Transcends Fall 2013 Newsletter: RIFIDI® Edge 3.0 Coming Soon.

Transcends is currently developing RIFIDI® Edge 3.0 along with Product and Solutions Updates based on community, customer and partner feedback.

Target Release: Winter 2014

RIFIDI® Edge 3.0 Candidate Features: (Click here to nominate features and provide feedback on the RIFIDI roadmap )

  • Core Framework Upgrades (Spring 4.0 – Application Framework, Esper 4.1 – Event Processing Engine, Equinox Kepler – OSGI Container)
  • Advanced Read Zone Relationships
  • Extended Read Zone Filtering  (through configuration) – RSSI, Extended Tag Attributes, Reader Attributes, Customer Parameters
  • Dynamic Reader Configuration – Run-time Updates to Reader Configurations based on Business and Infrastructure Events
  • Automatic Fail-over (Primary/Secondary Nodes)
  • Redhat/Centos Packaging

 Current Products and Solutoins

Upcoming Product & Solutions Offerings: Additional Embedded Offerings, RIFIDI Edge 3.0 and Business Solutions in the Cloud (SaaS)
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White Paper & Blog History

Thank you for all the contributions and support.  We look forward to continue to work with the RFID Community to bring Innovative and High Business Value Solutions to the marketplace.

Transcends Product Development Team

Transcends Announces the RIFIDI Edge Platform 2.2 Release: RFID App Development Made Simple Leveraging the RIFIDI Platform

Transcends has release RIFIDI Edge Platform 2.2 to the public along with Product and Solutions Updates based on community, customer and partner feedback.

Here are the Key Highlights:

Product and Solution Updates (Includes improvements for any LLRP compliant readers, updated support for Motorola, Sirit and Alien devices, Handheld and Smartphone Adapter and RFID App Development Simplified)

  • RIFIDI Edge Platform  2.2 Release Notes
  • RIFIDI Platform – Rifidi Edge Server
  • Appliance – RIFIDI Pi Embedded Appliance (Retail – $595 USD)
  • Appliance – RIFIDI Box Appliance (Retail – $1,680 USD)
  • Solutions –  Smart Sensor UHF Gen2  (From $995 – $1,195 USD)
  • Business Solutions – Asset Tracking, Inventory Management, Inventory Control w/ Handheld User Interface – Pricing Available on Product Website
  • Transcends Product and Feature Comparison Matrix – Powered by RIFIDI- Excel Format PDF Format
  • Upcoming Product & Solutions Offerings: Additional Embedded Offerings, RIFIDI Edge 3.0 and Business Solutions in the Cloud (SaaS)
  • Follow us on Linkedin and Twitter
  • White Paper & Blog History
  • June 2013 – The Transcends Products & Solutions are Easy as 1-2-3
  • May 2013 – RFID Solutions – News Ways of Providing Value to Business and Consumers
  • March 2013 –RIFIDI Product Roadmap – The New Internet = People + Things = Internet Ecosystem
  • November 2012 – RIFIDIi 2.0 Major Release – Connecting the Inernet of Things with People
  • May 2012 – Leverage Transcends Global Maketplace
  • September 2011  – RFID, Recession, Globalization are crossing roads – With Challenges are Opportunuities
  • May 2011 – RIFIDI Edge Sever Scalability and Performance Benchmarks
  • December 2010 – Definition of a RFID Edge Server
Thank you for all the contributions and support.  We look forward to continue to work with the RFID Community to bring Innovative and High Business Value Solutions to the Market.
  • Transcends Product Development Team

Transcends’ Products & Solutions, As Easy as 1-2-3: Set Up, Configure, Verify

The Transcends Products & Solutions are Easy as 1-2-3. Through customer and community feedback we are now introducing a quick start guide across our products and solutions to lead you through Set Up, Configuration and Verification of a Production ready environment.

Here is where you can find the Rifidi Edge Quick Start Guide  – Setup, Configure & Verify  (Open Source and available to the public)

The same information is also available across all our products and solutions:

Transcends Product Stack

Rifidi_Product_Stack

  • Appliance – Rifidii Box Appliance (Retail – $1,680 USD)
  • Solutions –  Smart Sensor UHF Gen2  (From $995 – $1,195 USD)
  • Business Solutions – Asset TrackingInventory ManagementInventory Control w/ Handheld User Interface – Pricing Available on Product Website
  • Events: Transcends Exhibiting Products, Solutions & Roadmap (Enterprise, Embedded Appliance, Business Solutions and Integration with Amazon Cloud @ The 4th Annual Auto-ID & Sensing Solutions Expo hosted by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge on Thursday June 13.
  •  Upcoming Product & Solutions Offerings:: Rifidi Edge 2.1.1, Additional Embedded Offerings, Rifidi 3.0 and Business Solutions in the Cloud (SaaS)
Thank you
Transcends Product Development Team

RFID Solutions – New Ways of Providing Value to Business and Consumers

Back in 2009, we were traveling around the world @ universities, organizations and conferences discussing and building awareness around RFID, the business value and the impact to our lives..

Part of our presentation gave an example of how all this RFID reader data (via tags) would grow as businesses and consumers realized more value from the information.

data_growth

Now 4 years later and recently participating in our 7th RFID Journal Live 2013 Event.

What do I see now that is different from 4 years ago supporting the above growth in information with the potential to yield tremendous business vale.

