AIM Insights

RFID: A Natural Fit for Apparel
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
RFID Connections
Today, knowing what you have, how much of it you have, where it is, and how fast it's selling isn't enough. You need to know all of that now.
Read More
Bar Codes: Understanding Retail Bar Codes
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
AIM Connections
There has been a number of postings recently claiming that the initial digit of a GS1 (EAN/UPC) bar code indicate the product's country of origin. That's not necessarily the case.
Read More
RFID and Sensors: Much More Than Just Cold Chain
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
RFID Connections
Sensor-enabled RFID tags can serve many functions -- from supply chain to public safety.
Read More
Mobile Computing: Centralizing De-centralized Computing?
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
AIM Connections
The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning of corporate IT?
Read More
RFID: Gauging the Privacy Impact
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
RFID Connections
It may seem like an oxymoron but privacy is everyone's business. How do you make sure your RFID implementation isn't at risk of "leaking" personal data?
Read More
AIDC and the Internet of Things
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
AIM Connections
AIM's Internet of Things Committee tackles tough questions.
Read More
RFID: No Longer a Four-letter Word
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
RFID Connections
When people think about RFID today, they're more likely to think "benefits" rather than "arfids".
Read More
Bar Code: Updated FDA Guidance
Thursday, October 20, 2011
AIM Connections
Goal is to improve device and pharmaceutical traceability through UDI and SNI
Read More
RFID: Safety Conscious
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
RFID Connections
Using RFID to help ensure worker safety is in the news -- but it isn't a new idea.
Read More
AIDC Standards: Who Needs Them?
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
AIM Connections
Understanding standards may be a painful process...but lack of understanding is worse.
Read More
RFID: A Health(care)-conscious Technology
Friday, September 09, 2011
RFID Connections
The growing use of RFID in healthcare settings offers both opportunities and challenges.
Read More
Bar Codes: Changes Coming for Healthcare
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
AIM Connections
The FDA has finalized its updated guidance on bar code labels. But there's more.
Read More
RFID: An Oddly Engaging Technology
Thursday, August 04, 2011
RFID Connections
RFID seems to have become both a tool and a toy that is accessible to the general public.
Read More
Mobile: Are Bar Codes Becoming Obsolete?
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
AIM Connections
When bar codes become extinct, it won't be RFID that killed them.
Read More
RFID: These Are "The Good Old Days"
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
RFID Connections
In 20 or 30 years, people will wonder how we got by without RFID.
Read More
Bar Code Standards: Oh, Don't Bother
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
AIM Connections
It's so much easier to blame someone else for problems with your bar codes than to actually read the standard
Read More
RFID: Online Insecurity
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
RFID Connections
With recent reports of data skimming from RFID-enabled financial transaction cards, two things are clear: first, aluminum foil sales are going to skyrocket and second, some online vendors have a lot of work to do.
Read More
Bar Codes: QR Should Not Mean "Questionable Readability"
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
AIM Connections
There are right ways and wrong ways to implement QR Codes. Do you know the difference?
Read More
RFID and Homeland Permeability
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
RFID Connections
The opening of "Ready Lanes" to speed border crossings from Canada and Mexico into the U.S. is significant, less because RFID is used in these identity cards, than it is for the fact that RFID is finally being used.
Read More
AIDC: The Evolving Landscape
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
AIM Connections
Over the past seven years that I've been editing AIM Connections, the newsletter has evolved from a basic listing of AIM's activities and news about the industry to a major source of analysis and information about topics that were just on the horizon back in 2004. But what's ahead for the next seven years? What's just over the horizon?
Read More
RFID: AIM's RFID Experts Group (REG)
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
RFID Connections
The Source for Guidance on the Effective Use of RFID
Read More
IPv6: Speed Bump on the Information Superhighway
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
AIM Connections
IPv6: it's Y2K all over again...only this time it will affect virtually everyone. Or not.
Read More
RFID: Is Security the New Privacy?
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
RFID Connections
Have concerns about security overtaken concerns about privacy?
Read More
AIDC: Item Level Identification - Different Benefits, One Solution
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
AIM Connections
Is item level ID more about supply chain security, inventory accuracy, asset management, or financial accountability? Answer: all of the above.
Read More
RFID: Is RFID "Choking" On Its Own Success?
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
RFID Connections
The proliferation of wireless communications devices may be threatening to overwhelm existing spectrum allocations.
Read More
AIDC: How "Cloudy" is the Future for AIDC?
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
AIM Connections
With cloud computing, we see access to data, not just data entry, moving to the point of use.
Read More
RFID: What Will NFC Replace?
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
RFID Connections
Near field communications (NFC) probably will replace some things we take for granted today. So what are those things?
Read More
Biometrics: Helping Curb Mobile Mayhem
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
AIM Connections
In five years, people will feel about biometrics the same way they feel about their mobile phones.
Read More
RFID: Your 2011 "To Do" List
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
RFID Connections
2010 will be remembered mostly as a year to forget. So what will make 2011 a much better year?
Read More
AIM: What's In A Name?
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
AIM Connections
AIM -- how the Association is keeping pace with the changing landscape of automatic ID and mobile IT.
Read More
RFID: Clarity at Last
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
RFID Connections
Hype has finally given way to realistic expectations -- and real results.
Read More
The Mobile Workforce: Is There An App For That?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
AIM Connections
Will the next generation of smart phones make traditional mobile computing devices obsolete?
Read More
RFID: The Keys to Success
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
RFID Connections
To paraphrase the old retail adage, there are three keys to successful RFID implementation: education, education, education.
Read More
Biometrics & Card Technologies: The Privacy Conundrum
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
AIM Connections
The discussion of what constitutes personally identifiable information (PII) is moot when it comes to biometrics -- it's all PII. So how do we protect privacy if we're using biometrics?
Read More
RFID: No Flying Cars
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
RFID Connections
Just like the flying cars predicted by futurists in the 1950s, the potential dangers of RFID predicted by some today are more fantasy than reality.
Read More
Bar Codes: Playing Well With Others
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
AIM Connections
Bar codes are instrumental in helping other technologies work better
Read More
RFID: Steering Organizations Towards Operational Efficiency
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
RFID Connections
Whether it's for inventory, assets, processes or personnel, clear operational visibility is the key to allowing management to steer an organization towards better profitability.
Read More
Auto ID: Avoid Obvious Implementation Mistakes
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
AIM Connections
What everyone can learn from Apple's iPhone 4 problems
Read More
RFID: Nanotechnology Watch
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
RFID Connections
In the near future, bad environments could produce good results.
Read More
Biometrics: Bad News For Spy Movies, Good News For People
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
AIM Connections
Modern biometric technologies protect privacy and can't be fooled by fakes
Read More
RFID: When is RFID Not RFID?
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
RFID Connections
The transformation of RFID tags into "computer chips" and "electronic bar codes" is a growing phenomenon in news articles that show how RFID can be, or is being, used to benefit society. Is it because writers are afraid to identify RFID tags for what they are for fear of negative publicity? Is it ignorance? Is it both?
Read More
Voice Systems: A Natural Wonder
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
AIM Connections
Voice systems provide a completely natural and more productive interface between the employee, the host computer system and the tasks to be performed.
Read More
RFID: Beware the Commodity Mentality
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
RFID Connections
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Add a screwdriver and you can be in real trouble.

