Somark Completes Field Demo of Chipless RFID Tech
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Imagine a high-tech ID tag for cows, one that's as permanent as a hot-iron brand but can be read at a distance by a computer. CET-Based Somark Innovations announced yesterday that they've moved one step closer to this goal with the successful field test of their chipless RFID technology. Radio Frequency Identification (RIFD) tags are a type of radio bar tag currently used by an increasingly large number of manufacturers to track shipments of goods. Since the RFID tags operate at a (short) distance, and don't require a direct line-of-sight, like traditional bar tags, shipments can be read and processed as soon as a truckful of goods pulls into a dock. In the past few years, RFID tags have shrunk down to increasingly small sizes, making them compatible with a wide range of package sizes. However, Somark hopes to push this trend even further by developing RFID-type ink that can be tatooed onto the skin of farm animals.
In yesterday's press release, Somark President Mark Pydynowski said that the company had successfully developed a prototype able to automatically apply a tattoo in 3 seconds, and then read the ID information in real time. This is an improvement over their previous, proof-of-concept systems that relied on a number of manual steps. In addition, the RFID ink doesn't seem to be susceptible to the same types of interference that other RFID tags are, such as metal environments. This is important, since many livestock processing facilities are full of the types of material that would normally drive traditional RFID tags crazy.