Advanced ID (RFID Technology) (fka AIDO)

[SPARK]

Tech firm sees opportunity in cattle tags

Calgary Herald
June 23, 2005

Ted Jacob, Calgary Herald
Advanced ID president Barry Bennett says his firm is perfecting a new ultra high frequency RFID tag for livestock.

As a leading provider to the radio frequency identification and traceability market for the animal industry, one would think Calgary's Advanced ID Corp. would be eagerly awaiting the arrival of Sept. 1, 2006.

That's when all Canadian cattle leaving their farm of origin will be required to have an RFID tag attached to their ear, reflecting the reality of a post-BSE world in which efficient trace-backs and the instant identification of cattle beyond the farm gate is the new business norm.

And while Canada's national herd ballooned to 15.8 million head as of April 1, 2005, according to Statistics Canada -- or 2.3 million more animals than in January 2003 before a finding of mad cow disease closed borders -- Advanced ID president Barry Bennett has for the moment bigger fish to fry.

He's perfecting a new ultra-high-frequency RFID tag for livestock that he says has numerous benefits over the low-frequency RFID tag now replacing the bar coded tags that came into effect in 2001.

Bennett, in effect, is building a better mousetrap. "The mouse trap is pretty much built and now we have to try and hack the corners off to make a nice looking mouse trap," he said.

Advanced ID this week acquired a controlling interest in Thailand's AFG Asia Engineering Co. Ltd., a recognized leader in UHF RFID technology.

Effective July 1, the acquisition will better position Advanced ID to capture growth as the global livestock industry moves toward mandatory RFID identification, Bennett said.

All told, global shipments of RFID systems -- including hardware, software, and services -- reached nearly $1.8 billion U.S. in 2004 and is expected to hit $5.9 billion by 2008, according to market research firm Venture Development Corp.

But before Advanced ID's livestock tag can debut in Canada, Bennett must first convince the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, the body that tests and approves RFID tags for sale here, to consider new standards for the company's UHF technology.

Low-frequency RFID, used widely in pet ID microchip implants for the past decade, is considered the industry standard in animal identification.

Low frequency meets international ISO requirements for animal identification and Canada's national standards for RFID.

UHF RFID technology, meanwhile, is used extensively in supply-chain management systems and is mandated by retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Target and the U.S. Department of Defense.

But applying UHF RFID technology to livestock is new and falls outside of Canada's standards.

As such, only low-frequency RFID ear tags have been approved for sale in Canada to date, said agency spokeswoman Megan Gauley.

Gauley added the agency will test any tag as long as it meets Canada's standards for RFID. At the moment, that doesn't include UHF.

Advanced ID is conducting numerous field trials in preparation to meet a new set of North American standards regarding the use of UHF RFID in animals from the Association of Automatic Identification and Mobility.

Still, Bennett said there's no telling if the agency will adopt the additional standards, to be published later this month.

http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=694465b7-929e-49eb-85....

Continued

In the meantime, Bennett is touting the benefits of UHF over low frequency for livestock tags to other markets.

By far the biggest benefit of UHF is the ability to "read" multiple tags at a much longer reading range.

Advanced ID's RFID tags contain a passive integrated circuit that contains information, usually a number, that's activated when it passes through the field of an RFID reader.

The reader, which can either be hand-held or attached to a gate or fence, sends an electronic signal that "wakes up" the chip.

UHF RFID tags have a reading range of 2.5 to three metres compared with their low-frequency counterparts, which, depending on the power output of the reader, span eight to 18 centimetres.

This means less stress for animals with a UHF RFID tag because they don't need to be herded into a chute to get the tag close enough to a reader to produce a reading, as is the case with low-frequency RFID, Bennett said.

UHF is less expensive and reads through electromechanical noise better than low frequency, and there's an ability within the technology to write data to it at a higher rate than lower frequency, he said.

Gauley said UHF RFID is less than ideal for livestock identification purposes, however.

The biggest drawback is that UHF RFID doesn't work in the presence of tissue, water or metals -- elements that are all part of the cattle industry, she said.

As soon as an UHF RFID tag comes in contact with flesh or moisture, there's a problem reading it, Gauley said.

"And in our cattle industry, in order to have one of the most-effective tracebacks in the world, the read has to be there every time," she said.

To compare, low frequency penetrates tissue and moisture and isn't as affected by surrounding metals -- which is why the agency selected the technology for its livestock identification program, she said.

Still, Gauley said UHF RFID works extremely well in a variety of industries and is being used in many innovative ways.

Children visiting Legoland theme parks in Europe, for instance, are fitted with RFID bracelets to track their whereabouts within park boundaries, she said.

But Bennett said the design of Advanced ID's dangle tag has worked around the tissue issue and exposure to the elements isn't a problem.

He can put his UHF tag in a glass of water and still get an accurate read, he said.

"It impacts the read range, but quite frankly it's still a longer read range than we can get with our low-frequency stuff," he said.

Advanced ID's core business is marketing low-frequency RFID microchips, scanners, and its pet recovery database to the companion animal and biological sciences markets.

Still, the ability of UHF RFID to read multiple tags at a longer distance is stirring interest from a variety of players in the agricultural industry.

Advanced ID's tags are being put to the test in a pilot program by New York's Department of Agriculture and Markets.

The pilot aims to track the state's domestic deer and elk population and species-related diseases such as chronic wasting disease, a fatal transmissible disease that attacks the brain and central nervous system of deer and elk.

Continued

Advanced ID is in the process of filling the first order of 1,000 tags and hand-held readers for the pilot.

The company is also conducting field trials in places with more flexible standards, like Argentina and the U.S.

Field trials with cattle are underway at Kansas State University, he said.

In another field trial, Advanced ID put its tags and readers designed specifically for the sheep industry to the test in Australia with one of the country's largest processors.

The ability to read multiple tags at significantly longer read ranges resulted in processing efficiencies not achieved with any other technology, he said.

While UHF RFID may be the superior technology for livestock applications in Bennett's view, he's quick to admit there's room for both technologies.

"There are pros and cons to everything," he said.

"There is no silver bullet."

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© The Calgary Herald 2005