You can buy RFID reader/encoders and tags online. There are USB readers you can plug into a wide range of mobile devices. There are kits that allow you to add tags to everyday household items. Even Dell Direct is offering a turnkey RFID IT asset tracking package. And thanks to the increasing number of international standards and interoperability, there's no longer a question of "will this stuff work?" it's a question of "what can I do with this stuff?"

It seems as if RFID is going main-stream and that it's really not all that hard to use RFID. In some respects that's true. In other respects, it couldn't be more wrong.

Read More
Bar Codes: FDA Issues Drug Serialization Guidelines
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
AIM Connections
Protection of the pharmaceutical supply chain takes a (small) step forward
Read More
RFID: Food Safety and Product Recalls
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
RFID Connections
Consumer safety and corporate profits can both benefit from RFID
Read More
Bar Codes: Just How Difficult Are They?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
AIM Connections
Despite the apparent ease of printing and reading some symbologies these days, there is a danger in assuming bar codes aren't all that difficult.
Read More
RFID: Cargo Security and Product Traceability
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
RFID Connections
RFID can help prevent cargo theft and help identify individuals involved in it
Read More
AIDC: Investing in Standards
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
AIM Connections
Spending more time in meetings can offer big rewards -- really.
No one wants to spend more time in meetings (or on phone and web conferences) but you and your company need to do just that. Gaining any real bottom-line benefits from this investment in time and effort depends on picking the right meetings -- and those meetings include the ones of standards-setting organizations.

