from the Alien Partner Portal.  Readers will begin shipping with the new code in July.