Business application study of RFID technology

The present work deals with RFID (radio--‐frequency identification) technology, which is nowadays mainly used to identify and track products, items or even employees. This technology facilitates the collection, storing and processing of information in order to, for instance, provide a higher stock visibility, eliminate manufacturing errors or increase production speeds. It is replacing more and more the less efficient bar code system, and its increasing importance in a various number of sectors, as well as its many different ways of using the technology, give reasons and motivation to look with more detail into the subject. As mentioned, bar code applications have many deficiencies and disadvantages in comparison with an RFID system they are becoming old--‐fashioned in the meantime, and are more rarely applied by companies in a multitude of industries. But RFID technology is not just meant to substitute the bar code system, it is a technology that opens new ways and new possibilities of affecting positively many industrial, administrative, stocking and transporting processes, among others that will be seen. This work is meant to be a reference for engineers and managers, providing in the first place, an introduction to get more familiar with the subject through description of the physical phenomena and technical characteristics of RFID. Further more, the work is meant to be used as a tool for managers and engineers to evaluate the implantation of RFID in their respective companies and business unites, which is the way to extract the most value out of this document. In this sense, the core and innovating part of this work will be the mapping table in the third chapter with specific results that could be used by any company to find the appropriate applications of RFID within their field of business. It will serve as a primary selection and evaluation tool that would precede future next steps to find out in which fields the application would be more profitable, like for example the deep economic analysis of the applications considered. Basically, the approach will be as follows. An evaluation table has been elaborated and structured to point out the relation between specific industry sectors, the advantages of the RFID technology and business units within a company such as supply chain, logistics and maintenance. A numerical value will be extracted to compare values with each other so as to support and propose the application of RFID in a specific business unit. Finally through interpretation of the relationship between advantages, business unites and industry sectors, it will be possible to extract valuable information from the table and be able to answer some concrete questions from it, which any manager would like to have solved in advance when dealing with the possibility of implantation of RFID technology in his compan

Battery-less near field communications (nfc) sensors for internet of things (iot) applications

