Luxury Marketing with NFC

"Tap to Unlock the Story Behind!" gonna be your new NFC marketing campaign.

With technology advancement, we are now able to produce penny-size and paper-thin NFC tags for diverse marketing solutions. In this video, we are showing you a new marketing channel for your luxury brand. The concept is simple - an NFC tag in your packaging or as a price tag. This brings your brand closer to your customers by only ONE TAP with their Smartphone or Tab!

You can include various information, from diamond certificates and products from the same collection, to promotion videos and marketing campaigns.

Launch your own NFC campaign with us now!

Simple ibeacon demo using Garrison RT02-BT

This is a simple ibeacon demostration using Garrison RT02-BT. Here we showed the how iphone detects the 2.4GHz bluetooth low energy (with ibeacon firmwire advertising a UUID). Any android mobiles equipped with bluetooth 4.0 also works the same.

The signal RSSI received from transponder would be used for ranging BUT do not provide any hints on direction. So actually the direction appears on the screen is only for the ease of illustration purpose only.





Please also see other posts

Extended battery ibeacon tag.
Ibeacon proximity marketing

Tiny-NFC label Challenge

Size does matter, in NFC's world, larger label size  is critical for small items, even more important then large memory size.


However, small size also makes it hard to scan, especially when you have no clue where to scan on your mobile device...Good NFC scanning experience is most important. So, I will demostrate several types of tiny NFC tag and provide some hints reading them.These tiny tags are quite useful to apply on small objects, such as tools and jewellery brands / hang tags or items.

Preview the iBeacon in Industrial-grade Waterproof Enclosure and 2x Battery Life

This post provides a product preview on RR02 (tentative code, means Rugged Recorder), the iBeacon in Industrial-grade Waterproof Enclosure and parallelling-double CR123A Batteries, 3000mAH in total.

 

Features:

1. Nordic semiconductor 256k IC, nRF51822 BT4.0, bluetooth low energy BLE, iBeacon Firmware
2. IP68 waterproof enclosure
3. Replaceable CR123A x 2pcs, 3000mAH in total
4. AES security coprocessor
5. Stable performance and maintenance-free
6. Detect ON/OFF on 1 input
7. Optional Power input 12-28V 
8. +4 dB RF power, reading range up to 200m

Theoretically, how long can 2 CR123A cells last?

	Beacon Interval
	0.1s	0.2s	0.5s	1s	1.5s	2s	2.5s
Days	499.0	993.6	2452.2	4801.6	7054.5	9216.9	11294.0
Months	16.6	33.1	81.7	160.0	235.2	307.2	376.5
Years	1.4	2.8	6.8	13.3	19.6	25.6	31.4

(Bolded figures do not include the effect that may result from battery aging and leakage current)

Let us know more about your thoughts on extra features. Contact us by email : info@hk-rfid.com

Raspberry Pi will change the game in RFID industry [Insight]

Anyone has spent some time on googling "RFID" will soon realise comprehending RFID-product should earn you a doctorate degree. The toughest part is the "RF" in this 4-character word, it involves the selection of right RF reader and tag, system design and installation, not to mention the expensive middle-ware software and application software part. These factors lead to long sales and project cycle, eventually unsuccessful user experience.

HK-RFID has over 10 years of RFID design and deployment experience and we believe Raspberry Pi might be the game changing solution, bringing extra value in the whole RFID value-chain. 

Raspberry Pi is a low-cost mini-computer, with a proper program installed, it will be capable to handle basic RFID reader setting, data processing and provide data output. The user-skills required should be as simple as typical household WiFi router setting. 

We are developing a web-interface on Raspberry Pi (Project code: IMPRESS), so user-friendly that user doesn't require any programming skill or RFID knowledge. One single set of Raspberry Pi and RFID reader would be enough to cope with instant DEMO request, and small-scale business applications such as Attendance, Inventory Listing, Media trigger, etc. All it takes is just mapping IDs to what your names and actions, with a few clicks on a web-interface. 

Automatic data delivery to server by Raspberry Pi, in a customised format, would make system integration so easy that the programmer no need to study the long API document or call any library. They just need to set the network setting and all data will be auto-update into database. 

HK-RFID is capable of integrating Raspberry Pi into any of its RFID reader in their product series, as one single product. However, doing so may add up extra-cost to the product and bringing less value because users have fewer upgrade options. 

Raspberry Pi, as a part of RFID system, will accelerate the wide-use of RFID, including the evolving Bluetooth low energy (or BLE, BT4.0, ibeacon) and near-field-communication (NFC) technologies . The same platform can apply to any BLE dongle to perform more network or database related function. 

We welcome any comment and partnership, or proposal of co-development. Please provide your comment by send to our email: info@hk-rfid.com

Apps-in-a-Box : Raspberry Pi x RFID [Beta] [Lab]

We are so excited to introduce you all an innovative approach to use RFID reader products, by connecting Raspberry Pi to RFID readers. We are developing a tentative project named: IMPRESS platform, which is a web-service on Raspberry Pi, talking with Empress RFID readers, and others.

The basic idea is running your applications on Raspberry Pi just like any PC, and let it control a or multiple brainless RFID readers. We offer a web-interface just like household WiFi router for reader settings, as well as basic business applications.

If you are not sure what Raspberry Pi is, please visit following reference link; What is Raspberry Pi?

Video is on the way, but first please read the details explained in Q&A manner; 

Q: Why connect Raspberry Pi to RFID readers?

