| [August 01, 2005] |
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Smart Active Label Consortium Drives Extension to ISO RFID Standards; Work Will Add Battery Assist and Sensor Functionality to ISO 18000 Series
WAKEFIELD, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- Aug. 1, 2005 -- The Smart Active Label Consortium (SAL-C), a non-profit group that promotes the benefits and uses of Smart Active Label technology, today announced that the global standards body ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has authorized a new work program based on SAL-C's contributions.
ISO's IEC JTC1 SC31 committee, the body responsible for the creation of the RFID air interface and data structure standards used in supply chain and asset management, approved a work program that will add battery assist and sensor functionality to the existing ISO 18000 series of RFID standards.
The new initiative is a direct result of SAL-C's input to SC31 describing the benefits of this functionality to the RFID community, together with a Technical White Paper outlining how the extension could be achieved.
SAL-C, a non-profit organization founded in 2002, is an action-driven consortium that focuses on proving Smart Active Label technology by demonstrating its benefits through real life trials and demonstrations, and by promoting its use in a wide range of industries.
"The acceptance by ISO of the need to extend their RFID standards to embrace battery assist and sensor functionality represents a major milestone for SAL-C," said SAL-C Chairman Baruch Levanon. "This development will accelerate our program to facilitate the commercialization of these important technologies by SAL-C members."
SC31 is in the final stages of updating its existing UHF standard 18000-6, including the incorporation of the EPCglobal proposal as Type-C, to produce a common worldwide methodology for passive UHF RFID.
"It's gratifying that ISO's SC31 is basing important work on SAL-C's efforts," said Clive Hohberger, Vice President, Technology Development at Zebra Technologies Corp. "Our group is small compared to ISO, but our vision has been clear, and our focus is yielding benefits to the entire standards community."
Smart Active Labels -- thin flexible devices with onboard power supplies -- enable sophisticated applications that far exceed today's passive solutions.
"Many people think that license plate identification is the extent of the technology's value, but the reality is, that level of ID only becomes useful when it can be associated with place and time," said Richard Rees, President of Scanology. "An application's ROI really starts to fly when RFID and sensors converge to provide a range of status information."
Currently available sensors measure temperature, moisture, shock, vibration and gas changes for use in supply chain due diligence, including Homeland Security issues.
"RFID users are wising up to the fact that relatively simple tags can be made to communicate what has been happening to the products they are attached to," said Bill Roberts, Research Fellow at Cryovac, Inc. "Applications will explode into the marketplace when this becomes widely understood."
SAL-C will be reaching out to the MEMS and Nanotechnology sectors to alert them to the emergence of this new market.
"SAL-C members gain impressive competitive advantage by helping to create these higher functionality RFID systems," said Bob Zaccone, President of GSI. "SAL-C members will be developing the application technologies that the forthcoming ISO standards will enable."
About the Smart Active Labels Consortium
The Smart Active Labels Consortium is an international interest group, dedicated to promoting and developing the use of smart active labels -- defined as thin, flexible labels that contain an integrated circuit and power source -- in a number of industries and to demonstrating new and improved solutions targeted at the specific needs of potential end users.
SAL-C is a member-driven entity, bringing together the leading organizations that would benefit from smart active label solutions, as well as the leading providers of such solutions, including technology, materials, and integration suppliers. SAL-C holds frequent demonstrations and real life trials of available smart active label technologies and solutions created by its members. The Consortium is also working towards creating common standards for smart active label technology that complement existing standards in related fields.
More information on SAL-C activities and membership is available on the organization's Web site at www.sal-c.org or by contacting Andy Freed at 781-876-8833 or info@sal-c.org.
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