L’ implementació de la tecnologia de comunicació de camp proper (NFC) en els telèfons intel·ligents no para de créixer degut a l’ús d’aquesta per fer pagaments, això, junt amb el fet de poder aprofitar l’energia generada pel mòbil no només per la comunicació, sinó també per transmetre energia, el baix cost dels xips NFC, i el fet de que els telèfons tinguin connectivitat amb internet, possibilita i fa molt interesant el disseny d’etiquetes sense bateria incorporant-hi sensors i poder enviar la informació al núvol, dins del creixent escenari de l’internet de les coses (IoT). La present Tesi estudia la viabilitat d’aquests sensors, analitzant la màxima distància entre lector i sensor per proveir la potència necessària, presenta tècniques per augmentar el rang d’operació, i analitza els efectes de certs materials quan aquests estan propers a les antenes. Diversos sensors han estat dissenyats i analitzats i son presentats en aquest treball. Aquests son: Una etiqueta que mesura la humitat de la terra, la temperatura i la humitat relativa de l’aire per controlar les condicions de plantes. Un sensor per detectar la humitat en bolquers, imprès en material flexible que s’adapta a la forma del bolquer. Dues aplicacions, una per estimació de pH i una altre per avaluar el grau de maduració de fruites, basats en un sensor de color. I, per últim, s’estudia la viabilitat de sensors en implants per aplicacions mèdiques, analitzant l’efecte del cos i proposant un sistema per augmentar la profunditat a la que aquests es poden llegir utilitzant un telèfon mòbil. Tots aquests sensors poden ser alimentats i llegits per qualsevol dispositiu que disposin de connexió NFC.La implementación de la tecnología de comunicaciones de campo cercano (NFC) en los teléfonos inteligentes no para de crecer debido al uso de esta para llevar a cabo pagos, esto, junto con el hecho de poder aprovechar la energía generada por el móvil no sólo para la comunicación, sino también para transmitir energía, el bajo coste de los chips NFC, i el hecho que los teléfonos tengan conectividad a internet, posibilita y hace muy interesante el diseño de etiquetas sin batería que incorporen sensores i poder enviar la información a la nube, enmarcado en el creciente escenario del internet de las cosas (IoT). La presente Tesis estudia la viabilidad de estos sensores, analizando la máxima distancia entre lector i sensor para proveer la potencia necesaria, presenta técnicas para aumentar el rango de operación, y analiza los efectos de ciertos materiales cuando estos están cerca de las antenas. Varios sensores han sido diseñados y analizados y son presentados en este trabajo. Estos son: Una etiqueta que mide la humedad de la tierra, la temperatura y la humedad relativa del aire para controlar las condiciones de plantas. Un sensor para detectar la humedad en pañales, impreso en material flexible que se adapta a la forma del pañal. Dos aplicaciones, una para estimación de pH y otra para evaluar el grado de maduración de frutas, basados en un sensor de color. Y, por último, se estudia la viabilidad de sensores en implantes para aplicaciones médicas, analizando el efecto del cuerpo y proponiendo un sistema para aumentar la profundidad a la que estos se pueden leer usando un teléfono móvil. Todos estos sensores pueden ser alimentados y leídos por cualquier dispositivo que disponga de conexión NFC.The implementation of near field communication (NFC) technology into smartphones grows rapidly due the use of this technology as a payment system. This, altogether with the fact that the energy generated by the phone can be used not only to communicate but for power transfer as well, the low-cost of the NFC chips, and the fact that the smartphones have connectivity to internet, makes possible and very interesting the design of battery-less sensing tags which information can be sent to the cloud, within the growing internet of things (IoT) scenario. This Thesis studies the feasibility of these sensors, analysing the maximum distance between reader and sensor to provide the necessary power, presents techniques to increase the range of operation, and analyses the effects of certain materials when they are near to the antennas. Several sensors have been designed and analysed and are presented in this work. These are: a tag that measures the soil moisture, the temperature and the relative humidity of the air to control the conditions of plants. A moisture sensor for diapers, printed on flexible material that adapts to the diaper shape. Two applications, one for pH estimation and another for assessing the degree of fruit ripening, based on a colour sensor. And finally, the feasibility of sensors in implants for medical applications is studied, analysing the effect of the body and proposing a system to increase the depth at which they can be read using a mobile phone. All of these sensors can be powered and read by any NFC enabled device

1-D broadside-radiating leaky-wave antenna based on a numerically synthesized impedance surface

A newly-developed deterministic numerical technique for the automated design of metasurface antennas is applied here for the first time to the design of a 1-D printed Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) for broadside radiation. The surface impedance synthesis process does not require any a priori knowledge on the impedance pattern, and starts from a mask constraint on the desired far-field and practical bounds on the unit cell impedance values. The designed reactance surface for broadside radiation exhibits a non conventional patterning; this highlights the merit of using an automated design process for a design well known to be challenging for analytical methods. The antenna is physically implemented with an array of metal strips with varying gap widths and simulation results show very good agreement with the predicted performance

Internet of Things Applications - From Research and Innovation to Market Deployment

