Towards the Internet of Everything: Space for Creation Released by RFID Technology
Industry application of UHF RFID technology
Foreword:
A few days ago, Impinj, a world-renowned RAIN RFID solution provider, held an online media communication meeting. Chris Diorio, CEO, Vice President and Co-founder of Impinj, attended the meeting and introduced Impinj’s strategy and development in the Chinese market, and provided further answers to reporters’ questions.
A few days ago, Impinj, a world-renowned RAIN RFID solution provider, held an online media communication meeting. Chris Diorio, CEO, Vice President and Co-founder of Impinj, attended the meeting and introduced Impinj’s strategy and development in the Chinese market, and provided further answers to reporters’ questions. At the same time, Yue Savage, head of Impinj’s chip business in the Asia-Pacific region, Jeff Lebold, vice president of solutions in the Asia-Pacific region, and Jill West in charge of Impinj’s marketing department were also present.
Following computers and the Internet, the Internet of Things has become another wave in the information industry that is changing the world. What the Internet of Things wants to achieve is to “connect things with things” and finally build an intelligent world with all things connected. The automatic identification of front-end entities is the foundation and focus of the entire Internet of Things architecture, among which Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is one of the key technologies.
According to reports, the technology currently used by Impinj is called RAIN, or Radio Identification, which belongs to UHF RFID technology. The RAIN RFID chip provides a unique identification code, and its advantages are extremely clear: first, the chip cost is very low; second, the reading rate is fast, it can scan 1,000 items per second, and the technical distance can be as long as 10 meters; third , It does not require batteries, and each RAIN label can be used unlimitedly; fourth, the agreement related to RAIN technology is open and covers the world, and can be used in any country.
Diorio described: “What we provide is a very small chip, which can be regarded as an ultra-small radio, but it does not need electricity, it only needs to be activated by the radio frequency wave of the reader. This small chip contains Storeable information, which can then be connected to the cloud and stored.”
Focusing on the typical applications of RFID in the retail industry, aviation industry, and supply chain, Diorio further elaborated on the specific solutions of Impinj. In the retail industry, about 12 billion retail garments have been RFID-labeled so far. The main benefit to retailers is to increase sales, reduce inventory, and improve the efficiency of store and warehouse inventory; in the aviation industry, many airports have Beginning to use RFID applications for baggage tracking, many airlines have begun to deploy baggage tracking systems in order to reduce the chance of missing pieces and improve airport efficiency; in the supply chain, Impinj has already connected millions of pallets, such as China Post, JPR and other companies. RFID has been widely used in warehouse logistics to improve inventory efficiency, reduce package loss, and improve customer experience.
Impinj Vision: Connect trillions of things to build a borderless Internet of Things
Impinj has entered the Chinese market for 10 years, and China has become Impinj’s main market. Yue Savage briefly introduced Impinj’s current layout and main customers in China.
The men’s clothing brand Hailan House uses RFID in the automated tasks of sorting and scanning, which has increased the labor force by ten times. At present, it only takes 30 seconds for each piece of clothing to be stored, picked up, sorted, and ready for shipment. , And all warehouses have reached 100% accuracy; SAIC Anji Logistics places RAIN RFID tags on the front of each vehicle, and at the same time puts the RAIN RFID reader module on the DJI drone, and uses the drone for outdoor vehicle inventory. ; Haier has applied RAIN RFID technology in warehouse logistics, which not only greatly reduces labor, but also achieves 100% accuracy in warehouse delivery.
In addition to Impinj’s products and solutions, many Chinese partners, including label, equipment, and R&D application integrators, have been achieved in these cooperations. A number of Chinese manufacturers have joined with Impinj to jointly promote the Internet of Things and The application of RAIN RFID in China.
Although RFID technology is currently relatively mature and has begun to attract public attention in recent years, many people still have doubts about this technology. Their concerns are mainly concentrated in two aspects: one is cost; the other is privacy and security. In this regard, Diorio expressed his views on Impinj’s products.
He said that as far as tag chips are concerned, Impinj provides very small sand chips with very low cost. As for RFID readers, the development trend is smaller and smaller and lower prices. In the future, RFID technological breakthroughs will also break the boundaries of imagination. Chip functions will be more diversified. Not only can they provide unique tags, they can also be used for more applications, such as anti-counterfeiting, brand protection, positioning, and authentication. And readers may be ubiquitous, and more and more readers are connected to hundreds of millions of commodities and transmit data to the cloud. The cost performance of RFID-related products will become higher and higher.
In terms of data security and consumer privacy, the RAIN RFID tag is just a unique code and does not contain any substantial information. It is connected to the cloud wirelessly, and the information about this item is stored in the cloud database. It can be said that RAIN RFID actually has no effect on security, because its data is safely protected in the cloud database. Moreover, a new function called “Protection Mode” has been added to a tag chip recently launched by Impinj. After the product is sold, the retailer activates the protection mode, and the tag cannot be read by anyone; if the consumer returns the product, the manufacturer can reactivate the tag chip with a password, turn off the protection mode, and the relevant information can be read again.
Looking to the future, Diorio said that their goal is to label trillions of items. “By 2021, there will be more than 20 billion Impinj items on the market labeled and connected. The annual growth rate of this market is 30%, except for clothing and logistics, including a large number of markets such as aviation, food, and auto parts. RFID will be installed in the future. Considering the total number of trillions of items that have not yet used RFID, only 0.2% of the items have begun to use RFID, so the market potential is very huge.”
“Our vision is a borderless Internet of Things that connects our daily necessities to create a digital life. By attaching an ID-like label to each daily necessities, we can identify the authenticity of each daily necessities and locate the factory that produces it. The factory. It has its own database that stores the detailed information of each item it produces, including the date of production and a separate link for each item. We hope to link the item with its information wirelessly. From the factory to the logistics warehouse, to the store, Finally, to consumption and use, we can track and obtain all the information throughout the process.”
The interconnected world seems to be far away from us, but technology will always release boundaries for human imagination and creation.
