WiFiPlanet reports that G2 Microsystems of Santa Clara, California, is readying low cost hardware for tracking tags.
The G2 System-on-Chip (SoC) tag supports 802.11 based tracking done by companies like Newbury, Ekahau, AeroScout and Pango Networks — but it also supports the emerging ISO 24730 standard that tracks products within three meters (also in the 2.4GHz band like 802.11/Wi-Fi).
It can also operate as a standard passive RFID tag by supporting Electronic Product Code (EPC) numbering scheme. Ekahau, which makes WiFi tracking software, has signed on as a G2 customer as part of their real-time location system (RTLS).
“We can get tags down to the size of a wrist watch by eliminating external components,” says Lisa Payne, the vice president of marketing at G2. “With our silicon all you need is a battery, flash memory, antenna… today’s tags are in the $50 to $60 range all the way up to $150 in the government and defense market. We can reduce that down to $20 to $30 dollars.”
Along with lower price, G2 expects to deliver better battery life since the G2C501 was designed from the ground up for power savings, unlike some Wi-Fi tracking tags which use off the shelf chips. A G2 tag with two AA batteries will supposedly run as long as five years (with a 40% report rate), compared to only months for existing tags.
In related WiFi positioning news, Skyhook Wireless announced their Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS). Instead of GPS, the company has mapped the location of WiFi access points in 100 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States.
Skyhook uses software and your WiFi card for location information.
A browser toolbar, called Loki, is installed to use the service. It reads out your current location and can tailor Internet searches to pull up nearby resources. The software is preconfigured with channels for location-based sites supporting everything from maps to shopping to news to dining, even gas prices, webcams and local blogs, explains WiFiPlanet.
Avery Dennison (the largest label maker) and Alien Technology plan to embed RF-ID into the Electronic Product Code (ePC). Then every pop can and every box of laundry detergent can be tracked and read – along with your Safeway card – inside the grocery cart, up to 1000 feet away.
GlaxoSmithKline says that it is launching one of the most significant RFID pilot projects to date. In mid-April bottles of the GSK drug Trizivir, an HIV medicine will be tagged with RFID chips in the United States.
More information on RF-ID is available at MIT’s Autoidcenter.org, EPCglobal, RFID.org, RF-ID Journal, buyrfid.com, ACSIS.com, RFID toolkit, rfidtalk.com and nocards.org. WiFi Planet overviews RF-ID technologies.
Related Daily Wireless articles include Mad Cow RF-ID, Handheld RF-ID Readers, Airport RF-ID, Tracking RF-ID, Digital Angel, RF-ID: From Soup to Nuts, Tracking Ship Movements – And You, Homeland Insecurity, Marathon RF-ID Tagging and Port Security with RF-ID, Intelligent Transportation, RF-ID Tracking from Space?, Monitoring Mount St Helens, Zigbee Gets Real, Showdown at .15, Hot Shoe, Slow Mesh Heats Up,Sensor Nets, Meshing at Intel, Oceanographic Wireless, Earthquake Monitoring, a Seattle to Portland Wireless Network Proposal, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, The Age of Steam and ZigBee’s Low Power Wireless.