The book aims to provide a broad overview of various topics of Internet of Things from the research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies, nanoelectronics, cyber physical systems, architecture, interoperability and industrial applications. It is intended to be a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC – Internet of Things European Research Cluster from technology to international cooperation and the global "state of play".The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European research Cluster on the Internet of Things Strategic Research Agenda and presents global views and state of the art results on the challenges facing the research, development and deployment of IoT at the global level. Internet of Things is creating a revolutionary new paradigm, with opportunities in every industry from Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage, Agriculture, Computer, Electronics Telecommunications, Automotive, Aeronautics, Transportation Energy and Retail to apply the massive potential of the IoT to achieving real-world solutions. The beneficiaries will include as well semiconductor companies, device and product companies, infrastructure software companies, application software companies, consulting companies, telecommunication and cloud service providers. IoT will create new revenues annually for these stakeholders, and potentially create substantial market share shakeups due to increased technology competition. The IoT will fuel technology innovation by creating the means for machines to communicate many different types of information with one another while contributing in the increased value of information created by the number of interconnections among things and the transformation of the processed information into knowledge shared into the Internet of Everything. The success of IoT depends strongly on enabling technology development, market acceptance and standardization, which provides interoperability, compatibility, reliability, and effective operations on a global scale. The connected devices are part of ecosystems connecting people, processes, data, and things which are communicating in the cloud using the increased storage and computing power and pushing for standardization of communication and metadata. In this context security, privacy, safety, trust have to be address by the product manufacturers through the life cycle of their products from design to the support processes. The IoT developments address the whole IoT spectrum - from devices at the edge to cloud and datacentres on the backend and everything in between, through ecosystems are created by industry, research and application stakeholders that enable real-world use cases to accelerate the Internet of Things and establish open interoperability standards and common architectures for IoT solutions. Enabling technologies such as nanoelectronics, sensors/actuators, cyber-physical systems, intelligent device management, smart gateways, telematics, smart network infrastructure, cloud computing and software technologies will create new products, new services, new interfaces by creating smart environments and smart spaces with applications ranging from Smart Cities, smart transport, buildings, energy, grid, to smart health and life. Technical topics discussed in the book include: • Introduction• Internet of Things Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda• Internet of Things in the industrial context: Time for deployment.• Integration of heterogeneous smart objects, applications and services• Evolution from device to semantic and business interoperability• Software define and virtualization of network resources• Innovation through interoperability and standardisation when everything is connected anytime at anyplace• Dynamic context-aware scalable and trust-based IoT Security, Privacy framework• Federated Cloud service management and the Internet of Things• Internet of Things Application

Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

Near Field Communications (NFC) - Case Study: Mobile Banking in South Africa

Η κινητή τηλεφωνία έχει βαθιά επίδραση στην κοινωνία μας. Το τελευταίο διάστημα έχει κάνει την εμφάνισή της μια καινούρια τεχνολογία στο χώρο της κινητής τηλεφωνίας με την ονομασία επικοινωνία κοντινού πεδίου (ΕΚΠ -Near Field Communication - NFC). Ως τεχνολογία ασύρματης επικοινωνίας με μικρή εμβέλεια, η ΕΚΠ προσφέρει ασφαλή και απλή επικοινωνία μεταξύ ηλεκτρονικών συσκευών. Εν ολίγοις επιτρέπει τη χρήση του κινητού τηλεφώνου ως μέσου ασφαλών συναλλαγών και πληρωμής λογαριασμών μετατρέποντάς το κινητό τηλέφωνο ουσιαστικά σε ηλεκτρονικό πορτοφόλι. Στην εργασία αυτή θα εξετάσουμε το χώρο των πληρωμών μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου. Θα δώσουμε μια γενική εικόνα, αναλύοντας την τεχνολογία, τους κρίσιμους παράγοντες για την επιτυχία της τεχνολογίας αυτής και το σχετικό νομοθετικό πλαίσιο. Θα εξετάσουμε διάφορες εφαρμογές των πληρωμών μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου που χρησιμοποιούνται σήμερα και που βασίζονται σε τραπεζικούς λογαριασμούς, πιστωτικές κάρτες και συστήματα τιμολόγησης των τηλεπικοινωνιακών επιχειρήσεων. Θα αναλυθεί το τεχνολογικό υπόβαθρο που απαιτείται και περιλαμβάνει SMS, USSD, GRPS ή 3G, WAP,J2ME,LBS,NFC,IVR. Θα δώσουμε έμφαση στην μελέτη της Νότιας Αφρικής όπου υπάρχει πλήρης εφαρμογή τεχνολογιών κοντινού πεδίου. Θα εξετάσουμε τους εμπλεκόμενους φορείς και τους ενδιαφερόμενους από την πλευρά των τραπεζών (Wizzit mobile banking, ΜΤΝ Banking και FNB cellphone banking), από την πλευρά των φορέων εκμετάλλευσης κινητών δικτύων (Vodacom, MTN, Cell-C και του εικονικού φορέα κινητών δικτύων (VMNO) Virgin Mobile) καθώς και από την πλευρά των εμπόρων. Κατόπιν, θα δοθεί το βάρος στις διάφορες προκλήσεις που αντιμετωπίζουν οι ηλεκτρονικές πληρωμές μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου. Θα εξεταστούν οι κρίσιμοι παράγοντες επιτυχίας, όπως η αντιμετώπιση συγκρουόμενων συμφερόντων, η συμπεριφορά των καταναλωτών, το κόστος, η εμπιστοσύνη, η ασφάλεια, η χρηστικότητα, και τέλος η νομοθεσία που διέπει τις πληρωμές μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου. Επιπλέον, θα υποδειχθούν τρόποι για την ανάπτυξη των ηλεκτρονικών πληρωμών που μπορούν να μειώσουν σημαντικά το κοινωνικό κόστος του συστήματος πληρωμών της χώρας. Παρέχουμε μια εκτίμηση για τη μείωση του κοινωνικού κόστους και την ανταπόκριση των χρηστών, όταν οι σχετικές τιμές ορίζονται με στόχο την επιτάχυνση της αντικατάστασης των παραδοσιακών πληρωμών με ηλεκτρονικές και ιδίως πληρωμές μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου. Θα εξετάσουμε τα διάφορα επιχειρηματικά μοντέλα που προτείνονται και εφαρμόζονται κατά τη διάρκεια υλοποίησης πληρωμών με χρήση κινητού τηλεφώνου. Θα δοθεί έμφαση στα οφέλη, στις προκλήσεις που συνδέονται με την τεχνολογία κοντινού πεδίου και τις πληρωμές μέσω αυτών. Θα αναφερθούμε στα δικαιώματα προαίρεσης κατά διαδικασία λήψης αποφάσεων. Τέλος, θα γίνει αναφορά στο μέλλον της συγκεκριμένης τεχνολογίας και στις πληρωμές μέσω αυτής.Mobile phone technology has had a profound effect on our society and Near Field Communication (NFC) has become one of the promising technological developments in IT industry. NFC is one of the latest wireless communication technologies. As a short-range wireless connectivity technology, NFC offers safe yet simple and intuitive communication between electronic devices. We will review the mobile payments space by giving an overview, examining mobile payments technology, assessing mobile payments in South Africa, analysing the various critical success factors, and examining the various governing legislation that exists. We will review various mobile payment solutions currently in use that are based on bank accounts, credit cards and mobile telecommunication company billing systems. These technological solutions include Short Message Service (SMS), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), General Packet Radio Service (GRPS) or 3G (Third-generation), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), J2ME, Location-Based service (LBS), Near Field Communication (NFC), and Interactive Voice Response (IVR). We will then take a look at the mobile payments space in South Africa. This will involve reviewing some of the major stakeholders and players. Popular mobile payments solutions in South Africa include Wizzit mobile banking, MTN Banking, and FNB cellphone banking. The mobile network operators include Vodacom, MTN, Cell-C and the virtual mobile network operator (VMNO) Virgin Mobile. The other important stakeholders include the big four banks, electronic payment network operators Visa and MasterCard, and specific merchants. Reviewing the various challenges faced by mobile payment solutions will give this research weight. These challenges include critical success factors such as dealing with the dynamics of different stakeholders with conflicting interests, consumer behaviour, costs, trust and security, usability, and lastly legislation governing mobile payments. Moreover, we we will indicate ways the growth of electronic payments can substantially reduce the social cost of a country's payment system. We provide an estimate of the potential savings in social cost and determine the responsiveness of payment users when relative prices are used to speed up the substitution of electronic and especially mobile-based for paper-based payments. Then, we will explore the various business models being proposed and applied during the implementation of NFC mobile payments. The various stakeholders that are part of the NFC mobile payment ecosystem will then be studied and lastly the benefits and challenges associated with NFC mobile payments will be noted. Finally, we will review real options methodology to the investment-making process