Monkey the cat doesn’t get any free rides from his person, Ben Millam. Millam is a self-described “cat geek” and Monkey is the willing tester for his creations. The human in the house decided he wanted to give his cat “a more fulfilled and self-actualized indoor kitty existence,” so he created a feeding system that requires Monkey to hunt down RFID-tagged “prey” to get his kibble. Monkey is tasked with searching for…

The cardiology department of Netherlands health-care provider Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) has begun using a cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) solution provided by Zebra Technologies to track the amount of time it takes for cardiac-arrest patients to receive a balloon angioplasty treatment. The solution is helping the hospital to improve what it calls its door-to-balloon (DTB) rate, in order to better ensure that patients are treated as quickly as possible, thereby improving their…

European handball is a fast-paced indoor sport in which a team of seven players use their hands to dribble and pass a ball (similar to the one used for soccer games, but smaller) with the aim of throwing it into the opposing team’s goal. Chambéry Savoie Handball, a professional team based in Chambéry, France, is using an ultra-wideband (UWB) RFID-based real-time location system (RTLS) to analyze its players’ performance during practice, with a goal…

Teslonix has launched its SmartRFpower development platform, an evaluation kit that developers can use to test and develop Teslonix’s radio frequency (RF) technology in their Internet of Things (IoT) and RFID systems and applications. SmartRFpower capabilities include locating and tracking devices in real time, wirelessly energizing and recharging batteries, and establishing communication channels to move data in and out of electronic devices. SmartRFpower technology can be integrated into new or existing products to create a…

Ever since it opened for business three years ago, Australian cotton gin operator Southern Cotton has employed radio frequency identification to track the cotton it receives, stores and processes, and has shared that information with growers to make the ginning process and delivery to customers more efficient and error-free. Southern Cotton is now expanding the solution to enable its employees, as well as growers, to access the collected RFID data via an app on their smartphone…

An Ecuadorian researcher and University of Costa Rica Ph.D. candidate named Janio Jadán-Guerrero is developing a radio frequency identification system, known as Kiteracy, which is intended to help children with Down syndrome learn how to read by using radio frequency identification technology. He hopes to provide his system, which he developed while completing his Ph.D. in computer science, to potential customers in kit form next year. The system, which Jadán-Guerrero calls a tangible user interface (TUI), consists of high-frequency (HF) 13.56…

Global coat and outerwear manufacturer Herman Kay Co. is carrying out a five-phase RFID deployment to track the garments that it produces and ships to customers. At the company’s distribution center in Douglas, Ga., workers are already using handheldRFID readers to identify which items have been picked, compare the collected garments with the quantities on a pick ticket, and catch any errors during the picking process, before products are packed into cartons. Herman…

View Technologies has commercially released a passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID solution designed to make it possible for companies to track the locations of UHF tags up to 150 feet away, with location granularity of less than 1 foot to 3 feet. The real-time location system (RTLS), known as inView, consists of Echo smartantenna technology designed by St. Louis technology company RF Controls and manufactured by tools and hardware firm Stanley Black and Decker, as well as RF Controls’ RFC-6100XR RFID reader and View Technologies’ inView…