Neil Mitchell, an expert in consumer technology and RFID, discusses how RFID can help identify physical objects and connect them to the Internet of Things. RFID uses passive tags to uniquely identify even non-electronic objects from far away. As RFID adoption grows to billions of tags, its infrastructure can support IoT by providing a way to automatically track "dumb" objects in real-time. Alien Technology is developing new RFID reader platforms to lower costs and support additional sensors for hybrid RFID/IoT solutions. This will allow more real-time data collection and actionable insights about product locations and flows.

1. Alien Technology • June 2013 • CONFIDENTIAL
Neil Mitchell – Sr. Director, Marketing
The Role of RFID in the IDENTIFICATION of
Things™ (IoT)

2. The Role of Alien Technology in RFID
2
• Neil Mitchell
o Sr. Director Marketing and Product Line Management, Alien Technology
o Previously VP Marketing Mikoh (RFID AVI), XCeive (Si Tuners), Genesis Microchip
o Silicon Valley based consumer technology expert, with 25+ years experience
o STMicroelectronics (10 years), Philips/NXP Semiconductors
• Alien
o Author of the founding RFID standards
o Top 3 of all our markets: Readers, Inlays, IC’s, Services
o Based in San Jose, CA
o 1,500+ customers
o Has shipped BILLIONS of RFID tags and IC’s

3. The IDENTIFICATION of THINGS (IoT)
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Problems:
o How do you IDENTIFY these
objects?
o How do you CONNECT
“dumb” objects to the
Internet?
o How do you
AUTOMATICALLY model
REAL-WORLD “dumb”
objects?
o How do you keep this
accurate in REAL-TIME?
o What happens when you turn
off your “smart” device?
Internet of “everything” isn’t complete unless you
include both “smart”/electronic and “dumb”/non-
electronic objects
Millions of
devices
Billions of
devices

4. UHF Passive RFID is a “Super Barcode”
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• RFID uniquely identifies an item, not just the
SKU
• Line of sight not required - e.g. read tags
inside boxes/containers
• Read at much greater distances - e.g. 30 feet
Define the product (a product SKU)
(but not the instance of that product) Defines BOTH the product and the
specific instance of that product
123456789….789012
Item specific serial number
• Read much faster - e.g. forty or more tags per second
• You can write or update information on a tag - e.g.
maintenance count
• Can be embedded inside the product itself (more
rugged)

5. • RFID “smart” labels are placed on
products, cases, pallets and other
aggregated containers.
o No line of sight required
• RFID readers are positioned at
stations and choke points.
• As products/pallets pass by readers,
the reader antenna sends out RF
energy and the tag data is read by the
antenna.
• Data is sent to a database for business
analytics, visibility, decision tools, etc.
5
How RFID is Being Used: Supply Chain Tagging Example

6. 9 Billion Units and Counting…But Where is RFID Going?
6
Apparel
•Jeans
•Intimates
Other Retail
•Electronics
•Boxed goods
•Batteries
•Cosmetics
High Value Item
Level
•Wine
•Tobacco
Manufacturing /
Industrial
•Construction
•Automotive
•Other “JIT” industries
Transportation
•Ticketing
•Tracking
Healthcare
•Pharma
•Medical Records
$70.5 billion
from 2012-2017
ABI (7)
200 billion items
@5% penetration.
95% to grow!
VDC (1)
2 billion units, a
60% CAGR
VDC (2)
5.5 trillion
cigarettes a
year
BAT Group (3)
500 million
RFID transit
tickets
IDTechEx (6)
>60 million cars(4)
each with up to
30,000 parts(5) –
which is 1.8 Trillion
parts
Worldometers(4)
Toyota (5)
(1) http://blog.vdcresearch.com/autoid/2012/01/vdc-researchs-rfid-takeaways-from-nrf-big-show-2012.html
(2) http://blog.vdcresearch.com/autoid/2010/06/rfid-growth-in-retail-i-believe.html
(3) http://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO6Z2EUD?opendocument&SKN=1
(4) http://www.worldometers.info/cars/
(5) http://www2.toyota.co.jp/en/kids/faq/entry/6203.php
(6) http://www.idtechex.com/research/reports/rfid-forecasts-players-and-opportunities-2012-2022-000322.asp
(7) http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/9452/1/1/
Authentication
Omni-channel Reducing Supply
Chain CostsTraceability
Shrinkage
Customer
Convenience

