Issue #210 | Oct. 15, 2009 | by Andy Kowl

Today, if you were forced to quickly reel off the countries which account for the lion's share of RFID innovation, it is doubtful Taiwan would be on your list. Two technology think tanks, with almost 6,500 engineers between them, may be on their way to changing that.

Might Taiwan also have created the first successful nationwide supply chain in the world?

It is their development of real world applications accompanied by field trials and implementations—not just pure science—which makes me think they are on the right track. "This enables us to learn about real world working environments," says Jimmy Li, Deputy Director of the Initiative Office for Government RFID Applications.

For example, besides talking about healthcare safety and efficiency, they are already using new RTLS and patient tracking applications in 28 government owned hospitals throughout this island-nation. This has already resulted in licensing of the now-refined healthcare RFID IP to two companies, with more to come.

"We teach government offices how to use the new technology," adds Li, who's coordinating ministry has more than 40 projects in different stages. "We show them both the advantages and the limitations." Each year they host an industrial review meeting, inviting domestic industry executives, foreign RFID experts and the two think tanks which have all those engineers. Dr. Li is also a research fellow at Institute for Information Industry (III), the smaller of them.

This research is often sponsored through matching grants, available to Taiwanese companies. Licensing is sold, partnerships established, and this both creates business growth and funds additional research.

Mushrooms supply chain success
That ground level view of combining RFID research with its use can be powerful. You cannot get any more ground level than mushroom tracking. This enterprise not only combines item tracking with temperature levels—been there, done that—but actually uses the RFID and sensor tracking to help hundreds of local small businesses.

Mushrooms are a staple in the cuisine of Taiwan and nearby countries. The tracking system coordinates with the mushroom buyers, such as markets and restaurants, and an island full of small farms looking to sell their produce. The system is credited with keeping the mushroom supply fresh, reducing waste farmers had from growing by guesswork and making the island's supply chain truly efficient. On busy days, extra truckloads are dispatched to meet demand; farms are notified in time to harvest what is needed that day; and grower co-ops know when to refrigerate supply.

Wow.

If there is another, successful, nationwide RFID supply chain system, I've missed it. I was not there long enough to interview those involved and make this a bigger story. But as a combination supply chain success and human life changer, it is my favorite kind of story.


This year's new RFID introductions
A retail, RFIDed kiosk was one of a few cool* next-tech demos of III's counterpart ITRI, Industrial Technology Research Institute. Using EPC standards, this UHF kiosk serves as the information hub for a local retail chain's stores. The kiosk offers a read distance of 15-30cm, and provides a detailed rundown on the processed food product's origins and nutritional details. It goes so far as to show the chain of custody, which can become a major relief in food scares.

The stores find these customer service stations add value to more expensive products. Since the POS element deals with customer payments it ratchets back the read-range to the 5-10cm range. An Intelligent Retailing System also on display had a smartly functional set of UHF RFID antennas disguised as shelves with up to 16 attached to a switch that sets the read cycle desired. For industrial applications, they use sturdy LF shelves.

Deputy General Director Steve Hsieh had a sharp and hospitable crew walk me through each demonstration. ITRI is proud of the opportunities their work creates in many fields, RFID being just a small piece of the pie. Any Taiwanese company can take advantage of their research.

Time slicing
Their coming iBooth Exhibition product is particularly impressive. I've attended about as many RFID-badged trade shows as anyone and have been underwhelmed by use of the technology. The iBooth combines UHF RFID with Wi-Fi. Using two directional antenna read points for each booth it only counts you as a visitor after 5 seconds. Patented "time slicing" technology offers quite sophisticated reports to the exhibitors and the exhibition company. The level of interest of attendees who visited your booth is also rated. If they stopped at many booths selling your product, vs. just yours and another, that prospect would be rated higher as a potential buyer.

The literature calls it "the smallest UHF RFID reader system in the world" that is EPC certified; and in one 13m x 13m space they can deploy 60 readers, auto synchronizing with self-healing wi-fi for communication with the back end and control systems.

At the same time, each attendee will finally get a payoff from wearing that RFID badge. Booth navigation, recommendations and mapping are available, as is some time slicing of your own as this helps budget your time if you like. You also can get reports for your company's internal use, based on your visit and generated in a variety of ways. The system has also been developed for gaming applications.

*If you like playing Wii and might dig playing by just using your hand and gestures—kinda like a Jedi knight—then the aforementioned cool app is for you. It has no RFID, rather it is based on ultrasound in the 40kHz – 50kHz range. With a gaming module on, I could wave my hand in front of the screen and change the action on the screen—touch screen technology without the touch, Wii with no controller.

Don't line up outside of Best Buy just yet. This was a slow game of Tetris we're talking about and not yet ready for prime time. But not too far off.

By selecting RFID as the only sub-technology focus for the 35th Taipei International Electronics Show, Taiwan was making a loud statement for inclusion in the RFID big leagues.