Bert Moore

Editor

AIM Global annually recognizes two individuals, one each from the vendor and user communities, for outstanding contributions to the development and advancement of the automatic identification and mobility industry.

For most people, it's difficult to understand the true contributions of these individuals simply by reading the news releases. To help provide some additional insight into this year's Dilling and Percival award recipients, this issue carries interviews with both Alan Haberman and Dr. Patrick King.

Until you have "walked a mile in their shoes" (or, more accurately, "sat for hours in their chairs"), it's difficult to appreciate the real scope of what these individuals -- along with previous recipients -- have accomplished.

Dilling award recipients are individuals from within the industry who, in addition to their real jobs, have dedicated countless hours (weeks, months, years) to the advancement of the industry through technical innovation, education or standards development.

Percival award recipients are individuals and organizations from the user community who have exhibited outstanding leadership in driving the development of industry-wide standards.

Among past Dilling award recipients are many who created the bar code symbologies we use today. But development of a symbology isn't sufficient to gain the industry's highest award. What is necessary, and the one factor that is common among nearly all Dilling and Percival honorees, is active support and most often participation in standardization and education efforts.

The development of standards -- either technical specifications or industry standards -- requires vision, dedication and compromise. The process is, as anyone who has been an active member of a standards committee will tell you, often tedious and frustrating. It is often an uphill battle against preconceived notions, entrenched business practices and potential economic impacts.

Standards development is the result of a committee process and, as such, requires individuals to strike the best possible balance between a vision of what should be and the realities of what can be. And, as incredible as it seemed at the time, they often achieve far more of the "should be" than the current technology allowed.

As Alan Haberman points out in his interview, the Ad hoc committee that developed the U.P.C. symbol and system was requiring capabilities from information technology and laser scanning that didn't even exist at the time.

The same can also be said of the tire tagging initiative in which Pat King played a major role. While it may seem that putting an RFID tag in or on a tire shouldn't be that much of a problem, the technical issues to be overcome were significant.  Embedded tags undergo incredible stress during the manufacturing process since tires are manufactured inside-out.  Tags had to withstand significant flex during manufacture and use. Further, tires have a significant carbon black content that is electrically conductive. Solving these technical issues was no trivial task.

It should also be recognized, however, that over the years there have been hundreds of other individuals who have worked -- and are still working -- to make the vision of standards a reality. The others are members of the original Ad hoc committee, members of AIM's Technical Symbology Committee (TSC), EPCglobal's Action Groups, AIAG's B11 committee, GS1's Global Symbology Committee (GSC), AIM's RFID Experts Group (REG), ANSI MH10 subcommittee 8, JTC 1/SC 31 -- the list goes on.

To all these individuals -- and their companies that support the time and travel necessary to participate on standards committees -- AIM offers its sincere appreciation.

Click for more information on the Dilling and Percival Awards.