Read More
AIDC: Why Education is Critical
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
AIM Connections
Corporate AIDC knowledge is under threat from two directions -- it's time to take action.
Read More
AIDC: AIM Expo Offers More Options and Solutions
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
AIM Connections
The long-awaited event for the AIDC industry will provide a comprehensive range of automatic ID and mobile IT options for business, industry, healthcare and government.
Read More
RFID: 2010 Will This Be The Year...?
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
RFID Connections
Will this be the year that RFID security is finally implemented?

As we look forward to 2010, will this be the year that we start seeing security considerations being included as an essential part of RFID system design or will 2010 be remembered for more examples of what was done wrong?

Read More
Bar Codes: DotCode Debuts for High-Speed Encoding
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
AIM Connections
High speed encoding of machine readable lot/batch, expiration/best-by date and other variable production control data on low margin commodity items has never been successfully accomplished. DotCode was developed specifically for these applications.

Read More
RFID: Update -- The Health Care Initiative
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
RFID Connections
Project Designed to Ensure Benign Operation of RFID in Health Care Settings

Of the various studies and reports on the use of RFID in Health Care settings, one key issue has been absent: transparency. While some equipment has been identified and some testing parameters have been specified, there is insufficient detail to allow any of the tests to be replicated by another institution.

The AIM Health Care Initiative (HCI) is designed to change all that.

Read More
Bar Codes: Verifying the Verifiers
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
AIM Connections
There are three simple rules for printing good bar codes: verify, verify, verify.

When it comes to verifying print quality, companies rely on commercially-available verification equipment. Yet differences often crop up between the results of one verifier versus another -- even between two verifiers offered by the same manufacturer.

This isn't a problem with the verifiers, it's a matter of calibration -- and there's something you can do about it.

Read More
RFID: Printed Electronics - Sooner or Later?
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
RFID Connections
The March 2009 Viewpoint talked about advances in organic (also called "plastic") printed RFID and its potential to provide "smart packaging" and make tagging everyday objects more feasible. Recent announcements about inorganic (metallic) inks may bring low cost printed RFID tags even closer and may even bring about printed UHF tags by overcoming one of the key limitations (to date) of organic inks.
Read More
AIDC: Access Control Options
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
AIM Connections
Bar codes, magnetic stripes, laser cards, contact memory, RFID, smart cards, biometrics -- all of these are ID and access control options. It may seem that there are too many options or that the "right" choice is obvious. But what's "obvious" in one application may not be true in others. And some of the technologies have been around long enough that some readers may not even be aware of them. So how do you choose?
Read More
GS1 DataBar™ Coupon Code Postponed?
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
AIM Connections
The August 11, 2009 recommendation by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) on behalf of the Joint Industry Coupon Committee (JICC) that the final phase of implementation of GS1 DataBar for Coupon Codes be delayed one year, until January 1, 2011, may sound like a serious blow to GS1's plans for GS1 DataBar implementation. But the news is rather misleading. It's not GS1 DataBar that's being delayed.
[Corrected]

Read More
AIDC: Enabling SMB Agility
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
AIM Connections
You don't have to be Wal-Mart to benefit from AIDC technologies. In fact, sometimes it's better not to be Wal-Mart. Small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) often out-compete larger ones because their smaller size allows them to be more agile. Their size can also be an asset when it comes to implementing AIDC solutions. Many can benefit from relatively small, easy-to-implement systems that help them better manage their operations, assets, inventory and bottom line.
Read More
Bar Code History: The People Behind Its Success - UPDATED
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
AIM Connections
As the U.P.C. bar code turns 35, it's appropriate to remember some of the visionary individuals and companies that created the industry we know today.
Read More
AIDC: Putting the Action in Interaction
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

In today's mobile-connected world, AIDC technologies are the key to facilitating interactions between consumers and companies, disparate sources of information, individual items and even each other. Bar codes, RFID, voice, biometrics, and magnetic stripe all contribute in one way or another to enabling the efficient interaction between individuals and the entire mobile-enabled world.

