At the "RFID Journal Live!" conference in Orlando, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) industry announced winners of its 2009 awards program. Using RFID technology and PJM (Phase Jitter Modulation) chips from Infineon Technologies, the German weekly news magazine "Focus" was selected as the winner in the category "Most Innovative Use of RFID".
In about 100 specifically selected households which explicitly agreed to participate in the field trial tests, the "Focus" news magazine deploys RFID technology and PJM chips from Infineon to evaluate reading patterns and reading behavior of persons. Additionally, in cooperation with Magellan Technology Pty Ltd of Australia and the Austrian company RF-iT Solutions, the magazine developed a specific RFID reader unit that provides data on per-page-dwell-times of various members in the test households.
"We are very proud that 'Focus' magazine got an award for a successful application that perfectly shows the performance advantages of PJM: simultaneous read-out of many closely stacked tags and fast data transmission which is about 25 times faster than other RFID technologies," said Dr. Tilo Pannenbaecker, Vice President and General Manager, Business Line Personal & Object Identification, Infineon Technologies. "PJM technology makes this application possible."
Infineon is committed to further drive the RFID market and as licensee of the patented PJM technology grants sub-licenses for PJM reader technology to other reader manufacturers and RFID system integrators worldwide. Just recently Infineon sub-licensed PJM to Scemtec Transponder Technology GmbH being the first German hardware maker for innovative PJM solutions.
Further details on the RFID project awarded for "Most Innovative Use of RFID"
At date, about 100 households voluntarily participate in the field trial of the "Focus" magazine, which has an average number of 150 pages. Only the "Focus" magazines provided to these test households contain RFID technology. A tiny RFID label with an Infineon PJM chip inside is mounted onto each double page and enables the specific reader unit to measure the number and the length of reader contacts per double page. The uniqueness of the application demanded an application-specific reader and a chip solution that allows reading of stacked RFID labels that are only separated by one sheet of paper. Nevertheless the system was built using standardized ISO 18000-3 compatible chips and labels. The reader unit, which was developed by "Focus" magazine, Magellan Technology and RF-iT Solutions, is DIN A4 in size (approximately 21 centimeters (cm) x 29.5 cm).
In the voluntary field trial, "Focus" combines RFID technology with the classical copy test method which is used to measure advertising effects in particular consumer target groups. After using RFID technology for one week during reading, the persons who read the "Focus" magazine then undergo the classical copy test and are asked about their memories of editorial stories and ads. "Focus" expects first field trial results in June 2009. The news magazine "Focus" has a sold circulation of almost 740,000 units per week.
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