KEY POINTS:
Tucked away at the back of the Government's ageing industrial research campus in Lower Hutt is one of the few Kiwi companies working on radio frequency identification technology.
On the lawn outside the cluttered laboratory of RFID-antenna maker Times 7, two radio engineers - one Dutch, the other
Russian - wheel a bicycle backwards and forwards across a panel wired with highly sensitive antennae.
An RFID tag on the bike is activated as it approaches the panel, allowing the exact time to be recorded when the bike passes over it.
The wireless sports timing technology will plot the finishing times of up to 11,000 riders participating in next month's Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, which will prove the biggest test yet of Times 7's patented technology.
The company has developed passive RFID tags that do not require batteries but can be energised when radio frequencies are beamed at them. The passive nature of the tags and Times 7's expertise in RFID technology suitable for fast-moving objects, such as bikes or vehicles, has left the company an opening in a competitive industry.
"We see sports timing as a product we can gain credibility from," said chief executive Antony Dixon.
"The big game has got to be to hit a home run in electronic vehicle identification or baggage handling tags. That's the long-term profit game."
RFID technology has enjoyed wide adoption overseas, as companies employ it to make their supply chains more efficient or to replace manual tolls collection. It allows tags to send information wirelessly to readers situated several metres away, removing the need for manual checking of goods or barcode scanning. As the technology has matured, the focus of RFID companies has shifted to making the technology cheaper for large-scale use.
"A lot of it is trying to commoditise the antenna down to a low-cost item," said Dixon.
In the area of sports timing, the cost of RFID tags is still a barrier to race organisers and cycling clubs adopting the technology.
But Times 7 had got the price of tags down to $10. In comparison, the tags used to record times in the Tour de France cost US$90. Times 7 has partnered with US sports timing company Ipico, which builds the RFID reader that receives the race times, while the software that collates the gathered data was developed by sportsman and IT entrepreneur Murray Andersen.
Dixon said Times 7 would launch the cycle timing technology dubbed WheelTime after the Taupo race and market it worldwide.
"We've signed a memorandum of understanding for Ipico to take our product into the US and beyond and we are their agent for New Zealand and Australia.".
He expected customers for WheelTime to be event timing companies and cycling clubs. But already, Times 7 is trying out its technology for higher-volume uses. It has patented a method of building an RFID tag into a car number plate for detection as cars pass through toll gates, while its reader antennas are being tested in the baggage handling system at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam.
On the day the Business Herald visited, Times 7 engineers were also building a prototype for an RFID tag for tracking gas canisters, at the request of an Italian company.
Dixon said Times 7 would next year set up an advisory board and involve a strategic investor as it attempted to expand its business.
But while Times 7 looks globally to launch its RFID business, local uptake of the technology has been slow, according to a report issued last year by RFID research company IDTechEx.
"New Zealand is well behind Botswana, Uruguay, Australia and Canada in tagging cattle and is showing no urgency to catch up, despite the fact farmers mandated to use RFID on livestock usually enjoy benefits beyond the desired traceability during disease outbreaks," the researcher noted.
Gary Hartley, secretary of the New Zealand RFID Pathfinder Group, which was formed this year to promote RFID use, said New Zealand companies had taken a "wait and see" approach to RFID but that it was "time to get some skin in the game".
"It will always boil down to a business case that guarantees return on investment," he said.
Fonterra was using RFID tags in milk collection and Hartley said RFID had been used in processing meat. He hoped the fledgling group would work with IT companies and early RFID adopters to develop some local expertise in use of the technology which he believes has the potential to save New Zealand businesses money.
"It depends on the nature of the business but major companies like Wal-Mart are using it to good effect."
WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY?
* Radio frequency identification technology (RFID) allows tags to send information wirelessly to readers situated several metres away, removing the need for manual checking of goods or barcode scanning.
* Companies often use it to make their supply chains more efficient or to replace manual tolls collection.
* New Zealand company Times 7 is using RFID for its WheelTime sports timing technology, which it will test at the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge.
