RFID industry shifts focus to software

RFID hardware has matured, allowing the industry to focus on developing better software and services, according to speakers at the recent RFID World conference.

Corinne Kator, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 4/3/2007

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is developing in a series of waves. The first wave, says analyst Mike Liard of ABI Research, includes RFID tags and readers. In the second wave, he says, is software that helps companies use RFID data to improve their business processes.

According to Liard and other speakers at the fifth annual RFID World conference held last month in Dallas, RFID’s hardware wave has crested, but the software and application wave is still building.

During his conference keynote address, Kevin Ashton, vice president of ThingMagic, demonstrated that RFID hardware is "ready for prime time."

To prove the sensitivity of RFID readers has increased, Ashton stood on stage and easily read an RFID tag through a glass of water and another through a metal soup can—difficult feats just a year or two ago. He showed off a tiny new ThingMagic RFID reader that’s roughly the size of an iPod nano. He also mentioned readers that process 200 tags per second and work in close proximity to other readers without interference.

"This technology is really ready now," Ashton said. "What we can do with the technology today is radically different from what we could do a few years ago."

But IBM’s Hanns-Christian Hanebeck said in an education session later that day, "Tags and readers are only part of what you need, and in many cases, they’re the smallest part." RFID tags and readers are just tools, Hanebeck said. What really matters is what companies do with those tools, how they weave RFID data into their business processes.

Software applications to help in that effort are still being developed and may soon get a boost from EPC Global. The organization is about to ratify EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services), a data standard that will allow RFID users to share information internally and with their trading partners. With EPCIS ratified, software developers may be more willing to invest in new software applications that make use of the standardized RFID data.

Once the software wave reaches its peak, says Liard, the RFID industry will need to build a third wave of services and support. Customers will then look for a fourth wave: the ability to buy a "total solution" of RFID hardware, software and services from a single source. When it comes to such packaged solutions, he says, very few "real offerings" exist.

With one wave down and several left to go, it’s easy to see how Hanebeck concluded, "We are now in the beginning of what RFID is."

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