Read More
AIDC: Mobilizing the Workforce
Thursday, May 21, 2009
AIM Global
Bert Moore
Editor

They may be in the warehouse, the yard, the field, at a job site or a customer's facility, but an increasing number of workers have two things in common: they're on the move and their primary job is not data entry. Yet data entry is usually required as part of any job -- whether it's recording, shipping/receiving data, site inspection, equipment maintenance, route accounting, sales or any of a dozen or so other activities employees must perform while on the move.

Giving these employees the right tools can improve mobility and the speed and accuracy of data entry.

Read More
Bar Codes: Beyond Social Networking
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

An increasing number of companies are beginning to realize the benefits of mobile marketing (m-marketing) and social networking by putting bar codes on items that link consumers' mobile phones to web-based services with special offers, money-saving coupons and other benefits. But the interaction between company and consumer can go beyond providing a product-based social network to providing a social contract to better inform and protect consumers.

There are a number of pilot programs that use 2D symbols to connect consumers' web-enabled mobile phones to specialized databases that contain information about the source of organic produce and fresh fish. These programs require special additional marking. But as GS1 DataBar® symbols move into the marketplace over the next few years, it will be easier for companies to automatically and cost-effectively identify the source of products and even prevent sales of expired items.

Read More
U.S. Food Safety: Will Food Track-and-Trace Finally Take Off?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

When U.S. President Obama announced Dr. Margaret "Peggy" Hamburg as his choice to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), he cited the growing number of food recalls that have risen to "nearly 350 a year – up from 100 a year in the early 1990s" and called the current state of affairs, "...a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable."

While much of the focus of news reports is on increasing the budget for the FDA to allow inspection of more than the 5% of food processing facilities it currently inspects, it is important to note that Dr. Hamburg is not only acknowledged as an experienced health professional but, according to The Huffington Post also, "a bioterrorism expert." According to that report, "She was an assistant health secretary under President Bill Clinton and helped lay the groundwork for the government's bioterrorism and flu pandemic preparations."

While there is debate over whether the FDA should be restructured to provide a separate agency to deal specifically with food safety, it is clear that Hamburg has the credentials to provide a positive impetus for field-to-fork traceability.

Read More
AIDC: Loyalty (Cards) Can Go Both Ways
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

The number of products affected by salmonella-contaminated peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of America facility in Georgia has topped 1,000 and demonstrates the absolute need for total end-to-end traceability in the food supply chain. And the ultimate "end" of the supply chain is the consumer.

The Viewpoint article in the June 2008 issue of RFID Connections ("RFID: Product Recalls and 'The Last Inch'") focused on the importance of covering this "last inch" in the food supply chain. What has been missing was a way to notify consumers that they may have purchased recalled products. In the midst of this current health crisis, Costco and Kashi have shown that not only is it possible, it's possible to do it right.

Read More
A GS1 View: GS1 Healthcare Advances Global Standards
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
AIM Connections
Scott Gray, CPIM
GS1 BarCodes & Identification
Global Business Manager
Patient safety, supply chain security, traceability and efficiency in Healthcare are currently at the forefront of government regulatory and industry concerns around the world. As a result, numerous, and often incompatible solutions are being (or have been) proposed to the national and international supply chain stakeholders and, in some cases, adopted in preference to global standards. The cost of diverse government regulations, proprietary services and incompatible solutions being offered to stakeholders has made it clear that there is a need to define and increase adoption of open, global standards. This is the mission of GS1 Healthcare.

Read More
The 5 Rs of AIDC
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

To paraphrase a principle from healthcare, it's important in any automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) application to follow the "5 Rs" -- choose the right technology for the right job for the right reasons implemented in the right way with the right support.

Getting any of these "rights" wrong can, and usually does, result in a system that does not live up to expectations and, in some cases, is an outright failure. Ensuring that the 5 Rs are addressed takes time but, once they're understood, the process isn't that difficult. And getting it right the first time is certainly less time-consuming than fixing a poor implementation.

Read More
Is Android : Mobile Commerce :: Code One : Matrix Symbologies?
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

For those not familiar with the mathematical notation in the headline, it reads: "Is Android to Mobile Commerce as Code One is to Matrix Symbologies?" To answer that, one first has to understand what Code One and Android are.

