Radio Frequency Identification Technology for Logistics, Tagging and EPC

RFID - driving us into a greener tomorrow

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Masdar Initiative, an alternative energy project funded by the government of Abu Dhabi, is testing electric vehicles as part of research for developing Masdar City, a net zero energy community.

The initiative is primarily to see if people will adapt to a relatively new form of public transportation - this one being with the use of RFID technology.


Developed by Dutch company, To Get There, the cars are unmanned and not based on any tracks. Instead they are guided by a series of magnetic sensors embedded in the roadway, which communicate with RFID sensors in the overhead of the vehicle.

The cars go as fast as 25 miles per hour, running on batteries that last approximately 37 miles on a single charge. The batteries are recharged using a second battery pack that was charged during the day using solar panels.

To test the cars further, Masdar has already ordered thirteen cars total, two VIP models, eight regular models and two models designed to transfer cargo.

To read more click here.

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The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has published a white paper examining how the transit industry can best make use of NFC technology.

“One of the major challenges facing transit agencies today is how to capitalize on the ever-growing popularity of mobile phones with a solid mobile strategy,” said Transportation Council Chairman Craig Roberts. “This white paper builds on the knowledge base developed in earlier white papers to foster a greater understanding of NFC technology, explain its role in the transit industry, and shed light on key issues facing the transit industry in developing a mobile strategy.”

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Cubic Transportation Systems, distributor of the electronic transit Clipper card, has responded to the recent news of a Ph.D. student in IT Security allegedly breaking the encryption in Clipper and similar transit cards.

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The European Association for Biometrics (EAB) is focusing on a goal of driving the research and development of biometrics and building the future of the industry around a concern for end-user privacy protection.

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India is emerging as one of the world’s fastest growing smart card markets, according to a new research report by RNCOS. With more than one billion in population and increasing modern application areas, India is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 15% during 2011-2014.

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The board of directors for Lumidigm announced the appointment of Mark Shermetaro, a member of the board, to chief executive officer of the company with current CEO and chairman Bob Harbour moving to the position of executive chairman of the board of directors.

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UPM has reached an agreement with SMARTRAC whereby UPM will sell its RFID business to SMARTRAC. UPM will become an indirect shareholder of SMARTRAC with a 10.6% economic interest through the company OEP Technologie.

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