Announcing RIFIDI® 3.3 Public Release, Providing Business Value Through Real Service & Real Solutions

Transcends is proud to announce that the RIFIDI® 3.3 public release is supported by market research we conducted with partners, clients and vendors, ensuring we continue to play a key role in “Connecting the Internet of Things (IoT) with People”. A key feature of the release is the Enterprise Rifidi® Management Dashboard that enables monitoring of multiple servers and sensors throughout the enterprise, providing actionable data to managers in real time.

Making the Case to Internal Clients and to External Customers

Transcends recently conducted market research interviews with partners, clients, vendors and other key players in the RFID/IoT community. We were happy to learn the community values our long term commitment, responsiveness, knowledge, Rifidi’s quality, and Transcends’ high level of customer service. We also identified areas where you want more help from us, primarily in educating end users and senior executives about the potential of RFID. Interviewees asked for improved marketing to help nontechnical people visualize the end-to-end applicability of Rifidi and appreciate more sophisticated use cases.

The following new section of our newsletter is designed to address this need and help nontechnical executives understand the Rifidi use case. Marketing upgrades to our web site will be next. Please let us know what you think, and share your examples with us so we can continue to spread the word for the RFID community.

Real Service, Real Solutions

Industrial Client Gains Competitive Advantage from Higher Productivity and Control of Inventory Costs

Increasing the level of process automation in industrial settings often provides a competitive advantage. More automation increases productivity, workflow throughput, quality and reliability, while reducing labor and inventory costs. Transcends’ Rifidi platform allows real-time visibility into your asset flow on an individual item level. Easy integration of that data with your ERP system (on premise or in the cloud) allows managers to access assets throughout your enterprise, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. Rifidi enabled an apparel rental company to establish a new warehouse from the ground up within just a few months. A high level of process automation keeps costs low, with increased productivity and full visibility into item-level inventory at each step of the workflow.

Retail Clients Go Beyond Basic Inventory Tracking to Theft Warnings and Targeted Advertising

Regular brick-and-mortar stores struggle to achieve the real-time inventory accuracy consumers enjoy with online websites, yet retailers need such accuracy to successfully implement omni-channel strategies. While regular RFID technology can increase inventory visibility on the sales floor, Transcends’ Rifidi enables retailers to turn basic inventory data into smart data that triggers actionable business events. The Rifidi platform allows smart shelf solutions to alert sales clerks about stock out situations and possible thefts, allows marketing applications to deliver context-sensitive advertisements, informs store management about consumer and workforce behavior, and creates a more personalized shopping experience with smart mirrors. Using Rifidi to take advantage of local intelligence on the sales floor increases sales and improves customer satisfaction.
New features in the RIFIDI® Edge Server release include the following.

Accelerate your IoT adoption with RIFIDI®. Connect your RFID reader and sensor network. Analyze you sensor information in real-time and over time. Optimize your business processes. Integrate with the enterprise. Differentiate your products, solutions and organization. By utilizing the Power of RIFIDI®, the possibilities are boundless across many verticals (retail, healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, recreational) from global enterprises to local small and medium sized businesses.

Rifidi_Architecture

Transcends constantly improves, updates and enhances our robust, open source Rifidi product to better meet users’ needs. Possible features for our next release, based on feedback from clients, community, projects, forums, collaborations and partnerships, include the following.

  • Floor plan/Google Map sensor management dashboard
  • Integration with visualizations/dashboards/analytic tools
  • Pure configurable Rifidi Apps (no coding required)
  • Rifidi App marketplace
  • Rifidi App provisioning enabled via OSGi P2 infrastructure
  • Support for other Java IDEs such as NetBeans
  • Framework upgrades/additions (Spring, Maven and Provisioning)
  • Further security integration
  • Additional features based on suggestions from community

Transcends Announces RIFIDI® 3.3 Public Release. Includes Key Feature RIFIDI Enterprise Management Dashboard

Transcends is proud to announce the RIFIDI® 3.3 public release, further “Connecting the Internet of Things (IoT) with People”. This release was made possible through client implementations, the RIFIDI open source community feedback, surveys, forums and our dedicated global engineering team. A key feature of the release is the new Enterprise RifidiI®  Management Dashboard. The dashboard user interface (UI) now enables end users to manage a collection of Rifidi Edge Server nodes throughout the enterprise along with associated sensor and Rifidi application configurations. The UI is foundational for providing sensor event mashups, analytic visualizations, integration with the physical world via Google Maps/floor plans and a Rifidi application marketplace. For more about how this dashboard works, see the “details” section below.
Highlights of the new features in the RIFIDI® Edge Server release:

Details: Enterprise RifidiI®  Management Dashboard

The key components of the enterprise-wide dashboard we added with this release – and how they improve ease of use – are summarized below.