A: By doing so, you can have

• much cheaper "self-maintained mini-computer" (less than USD 40) that talks with your RFID readers, without any skill-set to handle RFID's protocol and calling APIs, etc.
• a website to configure the readers and do a lot more business applications;
• a lot more choices on connectivity, such as, LAN, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, SD-Card, Video ouput HDMI, etc.; instead of ordering expensive RFID reader options. 

Q: What can Raspberry Pi do with the data get from RFID readers?

A: Raspberry Pi can 

1) Auto record and deliver to server, send email 

2) Send email or trigger outputs, alarms or camera, etc

3) Process more logic such as record the first/last seen ID, their time and duration, and missing IDs

4) Mapping meaningless long ID with more meaningful names, such as student names, employee names, etc., may be export a report.

Q: What kind of readers will be support?

A: Our IMPRESS-Preloaded Raspberry Pi will support

1. Empress 2.4GHz Active RFID readers from HK-RFID [primarily]
2. Bluetooth Low Energy (iBeacon) readers
3. NFC readers
4. Other client requested RFID equipment

Q: What kind of applications or services will offer on this IMPRESS web platform?

A: Apart from basic setting of readers, we will offer several most popular RFID applications, depends on the license purchased from users

1. Attendance
2. Prohibited zone (access control)
3. Signage or media-content trigger
4. EAS anti-theft
5. Sensor data
6. Inventory list

Q: How to make it work?

A: You just need to 

1. Purchase the IMPRESS-SDK kit which include a Raspberry Pi and a Empress 2.4GHz Active RFID-kit from HK-RFID, 
2. Enjoy the unboxing, connect up Raspberry Pi with any HDMI display and reader, configure the network settings on a browser
3. Set your business applications and there you go

Q: How many readers each Raspberry Pi can support?

A: ONE

Q: When will it be available?

A: 2014 Fall, please contact us if you want to follow our development progress or Pre-order. We welcome any comment and partnership, or proposal of co-development.

Email:

General Enquiries:         info@hk-rfid.com

Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation

[Success Case] Axper Vision II optical visitor counter achieved 95% accuracy in one theme park at low light

Axper Vision II twin-lens visitor-counter camera successfully achieved over 95% accuracy in one theme park at very low light and high volume.

A theme park theater has a entrance where 80 visitors per minutes through a 3m wide opening and 4m height. This embedded system requires minimal installation and tuning efforts even under  high contrast environment and low light situation. The accuracy could be up to 99% if there are not too many umbella carriers under that rainy days.




Visit our company website for more information.

AXPER VISION II VISITOR COUNTER

What is Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE)?

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is now one of the latest technologies in micro-positioning and it is implemented in iOS 7 as the iBeacon feature. Here are two short video clips about iBeacon for you to understand how it works in different situations.

iBeacons: What They Are And How They Work

In this video, the speaker of the presentation introduces iBeacon to you and how it is being used in the retail industry now.

iBeacon Technology

Part 1 :

Part 2:

This video is a detailed presentation about the highly accurate micro-positioning technology which is based on BLE. They designed and demonstrated how museums such as Museum Louvre can make use of the BLE for navigation of visitors. With BLE, visitors will be able to load the right piece of information of the museum into their smartphones at the right place and right time. If you want to know how the programming codes works, you can also listen to the explanation of features of the codes by their engineer.

Please click into this link to understand more about the possibilities of BLE and feel free to contact our specialists to let us provide you with a customized BLE solution.

Video Sharing: Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) Marketing on i-Devices, ibeacon application demo

This was a fascinating video that was taken in Oct. 2012, edited recently and put on youtube. This internal project made use of the state-of-the-art technology at that time (BLUETOOTH LOW ENERGY or BLE or BT4.0), and it was well-finished by our talented engineers. We are still waiting for related open protocol and faster-development by Apple to encourage us  to plan something bigger.




"We are very excited about this new technology and we can produce tag and readers right-away. It has a very good synergy effect with Empress 2.4Ghz Active RFID product line. While some companies are able to mimick ibeacon and be so pro-active in the field, we are afraid that Apple's coming announcement may not responding the request of the iBeacon players, at the end became another "passbook"."   - commented by CTO, Kevin Wan.

Well, let's wait and see. 

We are 10 years old!

Time flies and we have grown from an incubatee to a worldwide leading RFID product designer and solution provider! To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong RFID (HK-RFID), 50 members and friends gathered at The Cityview Hotel at the company annual party.

The party was kicked off by Mike’s thank you speech to all current and previous employees for their contribution to HKRFID success. Everyone enjoyed the delicious buffet lunch and mini-games prepared by the HR department.

The party came to a climax when everyone received a red pocket from the lucky draw session! Lastly, the group photo had marked the end of the joyous day!

Here, we would like to share our happiness and joy with you all! 

Tree are lethal, especially in highly populated cities. That are why we need Tree Tagging!

Whenever there is a strong typhoon or heavy rainstorm, many trees would fall down as a natural process. But in highly populated cities such as Hong Kong, the falling trunks are highly lethal.

The management of trees is a hot topic in Hong Kong; tree experts and inspection teams hit the road and look at the trees by naked eye; general public are encouraged to report the threatening trees. How to keep track on the record of trees? And how to report the location of tree?

Here comes the solution: Tree Tagging by using RFID nail tag.

We recommend using High frequency ISO15693 or so called NFC-V, with a appropriate smartphone APP, it enables us to get the tree information, including its identity, location and type. The firemen can find out the tree and remove it quickly!

For tree expert team, just tap the tag with the RFID reader, they can get the details of health records. The tree tag is a High Frequency RFID tag and can still function when it is wet. It should be noted that the installation of tree tag requires professionals to make sure the tree tagging is safe and sound.

Contact: sales@hk-rfid.com