A Daring Initiative

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), despite being in its developing stage,
has come a long way. Its applications are many and it brings in a high degree of
efficiency into the operation. Experts say that RFID is evolving as a preferred
auto ID technology, which is bound to grow aggressively. Given the potential,
some of the Indian companies have started focusing on RFID. One Indian company
that has taken the RFID plunge in a big way is Gemini Traze RFID, a company
formed by Gemini Communications. Gemini Traze RFID is said to be the first
company in India to manufacture and market RFID-based Readers and Antennas in
the yet to mature RFID industry, under the brand name Traze.

Looking at the evolution of Traze, it was functioning as a captive of Gemini
Communications from 2002, and, subsequently, became an independent entity in
2006. Says R Ramkumar, director, Gemini Communications: “We took a conscious
decision of foraying into something unique that would raise our bar in the
industry, and being a company with core networking skills, RFID development
integrated well on our portfolio. We started doing R&D work initially and in
some time derived deep domain expertise in RFID and came out with comprehensive
product portfolio under the Traze brand.”

“We took a conscious decision to foray into something unique that would raise our bar in the industry. And, being a company with core networking skills, RFID development integrated well on our portfolio”R Ramkumar, director, Gemini Communication

Ramkumar says that Gemini has completed over 300 RFID implementations in
India in the last five years. Some of the deployments it has done include that
for Sabari International, an exporter of home furnishing and textiles, where the
company has deployed a Production Monitoring System. Using this system, as soon
as the raw material enters the stores, an HF tag is programmed by using Traze
tag programming station with all necessary information, and is affixed on to the
bale. If the bale passes the quality check, the tag is read and a text report
gets generated. The tag is preserved separately. If the material gets rejected,
the tag gets recycled immediately.

Gemini has done another significant deployment for MTNL's Center for
Excellence in Telecom Technology and Management (CETTM), where it has deployed
an RFID-based library automation system. CETTM has a library with over 5,000
books and periodicals where it decided to implement and demonstrate automation
using RFID. The system works like this: the books and periodicals in the library
are tagged with RFID labels. A self-checkout counter is designed to enable
hassle-free checkout. The counter has a touch screen to make the system
user-friendly. Moreover, a proper checkout would deactivate the access bit so as
to let the books pass through the gate antenna. The gate antenna is so designed
to track the status of the access bits and a buzzer goes when books are taken
out without proper checkout. A book drop box enables the user to drop the books
on due authentication with their patron cards.

Gemini has invested close to Rs 25 crore on the RFID manufacturing plant and
does products of all frequencies and has the most comprehensive range of
products that includes receivers, transponders, antennae, and tags. But, tag
production is at a higher rate currently.

Gemini's foray into RFID in a big way comes at a time when enterprises are
seriously considering RFID deployments. The middleware and apps companies are
also coming out with seamless RFID. What this means is that one needs a range of
RFID hardware that will compliment the apps and middleware. And here Gemini
Traze is uniquely positioned to meet the requirements of RFID, whose market is
estimated to reach $11.5 bn globally from the current $3.5 bn. Major RFID
deployments have been happening in the supply chain management segment and
security, access management and access control which are set to grow at more
than 50% by 2010.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in