  • Edge Server Node Management – Let’s you monitor multiple Rifidi Edge server nodes across the enterprise to see connection states, properties, sensors and applications.
  • Sensor Management – Provides an interface to monitor sensors’ state, manage sensors’ properties and dynamically update sensors’ execution.
  • Rifidi Application Management – Allows you to monitor application states, manage sensor/reader read zones, and update both out-of-the-box business solutions and custom (via SDK) Rifidi sensor/IoT device properties, providing the foundation for a Rifidi Application marketplace.

Enterprise RifidiI®  Management Dashboard

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Transcends constantly improves, updates and enhances our robust, open source Rifidi product to better meet users’ needs. Candidate features for our next release, based on feedback from clients, community, projects, forums, collaborations and partnerships, include the following.

  • Floor plan/Google Map sensor management dashboard
  • Integration with visualizations/dashboards/analytic tools
  • Pure configurable Rifidi Apps (no coding required)
  • Rifidi App marketplace
  • Rifidi App provisioning enabled via OSGi P2 infrastructure
  • Support for other Java IDEs such as NetBeans
  • Framework upgrades/additions (Spring, Maven and Provisioning)
  • Further security integration
  • Additional features based on suggestions from community

Accelerate your IoT adoption with RIFIDI®. Connect your RFID reader and sensor network. Analyze you sensor information in real-time and over time. Optimize your business processes. Integrate with the enterprise. Differentiate your products, solutions and organization. By utilizing the Power of RIFIDI®, the possibilities are boundless across many verticals (retail, healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, recreational) from global enterprises to local small and medium sized businesses.

Rifidi_Architecture

Announcing RIFIDI® 3.2 Public Release, Connecting the Internet of Things with People, REST Performance Improvements, Rifidi API Extensions & Enhancements

Transcends is proud to announce the RIFIDI® 3.2 Public Release with the goal of Connecting the Internet of Things (IoT) with People”. The release was made possible through client implementations, the RIFIDI open source community feedback, surveys, forums and our dedicated global engineering team.Accelerate your IoT Adoption with  RIFIDI®. Connect your RFID reader and sensor network. Analyze you sensor information in real-time and over time. Optimize your business processes. Integrate with the enterprise. Differentiate your products, solutions and organization. By utilizing the Power of RIFIDI®, the possibilities are boundless across many verticals (retail, healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, recreational) from global enterprise to the local small and medium sized businesses.

The key features of the release are performance improvements with REST API interface, Extended Rifidi API commands via REST and several enhancements/fixes

Highlights of the RIFIDI® Edge Server Release:

  • Sensor and Application Management –  Extended Rifidi API features
  • Platform upgrade and additions for developers/architects (Restlet 2.3.1 – Restful services)
  • Tag Encodin – Added ability to encode user memory, EPC, passwords
  • LLRP updates – Get Run-time Reader and ROSpec Configuration ,
  • RESTful performance enhancements
  • SDK – Optimized Rifidi RSSI service
  • Few key bug fixes
  • Backward compatibility with RIFIDI 1.3 and 2.x , 3.x applications & solutions
  • Full RIFIDI 3.2 release notes

 

Candidate features for next release (based on clients, community, projects, forums, collaboration,  partnerships)

  • Floor plan/Google Map sensor management dashboard
  • Integration with visualizations/dashboards/analytic Tools
  • Rifidi application designer interface
  • Pure configurable Rifidi Apps (No Coding required)
  • Rifidi App marketplace
  • Rifidi App provisioning enabled via OSGi P2 infrastructure
  • Out of the box integration/support for IoT partner products
  • Support for other Java IDEs such as NetBeans
  • Framework upgrades/additions (Spring, Maven and Provisioning)
  • Further security integration
  • Additional features based on suggestions from community

Rifidi_Architecture

Announcing RIFIDI® 3.1 Public Release

Transcends is proud to announce the RIFIDI® 3.1 Public Release with the goal of  Connecting the Internet of Things (IoT) with People”. The release was made possible through client implementations, the RIFIDI open source community feedback, surveys, forums and our dedicated Global engineering team.

Accelerate your IoT Adoption with  RIFIDI®. .Connect your RFID reader and sensor network.. Analyze you sensor information real-time and over time. Optimize your business processes. Integrate with the enterprise. Differentiate your products, solutions and organization.

The release positions Transcends and the RIFIDI community to continue to bring innovative sensor driven business solutions, appliances and smart devices to the marketplace through integration with how businesses, consumers and clients interact in today’s market (Web, Cloud, Big Data, Mobility).  By utilizing the Power of RIFIDI®, the possibilities are boundless across many verticals (Retail, Health Care, Transportation, Manufacturing, Recreational etc..) for the types of solutions, products and services that will emerge meeting the needs from the Global Enterprise to the Local Small and Medium Size Businesses.