7. The Fusion of Retail RFID and IoT
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Today’s business ROI needs are driving the identification of individual items in
retail and other markets
• IoT infrastructure can leverage this
o Passive RFID gets you most of what is needed for a virtual representation
o Passive RFID is 50x-1,000x less expensive than BAPs and active technology (or BTLE, WiFi)
• Now IoT applications become a reality
o Virtual warehouse and retail show floor
o Know what is where and when without GPS (and inside buildings)
o Status can be stored in each tag (no battery required)
o Electronic devices do NOT need to be turned on (conserving battery) to enable this functionality
An object identification infrastructure is becoming part of stores and global
supply chains …
IoT can leverage this infrastructure, enabling IoT to be brought to market more
efficiently and quickly.

8. What Does the Solution Look Like?
8
Only RFID can autonomously and seamlessly identify non-electronic devices (or
unpowered smart devices)
Bridge to the Internet
(An RFID Reader)
Real World
Model
The RFID Reader is really an IoT Bridge
Big Data Analytics
Actionable Knowledge

9. Where Does Alien Fit?
Innovating Volume RFID
• Sentinel™ Memory – Detect and FIX errors
• Optimized memory system for mass markets
• BlastWrite™ and QuickWrite™ for mass-encoding
• Pre-encoded chip-level serialization
Industry-leading ease-of-use
• Hydra daisy-chainable reader/antenna solution
• Class-leading read and write performance
• More local processing inside the reader
• Less network traffic/less network infrastructure
The industry’s most trusted and widely used tag family
• One of the industry’s most extensive range of inlays
• Tags for all applications: retail, item-level, transportation, life
sciences, etc.
• Custom tag design service
The industry’s most well-respected RFID training
• Standard, custom or onsite training
• RFID Solution Center – Conveyers, retail, etc.
• US & EU sites
• Feasibility analysis, system design & testing
RFID ICs READERS
INLAYS / TAGS /
LABELS
SERVICES
9
™
™

10. Announcing (TODAY!) Hydra RFID IoT Platform (Dual Port PoE+)
10” 8.5dBic Thin Antenna 30dBm Reader
(with option for external antenna)
Network PoE Switch
(transmit/receive data AND power)
10

11. Announcing Hydra RFID IoT Platform (Triple port + Ext. Antenna)
10” 8.5dBic Thin Antenna 30dBm Reader
(with option for external antenna)
Network PoE Switch
(transmit/receive data AND power)
11

12. • Alien is moving RFID to:
o Higher number of lower cost read points – replacing
handheld RFID readers over time
o Power and data is daisy-chained or meshed
networked
o Item locationing
o The platform is the first generation of a multi-sensor
(but low-cost) platform
o 50% cost savings per read point
Example Hybrid RFID/IoT Platform
Hydra Hydra Hydra HydraHydra Hydra
F800-X+
Emissary
Hydra Daisy Chaining (Data AND Power)
“Hydra”
Difficult to read
area of room
Additional
reader for
challenging are
More read points, more
chances to “see” shadowed
tags
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13. Summary
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• RFID is a mature, proven technology
o With a proven ROI & proven benefits
o Adoption in the BILLIONS today (and growing at CAGR 25%+)
• IoT will leverage this infrastructure
• RFID enables the identification of “dumb” objects
o Non-electronic objects
o Very low-cost objects
o Smart electronic when in the “off mode”
• RFID readers are data harvest tools
• Real-time data of what and where can be translated to actionable knowledge
o Connecting the right customer to the right product (Omni-channel)
o Optimizing product manufacturing flows
o Increasing real-time supply chain visibility resulting in the speeding up or the simplification of
international supply chains

14. For More Information:
nmitchell@alientechnology.com
www.alientechnology.com
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