Knowledge group boosts RFID

OTA Training has established the RFID Australasia group to strengthen radio frequency identification (RFID) in the Western Pacific Region, reports RFID Ready.

The purpose of the group will be to facilitate the awareness, knowledge and adoption of RFID technology within Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

Jonathan Elcombe, GM of OTA Training Australasia, says: "Everyone can learn more about the state-of-the-art RFID technology, research and innovation from academic, government and industrial researchers, as well as connect with counterparts at businesses that have already implemented RFID systems into their commercial operation."

ERT Systems has developed a new way to track fire fighters while they're on the scene, states RFID News.

Firehouses that use OnSite emergency resource tracking will give each of their fire fighters a plastic ID card embedded with an active RFID tag.

The readers track the position of the fire fighters and relay the information to a laptop on a four-quadrant map of the building in real-time. Fire chiefs or incident commanders can use the information to direct their teams.

Medical researchers at Erlangen University Hospital, in Germany, are carrying out a six-month trial of a wireless sensor network to locate medical equipment and blood transfer, says RFID Journal.

Fraunhofer IIS' communication networks department developed the system as part of the Opal Health project, which was partly sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology's SimoBIT programme.

The idea for the project first emerged during discussions held in 2006 between Fraunhofer IIS and industrial partner Delta T, which operates in the blood-transport sector.