The key features of the release (MQTT and REST) enable easy, seamless and lightweight sensor management and integration with associated events/rules (via Rifidi Apps)

Highlights of the RIFIDI®  Edge Release

Candidate Features for next release (based on Clients, Projects, Forums, Collaboration,  Partnerships)

  • Floor plan/Google Map Sensor Management Dashboard
  • Integration with Visualizations/Dashboards/Analytic Tools
  • Rifidi Application Designer Interface
  • Pure Configurable Rifidi Apps (No Coding required)
  • Rifidi App Market Place
  • Rifidi APP provisioning enabled via OSGi P2 infrastructure
  • Out of the Box Integration/Support for IoT Partner Products
  • Support for other Java IDEs such as NetBeans
  • Framework Upgrades/Additions (Spring, Maven and Provisioning)
  • Further Security Integration
  • Additional features based on suggestions from community

Rifidi 3.1 Architecture Overview
Rifidi_Architecture

Better Understanding the Real Value in the Internet of Things (IoT)

Author: Brian P Pause – Co-founder of Transcends and Rifidi

The scope of the Internet of Things ecosystem is rapidly evolving to be comprised of Machine to Machine (M2M) communication, Smart Devices, Wearables, Sensors/RFID, BigData/Analytics/Visualizations and low cost computing (embedded and Cloud). This is all well and good but what does this mean in terms of the real value? There have been many articles as of late discussing the market size and revenue potential but in my opinion value goes beyond a quantifiable amount (such as dollars and size)

The noun form of value is defined as “the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something. “

To understand real value using this definition one needs to take the time to understand why would people (organization, customer, employee, friend) care to get to the real value of IoT?

In conversations I have participated in and research I have performed the real value appears to align these categories

  • The New Business Model Opportunities
  • The potential realized productivity and efficiency gains
  • The increased quality of life
  • The new insights into data driven by analytics

Examples of these can be seen by current and near term happenings in the market around IoT.

Wearables being used by people to monitor ones health and day to day activities soon integrating with the retail medical facilities being setup at places like Walmart.

Automation of factories and workflows previously requiring manual labor and human intervention driving productivity and efficiency .

Sensor data such as wifi, beacons, rfid, mobile devices being used by retailers to better understand consumer behavior through analytics tools like Tableau and ClickView (to name a few).

And not to far completely new business models such as drones delivering orders from Amazon or new business for the matter when the complete business/organization is developed and enabled through the use of IoT

Yes the ultimate desired outcome is growing market share and revenue. But ultimately taking the time to understand the real value in IoT will ensure you realize the near and long term potential.

Transcends’ Summer 2014 Newsletter. RIFIDI® Edge 3.1 Coming Soon

Transcends is currently developing RIFIDI® Edge 3.1 along with Product and Solutions Updates based on community, customer and partner feedback.

The High Level Goals are to provide a richer interface and ease of use for managing sensors/reader devices and RIFIDI applications.

Target Release: Fall 2014

RIFIDI® Edge 3.1 Candidate Features: (Click here to nominate features and provide feedback on the RIFIDI roadmap )

  • Core Framework Upgrades (Esper 5.x – Event Processing Engine,)
  • Integration with Rifidi Edge API through Restful Services (such as add/remove/start/stop//update reader/senor(s) )
  • Provision Rifidi applications / plugins from remote / cloud repositories (leveraging OSGi P2 Repositories as foundation for a RFID/Sensor Application Market Place)
  • Richer device management interface such as integration with Google maps / floor plan layouts
  • Richer SDK Interface for developing Sensor Adapters, Rifidi applications and Rifidi services
  • Develop Rifidi applications on other IDEs (in addition to Eclipse such as NetBeans)
  • Include custom LLRP tag report information in generic way
  • Convergence Systems Limited (CSL) Reader support
  • Java 64 bit support
  • Primary / secondary node failover support

Internet of Things (IoT) Model: Where is Your Organization and How RIFIDI® Can Accelerate

recently attended the RFID Journal Live 2014 event in Orlando, FL and one messaging shift I observed this year was how the RFID industry was starting to align themselves with the Internet of Things (IoT).

I figured it would be a good idea to provide a framework for how we at Transcends perceive IoT from a maturity model perspective and how the Rifidi platform can help accelerate one’s adoption.
IoT_Maturity_Model

Basically the model steps one through how organizations can benchmark where they currently stand across their products and services and think through a roadmap on how to continue to grow and mature.

