Visible Assets, Inc. announced that it has selected CipherLab, a leading innovator in Automated Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) for the retail, warehouse and distribution markets, as a partner in offering an alternative to RFID-based asset management and logistics systems. A new interface with Visible Assets' RuBee protocol (meeting IEEE P1902.1) enables CipherLab's 9400 and 9500 mobile industrial computers to overcome many of the problems currently experienced with RFID in harsh environments, particularly those near water and metal. The integrated solution will be particularly ideal for the healthcare, government and defense, agriculture, mission critical tools, transportation and logistics industries.
"CipherLab is a great choice for Visible as a partner to help us transition customers with existing manual data capture or logistics systems to fully automated Visibility Networks based on RuBee and Dot-Tag networked solutions," said John K. Stevens, chairman and CEO of Visible Assets. "Many customers want a ruggedized, Windows-based system without multiple wireless communication protocols, and CipherLab's handheld mobile computers are reliable, affordable and easily tailored to meet individual customer requirements. Together, we offer a logistics and asset management system that delivers enhanced security, longer range and that is unaffected by noise and traffic."
RuBee is a bi-directional, wireless peer-to-peer protocol based on magnetic energy. Industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan categorize RuBee as a compact, low-power, competitive-cost solution for supply chain asset identification tracking and full Visibility Networks. Unlike RFID, which generally becomes line of sight in harsh environments, RuBee is volumetric - its signals are unaffected by steel, water or living organisms, such as cattle. Users do not need to do anything different in order to manage inventory on shelves, in metal shipping containers or in hospital clean rooms. RuBee is already in use by customers such as the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture.
"The CipherLab 9400 and 9500 units already offered customers anywhere mobility through a number of choices in connectivity platforms and applications at an economical price point, but by adding support for the RuBee protocol, we've opened up many more exciting possibilities," said Leslie Mesh, senior vice president-Americas for CipherLab. "Together with Visible Assets, we can now deliver an affordable logistics system that solves the RFID headaches prevalent in many harsh warehouse environments. We also gain a strong product entry in the asset management market.
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