Read More
Time to Get Back to Basics
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

In today's uncertain economy, companies may be hesitant to invest in new, "cutting edge" technology. But many companies are running the risk of letting their existing technology fall by the wayside. Personnel promotions, transfers, retirements and layoffs can result in a lack of knowledgeable personnel to operate and maintain bar code programs.

In some cases, important decisions about these applications are no longer being made by technical people but by marketing or purchasing personnel who don't understand the systems' requirements. According to one industry expert, bar code symbols in one sector of retail have been increasingly printed out-of-spec because a) no one has complained, b) because scanners have become more aggressive and more tolerant of substandard symbols and c) designers want to reduce the space the bar code symbol occupies on the packaging. It's also possible that the bar code symbols are being produced by graphics personnel with no real understanding of how to do things properly.

But at least one retailer has concluded that out-of-spec bar codes are costing them money and is beginning to pressure suppliers to comply with published standards.

This knowledge void can be present in both the vendor and the user communities. And both need to look at their own knowledge base to ensure continued successful operation. Which means it's time to get back to basics.

Read More
The Upside of a Down Economy
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

The old adage that "every cloud has a silver lining" may actually apply to today's slumping economy. Tight credit and high fuel costs mean that efficient logistic and supply chain management will come to the forefront in many corporate strategies. Companies may begin to rethink their distribution patterns and place higher reliance on third party logistics providers (3PLs) to minimize shipping costs, realign or expand their own network of distribution centers (DCs) to match their customers' locations and even bring some manufacturing and assembly jobs closer to home.

Mark Baum, partner and managing director of the consumer packaged goods practice at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, is cited in an article in Traffic World Online, saying that shippers and retailers tend to see labor-saving, automation-oriented technology as a powerful lever. And, according to National Retail Federation Chief Information Officer Dave Hogan (cited in the same article), capital budgets for technology have held up well so far.

What does this mean for suppliers and customers of automatic identification and mobility (AIM) technologies?

Read More
The Future is Yours
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

A February 2008 IT Executives Service Provider Study by Ziff Davis Enterprise Research, showed that a full 48 percent of CIOs look to their service providers for advice on business and technology trends and 41 percent rely on them for recommendations on technologies to investigate. While this study focused on "service providers," there are lessons to be learned by suppliers and users of automatic identification and mobility (AIM) technologies alike.

These statistics are both encouraging and distressing. Why? They're encouraging because it demonstrates that there's awareness among these top executives that technology is continuing to evolve and that it's important to stay current. It's distressing because it shows a heavy reliance on existing service providers who may or may not be qualified to offer such recommendations.

What to do?

Read More
The Bar Code Revolution
Thursday, August 21, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

For those who think the headline of this column is 25 years too late or that this will be a retrospective on the technology, think again. Five new symbologies are on the horizon, each of which brings new or unique features to the bar code "toolbox." We have previewed some of these in the past but it's worth looking at them again, particularly since two of them represent symbologies designed specifically for the Chinese alphabet.

Even with the growing focus on RFID, bar codes remain an inexpensive and effective way of marking and reading data on items. The five new symbologies demonstrate that there is still new ground to be broken in applications not well served by existing linear or two-dimensional (2D) symbologies.

The new symbologies are: Datastrip 2D, DotCode, Grid Matrix, Ultracode, and Chinese Sensible (Han Xin) Code.

Read More
Bar Codes in Healthcare
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

A recent article that cited a report conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine concluded that bar codes were not proven effective in improving patient safety. The actual report focused on "workarounds to barcode medication administration systems" and their effects on patient safety. There's a significant difference between the headline of the article and the focus of the study.

However, it is true (and has always been true) that bar codes alone won't improve patient safety. A well designed and implemented system using bar codes will. In fact, the study (published in the Journal of Medical Informatics Association) concluded that it was a failure of the design and management of the system, not bar code technology itself, that were the problem.

Read More
Supply Chain Track-and-Trace: What Will It Take?
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

The source of the most recent food-borne health crisis in the U.S., salmonella from three suspected types of tomatoes, is still uncertain. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared a number of suppliers -- those not harvesting or selling those types of tomatoes at the time of the outbreak -- without finding the origination of the bacteria. Several state agricultural commissions have criticized the FDA's inability to quickly identify the source, claiming that its slow response is harming sales from growers whose products are not contaminated with the bacteria.