The model starts with the concept of devices/machines/things are connected with the ability to communicate. Next these machines are capable of being serviced via these connections. As machines are serviceable one can now move into the space of analyzing the data to provide business insights and predictions. These data streams can be leveraged to optimize existing business processes and provide a foundation for new use cases. Finally organizations can be in the position to differentiate products and services providing a competitive advantage and new business models

How does the Rifidi platform fit and add value.

Simply put, RIFIDI®  connects your RFID reader and sensor network, Analyzing sensor information real-time and over time, Optimizing business processes and Integrating with the enterprise. Ultimately, Differentiating your products, solutions and organization.

  • Connected: Rifidi connects many different RFID readers out of the box, and allows to extend connectivity to any sensors utilizing the sensor API.
  • Serviceable – Rifidi also provides the required infrastructure for maintaining connectivity, custom define connectivity and dynamically configure based on business and infrastructure events.
  • Intelligence: Rifidi utilizes a rules engine to turn sensor data into business events integration with your Big Data and Analytics Strategy
  • Optimized: Rifidi integrates with business processes and existing systems in various ways: Cloud, Databases, WebServices, JMS etc.
  • Differentiated: A Rifidi system offers many out-of-the box components accelerating 80% of your solution but is also highly customizable via Rifidi SDK using technology standards to bridge the gap on the remaining 20%.

In summary, with the growing number of RFID devices and sensors in the world the types of solutions and applications are boundless and only limited by your imagination.  The real question at hand now is IF your Things could Talk what would you want them to Say?

We look forward to continue working with the RFID community to bring innovative solutions to market and continue to evolve the RIFIDI platform roadmap as IoT  grows further and matures.

Note : Concepts for IoT Maturity Model were referenced from  Maturity Model and Value Curve for M2M and IOT

RIFIDI® Edge Platform 3.0

Transcends Announces RIFIDI®  Edge Platform 3.0 Public Release – Accelerate your Internet of Things (IoT) Adoption

“Connecting the Internet of Things with People (Web, Cloud, Big Data, Mobility). Smart Sensors. Smarter Applications. Simpler Solutions.

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Transcends is announcing the RIFIDI® 3.0 Major Public Release with the goal of  Connecting the Internet of Things (IoT) with People”. The release was made possible through client implementations, the RIFIDI open source community feedback, surveys, forums and our dedicated Global engineering team.

Accelerate your IoT Adoption with  RIFIDI®. by Connecting your RFID reader and sensor network, Analyzing sensor information real-time and over time, Optimizing business processes and Integrating with the enterprise. Ultimately, Differentiating your products, solutions and organization.

The release positions Transcends and the RIFIDI community to continue to bring innovative sensor driven business solutions, appliances and smart devices to the marketplace through integration with how businesses, consumers and clients interact in today’s market (Web, Cloud, Big Data, Mobility).  By utilizing the Power of RIFIDI®, the possibilities are boundless across many verticals (Retail, Health Care, Transportation, Aerospace etc..) for the types of solutions, products and services that will emerge meeting the needs from the Global Enterprises to the Local Small and Medium Size Businesses.

RIFIDI® Release Highlights

Extended Read Zone Filtering with RSSI   – Leveraging RIFIDI Services included in the SDK

Dynamic Reader Configuration – Run-time Updates to Reader Configurations based on Business and Infrastructure Events

Advanced Read Zone Filtering –  included in the SDK

Platform Upgrades  – Esper 4.11 – Event Engine and Equinox  KeplerSR2 -OSGI Container

Support for Java 8

Few Key Bug Fixes

Backward Compatibility with RIFIDI 1.3 and 2.x Applications

Full RIFIDI 3.0 Release Notes

Current Products and Solutions

RIFIDI Platform – Rifidi Edge Server  – Accelerate your IoT Adoption with  RIFIDI®.

Business Solutions – Asset TrackingInventory Management, Inventory Control w/ Handheld User Interface – Pricing Available on Product Website

Appliance – RIFIDI Pi Embedded Appliance

Appliance – RIFIDI Box Appliance

Solutions –  Smart Sensor UHF Gen2

Transcends Product and Feature Comparison Matrix – Powered by RIFIDI- Excel Format PDF Format

Thank you for all the contributions and support.  We look forward to continue to work with the RFID Community to bring innovative and business value solutions to the market.

Transcends Product Development Team

White Paper & Blog History

 

August 2013 –  Transcends Announces the RIFIDI Edge Platform 2.2 Release – RFID App Development Made Simple Leveraging the RIFIDI Platform.

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 Internet of Things with People

May 2012 – Leverage Transcends Global Marketplace

September 2011  – RFID, Recession, Globalization are crossing roads – With Challenges are Opportunities

May 2011 – RIFIDI Edge Sever Scalability and Performance Benchmarks

December 2010 – Definition of a RFID Edge Server

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