1. RuBee Andrew Giles 03.23.07

2. An alternative to RFID? ● What is RuBee? ● The differences between RuBee and RFID. ● Applications that could benefit from RuBee

3. What is RuBee? ● RuBee™ visibility networks ● A similar technology to RFID ● Long Wavelength ID (LWID)  Continuous identification  Greater read ranges  The ability to read around water and metal  A longer life than active RFID

4. History ● In June 2006, IEEE announced working on a new visibility network protocol standard IEEE P1902.1  To be in place by mid 2007  Known by industry observers as “RFID 2.0”

5. The difference... ● RuBee uses almost exclusively magnetic energy. ● RuBee operates at low frequencies. ● RuBee is for visibility, RFID if for tracking ● Data is stored on the RuBee tag, RFID is a pointer to the data. ● RFID tags are backscattered transponders RuBee is an active transceiver. ● RuBee fully programmable.

7. Capabilities / Advantages ● Higher read ranges than UHF and HF ● 100x100 ft (10,000 square feet) ● Ability to read in harsh conditions ● Water ● Metal ● High noise environments ● Peer-to-peer communications, between routers and the tags themselves. ● Long Battery Life ● Data is stored on tag itself

8. Uses ● Visibility of high value items. ● Anti-theft / shoplifting ● Smart shelves for high-value medical devices ● Inventory tracking in harsh environments ● Agricultural visibility ● Tracking of people within an environment

9. Who is backing RuBee? ● Carrefour ● Best Buy ● Hewlett-Packard ● IBM ● Sony ● Panasonic ● Motorola ● NCR

10. Sources ● http://www.rfidnews.org/library/2007/03/15/is-rubee-the-next-generation-of-rfid/ http://www.rfidnews.org/library/2007/03/15/is-rubee-the-next-generation-of-rfid/ ● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuBee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuBee ● http://standards.ieee.org/announcements/pr_p19021Rubee.html http://standards.ieee.org/announcements/pr_p19021Rubee.html ● http://www.idtechex.com/products/en/articles/00000523.asp http://www.idtechex.com/products/en/articles/00000523.asp ● http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2006/06/09/112723.html http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2006/06/09/112723.html

11. Questions ● Which technology provides higher read rates, RFID or RuBee? ● What are applications that would not be successful with RuBee, what are some that would? ● What kind of energy does RuBee use, that is different than RFID?