This is not the first time that the FDA's inability to quickly identify the source of tainted food products -- or the possibility of contamination -- has hurt food producers and endangered the public. The question that has to be raised here is: what sort of public health menace will have to occur before the U.S. requires traceability "from farm to fork" as some European countries currently do?

From one perspective, it would be a massive undertaking to develop a comprehensive federal database of food sources and distributors around the world. But what if it wasn't a massive federal project? From a more practical perspective, it might be accomplished in small, manageable steps.

Read More
Bar Codes Alive and Well in the Global Market
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

Speakers at the AIM Technology Leadership Summit in Washington, DC last month provided a wide range of insights into the markets and applications for automatic identification and mobility products around the world. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of talk about RFID (which will be discussed in the next "RFID Connections") but there was equal emphasis on the continuing growth of the bar code market in areas such as Brazil, India, China, Europe and even the United States.

Read More
Mobile Commerce or Mobile Chaos?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

Using mobile phones to read bar codes to access a variety of services is clearly a growing trend. While this is not a clear infringement of traditional mobile computing applications, it is definitely a trend that may blur the lines between consumer and corporate applications.

Many of these mobile commerce applications employ standard or proprietary 2D symbols while others rely on existing GS1 symbols on products. The variety of current and proposed applications include directing the phone's browser to the manufacturer's web site for more information on the product, to special promotion sites offering money-saving coupons and special deals, third party sites to do comparison shopping, identify allergens in food products or possible drug interactions, bus schedules, and self-directed city tours. The problem is, with the proliferation of these applications, the possibility for chaos increases.

As more applications are developed that rely on the same GS1 symbol as the key, how is the mobile device to know what to do with the data? And, as more 2D symbols show up, how is the consumer or retail employee to know what will result from reading the symbol?

Read More
Mobilizing AIDC Applications
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
AIM Connections
Bert Moore
Editor

When we talk of mobile applications of AIDC technologies, we immediately think of mobile computers and WiFi communications. While this continues to be a vital part of automatic identification and mobility, the newest opportunities for mobile applications are targeted directly at consumers and their cell phones.

Advances in cell phone capabilities mean that both bar codes and RFID are increasingly becoming part of the consumer experience. What's more, cell service providers are beginning to get behind these expanded applications since they stand to benefit from additional connect charges or higher priced plans that provide unlimited web access. So where is this all headed and how do you leverage this new capability?

Read More
Editorial: The Power of Association
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
AIM Connections
Daniel P. Mullen
President

I field a lot of phone calls from news media, users and potential users about automatic identification and mobility (AIDC) technology, applications and products. Invariably, one of the questions is, "What is AIM Global and what do you do?" In layman's terms, I explain that AIM Global is an association of the world's leading providers of data collection and enterprise mobile computing technology, services, and support and that the association’s primary missions focus in the area of education and standards.

In truth, however, AIM Global is a lot more than that. AIM Global represents "the power of association" to move the industry forward in a way that no other organization can. Companies that stand outside the association and think they benefit equally from AIM's activities are missing the point -- and missing the boat.

Read More
U.P.C. and RFID: From Vision to Value
Thursday, February 23, 2006
AIM Global
AIM Global's Annual Showcase, being held this week, is the opportunity for the AIDC community to "Connect with the Stars" in the industry. As part of this event, AIM Global recognized two "stars" in particular for their contributions to the advancement and use of AIDC technologies.

RFID Connections took the opportunity to "connect" with them as well. We asked both of these visionaries to offer their views on the development and future of AIDC and RFID markets. These interviews are excerpted here. The full interviews will be published in the March issue of AIM Connections and available on the AIM web site.

Patrick F. King, PhD, Global Electronics Strategist of Michelin, this year's recipient of the Don Percival Award. The Percival award is presented annually to an individual or organization from the user community recognizing outstanding contributions to the application of automatic identification and data capture technologies.

Alan Haberman, Chairman of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC31, this year's recipient of the Dick Dilling Award. The Dilling award is presented to executives, scientists, and engineers in recognition of outstanding contributions that have furthered the growth of the industry through important applications and new technological developments.

Read More