I.D. Systems announced that it has been awarded patents 7,656,271 and 7,656,273 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, covering, respectively, a system for controlling access to mobile assets, and a mobile portal for tracking the movement of luggage.

The mobile portal for tracking luggage describes baggage handling vehicles equipped with both a RFID reader and a device that actuates the reader under certain operating conditions. The system identifies RFID tagged luggage as it is loaded, moved and unloaded – no matter where the vehicles may go. ▸

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Melexis and ProximaRF have joined forces to enable fast and easy development of data logging applications with its RFID sensor kit. The model DVK90129 looks to help with implementation of RFID technology in applications such as cold chain management, industrial data logging or medical monitoring devices.

The RFID kit demonstrates a contactless sensing system on a chip with an embedded versatile sensor interface, internal temperature sensor, data storage memory and an ISO/IEC15693 RFID tag front end. ▸

Some 30 gold mines throughout South America are anticipated to use an RFID solution from PlasmaTech to increase worker safety and emergency response in the event of an industrial accident requiring evacuation.

Each worker entering the mine wears an RFID tag, which enable installed fixed readers to gather data and wireless transmit it to a computerized personnel-tracking system. This data allows emergency responders to know who has made it safely out of the mine and what personnel still remains in the mine. ▸

Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control have launched a product verification initiative, via RFID, in an effort to reduce the counterfeiting of drugs, reports the African Press Agency.

Carried out in collaboration with Verification Technology Limited (VTL), RFID tags will be equipped to secure the integrity of the drug supply chain, while tracking the product path as it moves through the supply chain from manufacturer to distributors, wholesalers, retailers and finally to the consumers. ▸

Gaming Partners International announced that it has completed delivery of its casino furniture, casino chips and associated gaming products for the opening of River City Casino, located in St. Louis, Missouri.

GPI provided the River City Casino with its associated table game equipment, which included GPI’s Paulson line of gaming chips, as well as precision dice, table layouts, roulette wheels and table game accessories.

The company supplied all of the casino’s gaming tables, as well as the pit podiums, security podiums and host podiums. All of the furniture was custom-built to accommodate River City’s design and operational requirements.  

Peacock Bros announced the distribution of the new UPM Raflatac freezer-proof RFID tag, designed to operate within conditions reaching temperatures down to -40° C.

The tags provide a white synthetic face which can be printed over with an RFID thermal transfer label printer for encrypting and printing user readable information. ▸