Bluetooth Enabled RFID Reader Launched

Enterprise Mobility specialists Blackbay today announced that shipping of their Handheld Bluetooth enabled RFID Reader has commenced. The product has applications in numerous market sectors requiring asset management functions. The product is distributed in the United Kingdom by Barcode Warehouse Ltd and in Australia and New Zealand by Vantex Technology Distribution Ltd.

The announcement by the UK based company also heralds the demonstration of a fully integrated wireless RFID solution for their Real Time Transport & Logistics and Field Service software solutions, now running on over 15,000 handhelds worldwide.

The Blackbay U1000 RFID Reader is already being trialled by a number of early adopters keen to benefit from improved asset visibility and other efficiencies offered by the technology. Others are capitalising on the audit trail created by writing maintenance status back to the tag, a feature not previously available with bar coded systems.

“Our products provide not only the ability to migrate from traditional bar-code based track-and-trace systems with a low cost retro-fit upgrade, but they open up a whole new opportunity for real time visibility of assets over wireless wide area networks outside the warehouse doors.” says Grant Pugh, Technical Director of Blackbay’s design lab.

The company has concentrated on providing the “best of breed” features of other handheld RFID products with a strong emphasis on meeting the ergonomic and harsh environmental requirements of users in the courier, freight and maintenance industries. As a result the product is lightweight 135 gm, water resistant (IP64) and is designed to work constantly for a full 12 hour work shift between battery charges.

The reader operates at 13.56 MHz and can read or write to tags based on ISO18000-3-mode 1, ISO15693, ISO14443, ICODE™, Mifare™ and Tag-it™ protocols with a read range of around 10cm (~ 4”).  In addition the U1000 can operate in a data logging (Audit or Stocktaking) mode storing up to 1000 tag reads without the need of a handheld PDA.

The product incorporates a USB interface for firmware upgrades and battery charging.  When powered via USB it can be configured as an “always on” wall or desk mount reader with plug and play integration to desktop workstations.

“The Bluetooth capability of the device was chosen because of the high penetration of Bluetooth enabled PDAs in the market” comments Grant Pugh. “For our customers it meant a lower cost of introducing RFID because they didn’t have to go through a technology refresh of their handheld” he adds.

The U1000 is the only commercially available reader supplied with Blackbay’s Blu-Glu software for handheld devices operating on Microsoft Windows^® for PocketPC™ or Windows Mobile™ (.NET) platforms that provides seamless integration to a number of different Bluetooth protocol stack implementations provided by various vendors.  Using this software Blackbay has demonstrated the simultaneous operation of Bluetooth GPS devices, Bluetooth Headsets and the RFID reader to provide time stamped item position and automatic identification.

Click here to learn more about  Barcode Warehouse and Vantex