Sybase iAnywhere Pioneers
Context-Aware Location Information System With RFID Anywhere 3.0
Sybase iAnywhere
December 4, 2006
Dublin, CA -- Sybase iAnywhere today announced the latest version of RFID
Anywhere(tm), the company's software infrastructure that provides an
extensible environment for developing and managing robust, highly
distributed sensor network applications including radio frequency
identification (RFID) solutions. RFID Anywhere 3.0 breaks new ground
with the delivery of a context-aware Location Information System.
Using RFID Anywhere, businesses can track assets from a range of data
collection points [such as passive RFID, active RFID, real-time
location systems (RTLS), barcode, global positioning systems (GPS) and
environmental sensors], and can dramatically enhance the value of this
data by associating environmental inputs (e.g., temperature) along
with the location data. In addition, the RFID Anywhere 3.0 Location
Information System exposes its complete feature set via a rich service
oriented architecture (SOA) web services layer allowing organizations
to easily transform static business information into business-aware
intelligence. |
"We're seeing that companies are looking for a single solution that
gives them the ability not only to track their assets, but also to
provide business context to them," said Martyn Mallick, director of
RFID and Mobile Solutions, iAnywhere. "RFID Anywhere's Location
Information System is able to add location awareness and business
intelligence to the sensor network, providing context-sensitive,
real-time views of the enterprise."
"One of the key areas of concerns for early adopters of RFID is how to
make intelligent business decisions based on the massive amount of
data created by RFID. The enhancements made to Sybase's RFID software
platform address this issue and provides an increased level of value
by combining RFID into an intelligent sensor network," said Curtis
Price, Program Director at IDC. "Asset tracking is one of the
applications that IDC believes is driving early deployments of RFID,
and the new release of RFID Anywhere provides a common infrastructure
for managing and tracking assets, as well as obtaining contextual
information from the data collected in a sensor network. This allows
businesses to derive greater value by making better informed
decisions."
Context-Aware Location Services in Action
The ability to enhance location information with business context is
desired in applications including asset tracking, asset control and
resource management across vertical solutions in healthcare,
logistics, cold-chain, and warehouse management environments.
Examples
include:
- A produce distributor can correlate the temperature of its goods
along with location and time data to know exactly where and for how
long a given item was exposed to certain environmental conditions such
as temperature or humidity. This information allows these
organizations to make real-time decisions regarding the distribution
of the goods to reduce spoilage, thereby increasing profits.
- A hospital admission system can be enhanced to allow tracking of
patients with contagious diseases and the ability to identify other
patients and staff with whom the infected patients may have recently
come in contact with. This would help a hospital prevent the
transmission of the disease.
- A handheld inventory management system in a pharmaceutical
distribution center can now not only determine how much inventory is
on hand, but can also identify the physical location of the asset and
determine which pharmaceuticals expire first. By having the handheld
device provide the location element of the data, the system can
incorporate location information while leveraging the existing barcode
or passive RFID network thereby reducing overall project costs.
Key New Features in RFID Anywhere 3.0
- New Location Information System (LIS)
-
Integrate and combine a variety of
sensor technologies to locate and track assets
-
Calibrate locations and associate fixed data sources with
coordinates to provide location data
-
Store, query and represent location of assets graphically or via
reports
- Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to enable information to be
accessed by any application via web services
-
Alerting capability so information can be 'pushed' when user-defined
alert conditions are met
- Support for Active RFID technology including RF Code, IDENTEC
SOLUTIONS and AXCESS
- Support for real-time location systems (RTLS) including Ekahau and
AeroScout
- Enhanced mobile device architecture including support for handheld,
forklift and PCMCIA card readers
-
Additional enterprise messaging connectors including JMS and IBM
WebSphere MQ
- Enhanced printing capabilities including a new label designer and
foreign language fonts
Partner Support for RFID Anywhere
Sybase iAnywhere partners are also excited about the latest
innovations in RFID Anywhere 3.0:
Ekahau Inc.
"Sybase iAnywhere provides a powerful integration platform for
combining Ekahau RTLS location information with passive RFID data and
other sensory inputs, delivering business intelligence to the location
data," said Tuomo Rutanen, vice president, business development,
Ekahau Inc. "This enables both companies to satisfy the needs of a
very broad customer base, which underlines the powerful synergy of
this partnership."
RF Code
"We are pleased to have worked with iAnywhere in the integration
between its RFID Anywhere technology and RF Code's Tavis RTLS
Platform," said Dr. Nissim Ozer, Chief Technology Officer, RF Code.
"This effort provides our joint customers the real-time location
visibility and reporting needed to improve the management and
utilization of assets across the enterprise."
Availability
RFID Anywhere 3.0 will be available in December 2006. To learn more
about the new features of RFID Anywhere 3.0, please sign up for an
exclusive webcast on December 14th at 10AM or 2PM EST at:
www.ianywhere.com/rfid_webcast. To join the very popular RFID Anywhere
developer community and to download a free development copy of RFID
Anywhere, visit www.ianywhere.com/RFID.
About RFID Anywhere
RFID Anywhere simplifies the development, deployment, configuration
and management tasks for highly distributed, multi-site, intelligent
sensor networks, and abstracts the interaction with the physical
network of devices. With support for over forty devices, this powerful
infrastructure enables the creation of intelligent sensor networks
out-of-the-box. By using RFID Anywhere, sensors are able to work
together as an intelligent network by combining, organizing and
coordinating these technologies through a common management structure,
advanced feature set and event-driven development framework.
About Sybase iAnywhere
Sybase iAnywhere enables success at the front lines of business. The
company holds worldwide market leadership positions in mobile and
embedded databases, mobile management and security, mobile middleware
and synchronization, and Bluetooth(r) and infrared protocol
technologies. Tens of millions of mobile devices, millions of
subscribers, and 20,000 customers and partners rely on the company's
"Always Available" technologies, including SQL Anywhere, Afaria,
OneBridge, and the AvantGo mobile Internet service. iAnywhere is a
subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. (NYSE:SY). |