  • Tags – Many different types of tags, form factors, appliances and a price point that is moving towards ¼ of a cent by year end.
  • Readers – Hardware vendors are now focusing more on variations of readers – embedded, appliances, more granularity within a read zone. Plus globalization of suppliers continuing to lower the price and entry point for the end user.
  • Software – Only a few software vendors were at the event but there is consistent theme for such a need based on customers, partners and vendors we had a chance to speak with. Much of this is being driven by the growth in data and the need to make readers/sensors smarter (business rules, cloud, mobility integration points)
  • Solutions – You now see full hardened solutions in the market (medical cabinets, tool cribs) along with components and building blocks out of the box

These RFID industry trends build a compelling foundation for how the user stories, business cases and RFID data will grow over the next few years.

Making sense of all this information will be key and software, appliances and business solutions driven by sensors are enablers.

How the Rifidi Edge Building Blocks Create Value

  • Sensors/RFID Adapters – Connects sensors (readers/tags)
  • Event Filtering/Business Rules – Turns sensor events into meaningful business events
  • Communication (Web, Social Media, Mobile, ERP, Database, Legacy Systems)- Connects meaningful business events to enterprise and consumers

Rifidi Edge has built around common RFID/Sensor design patterns learned through experience, customers, community and observing market demand and trends.

The most basic is the pattern of defining when a tag/item/person has arrived and/or departed.

In speaking with clients who have looked at solving the design pattern on their own they quickly came to realize how challenging this can be. Within seconds one can rapidly have megabytes of tag read data without making sense of all the information by translating into meaning full business events such as a item has arrived or departed.

Now take the same scenario above and multiply by the number of read zones you are planning times the number of locations and so on. Lots of potential interesting data but without solutions including Edge software you are missing the meaningful business events.

Where can you go from here?

The sensor design patterns can be applied to common business solutions. Such business solutions Transcends Powered By Rifidi can address today include:

  • Asset Tracking (Traceability)
  • Inventory Control (Automation an order fulfillment process )
  • Inventory Management (Stock Out, Fraud Detection, Where Is It)

Using the Rifidi Edge building blocks one is able to seamlessly connect numerous sensors to businesses and consumers by making sense of the information leveraging these design patterns.

As Transcends and the Rifidi community continue to discover more patterns within new business areas and markets you can continue to grow with the Rifidi platform

The use case pictured below (from our 2009 presentations) is now a reality with the Rifidi Edge Platform , Transcend Business Solutions and Enterprise to Embeded Rifidi Appliances

Learn more about how you can benefit from the Transcends Product Roadmap

data_growth

Transcends Announces Rifidi Edge 2.1, Product & Solution Updates

Transcends has release Rifidi Edge 2.1 to the public along with Product and Solutions Updates based on community, customer and partner feedback.

Here are the Key Highlights:

Product and Solution Updates (includes Integration to Cloud, Databases, JMS, Social Media+ Customized Business Rules + Full Support for many of the popular RFID Readers/Sensors in the Market)

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Thank you for all the contributions and support.  We look forward to continue to work with the RFID Community to bring Innovative and High Business Value Solutions to the Market.

Transcends Product Development Team

The New Internet: People + Things = Internet Ecosystem

There has been much discussion as of late on what the Internet of Things (IoT) means and how does it impact and relate to the world we live in. The way I see it is IoT is an important aspect to the overall Internet Ecosystem and is and will continue to play a key role in how will evolve as a society.  There are many social challenges and responsibility topics at debate here but the focus of the blog is what is and what could be and not what is socially good or bad for society.

IoT is basically the concept of machines (such as devices, appliances, phones etc..) interacting with each other leveraging the internet as a means of communication. The term that is being used in the industry to refer to such interactions is M2M (Machine to Machine).

An example in our everyday life where such an interaction plays a part is in an automobile alerts the driver another car is approaching while attempting to switch lanes. This could be extended to collecting these events to gain a perspective for an insurance company on the safety rating/insurability of the driver.

How does IoT fit into the overall picture?

I’ll start with a diagram of my perspective of the key building blocks within the Internet Ecosystem.

Things-and-People-1024x576

 

Building Blocks:

Points of Interaction is where the world interacts with the ecosystem. Web and Mobility are two very popular means on interacting but this could be extended into applications, call centers, IVR/VRU etc. These POIs occur via device and /or human interfaces.

 

Social interactions is the various categories of interactions taking place within the Internet Ecosystem.

  • Life  – Health, finances, diet, household events
  • Commerce – Buys/Selling, business operation events
  • Networking – Idea sharing, connection with others, self-expression events

Infrastructure is the bases and platform for how the Internet Ecosystem’s will exist, gather resources and be supported

Big Data and Analytics are key building blocks for how data will be aggregated and analyzed necessary to make real time and/or long term decisions.

Security is focused on protecting an identity within the ecosystem throughout these interactions/events ensuring the appropriate level of authentication, authorization and auditing.

Monitoring is used to measure the vital signs across these events ensuring no fraudulent behavior and thresholds are being met.

The Center depicts the ways these interactions can occur from Person to Person, machine to machine and machine to person.

 

So what role do sensors/RFID potentially play?

The way I have seen this evolve is sensors/rfid provide the skin, nerve endings and central nervous system to the Ecosystem.  To put into everyday life as Sensors (which are already around us – cameras, phones, scanners etc..) and RFID grows we are essentially expanding upon our abilities to gain a better sense of the social interactions taking place around us. For example, a store  could benefit by being able to have a better understanding of a consumers behavior across all points of interaction (mobility, web store front, call center, IVR) and be able to react to the consumer’s needs in a more effective way both real time and over the life of the relationship with the consumer