RuBee Andrew Giles

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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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?