Global revenues from smart home automation systems will grow at a 21-percent CAGR between 2015 and 2020, according to ABI Research. North America will account for the lion's share of the smart home automation system revenues in 2020, contributing close to 46 percent globally, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Janam Technologies LLC, a seller of rugged mobile computers for scanning barcodes and communicating wirelessly, has launched its XM2-RFID for Rail device.
Ikea's recently announced wireless charging line of furniture is expected to jump-start a trend that will amount to 10 million sticks of high-tech furniture sold in just two years.
The worldwide consumer Wi-Fi equipment market increased 5 percent in 2014, surpassing 166 million unit shipments. "Shipments of devices which support the 802.11ac standard grew significantly last ear, representing more than 11 percent of total access point shipments," says Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director, ABI Research.
Global branded packaging company r-pac International Corp. has commercially released an ultrahigh-frequency RFID cap tag for tracking inventory and authenticating bottled or foil-wrapped products. The tag was developed to take advantage of foil wrappers, as well as the fluid stored in a bottle, in order to extend the read range up to 15 feet or more. The product is said to be ideal for bottled spirits and wines.
Scandit, a developer of barcode scanning software for smartphones, tablets and wearable devices, has introduced a mobile app suite for the transportation and logistics industries.
For the past five years, the Pyhäsalmi mine in central Finland has been using passive high-frequency RFID tags to record when workers enter or leave a mine shaft. Since that time, says Kimmo Luukkonen, the mine's managing director, the technology has improved management's visibility into who is underground and when, and hence has increased its safety program's efficiency and accuracy. The company plans to expand that RFID solution to monitor who carries explosive detonators into the mine.
IBM says it will invest $3bn over the next four years to establish a new Internet of Things (IoT) unit, and that it is building a cloud-based open platform designed to help clients and ecosystem partners build IoT systems.
Luxottica Group, a global luxury sunglass and eyeglass company, reports that it has improved quality, as well as the efficiency of its receiving, quality-inspection and subsequent re-stocking of returned products, by between 30 and 50 percent, by deploying a Near Field Communication RFID system. The solution employs an NFC dangle tag attached to each frame, and software that enables workers to view data about the item, and to update its status via NFC-enabled tablets.
As manufacturing firms evolve towards an integrated approach to supply chain management, it is important to consider the role of third-party logistics in the value chain as well as the enabling technologies that support this evolution. A new report from IDC Manufacturing Insights, Perspective: Use of Mobility Tools in the 3PL Industry, examines the role of mobile technology in supporting integration and performance improvements in the 3PL industry.
