The World’s Thinnest Active RFID Tag?
Written by Fred J. AunA Pennsylvania-based RFID tag-maker is introducing what it says is the thinnest active RFID tag in the world. CenTrak CEO Ari Naim said the size of his company’s new 3mm-thick IT-740 Staff Badge makes it an ideal tool for keeping physical track of not only employees but also of expensive equipment that can be moved, such as notebook computers. “It is pretty thin, at 3mm, for an RTLS tag,” said ABI Research RFID analyst Michael Liard. “The advantage is that the tag does not need to be the badge itself. You can overlay the active tag on current badges — retrofitting them if you will.”
Asked about the new tag’s battery power, Naim would only say that battery life is one of his company’s “specialties” and that power specifications aren’t very informative. “That, honestly, doesn’t give you much information,” said the CEO. “What defines the life of the tag has to do with how the system works. Our system updates every three seconds. If we change it to update every six seconds the battery life would nearly double.” Naim said the IT-740 unit can be programmed to operate at varying intervals and has a motion-sensor that can be used to prevent activation if the unit remains stationary for certain periods of time, such as when it is not tracking product.
Cards issued by European banks when used online cross border don't usually support AVS checks. So, when a European card is used with a billing address that's in the US, an ecom merchant wouldn't necessarily know that the shipping zip code doesn't match the billing code.
-Marc
