"On RFID – The next step to THE INTERNET OF THINGS" Conference and Exhibition

• José Alves Marques (Link Consulting)
• Luís Magalhães (UMIC)
• Bráz Costa (IAPMEI)
• Rui Grilo (Coordination Office for the Lisbon Strategy and the Technological Plan)
• Victor Barroso (CMU-Portugal / IST Programme)
• Manuel Cruz (Fraunhofer-Portugal / IBERLOG Programme)
• António Cunha (MIT-Portugal / Universidade do Minho Programme)
• Luis Correia (Telecommunications Institute / IST)
• Paulo Magalhães (Modelo-Continente, SONAE)
• Carlos Mesquita (Link Consulting)

RFID is of particular importance for current technology policies as it has been flagged as an entry point to the Future Internet and because it has a very high potential of becoming an engine for growth and more jobs and, therefore, contributing to the Lisbon Strategy in great measure, if the obstacles that continue to make innovation difficult can be overcome and if this technology can be disseminated and used rapidly.

For example, a recent study commissioned by the German government found the potential value added with RFID in the production, commerce, transport and public and private services sectors to be 62 billion euros in 2010 in Germany alone, whereas it stood at 3 billion euros in 2004.

The EU has paid specific attention to the area of RFID since 2006.

On 15th March 2007, the Commission released its Communication Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Europe: steps towards a policy framework

Under the German Presidency of the EU, there was an initial exchange of views at the European Council on Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council on 7th – 8th June 2007. At the time, Portugal requested that questions of R&D, innovation, economic competitiveness, standardisation and consumer protection be considered at the Competitiveness Council as well, and also underscored the need to involve the Justice and Home Affairs Council in the debate on issues of privacy, data protection and security, the objective being to speed up the discussion process and support for RFID in the EU, which the Commission Communication foresees happening by mid-2009.

On 25th – 26th June 2007, the German Presidency, in conjunction with the European Commission, organised a “RFID: Towards the internet of things” Conference in Berlin, using the European Policy Outlook RFID publication as a background paper. The President of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), Luis Magalhães, made an intervention at the closing session of this conference on behalf of the Portuguese Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education, where he announced the conference being held in Lisbon on 15th – 16th November. In addition, the German Secretary of State from the Federal Ministry of the Economy and Technology, Bernd Pfaffenbach, symbolically passed over the reins to Luis Magalhães.

RFID and the Future Internet are facing challenges and opportunities that need to be discussed, such as the solutions on offer from the technical and business communities, the public policies for governance of shared resources (interoperability, normalisation, radio frequency spectrum harmonisation, etc.), aspects that require R&D input (namely, new technologies to reduce labelling coats and sensors using organic electronics, device miniaturisation with nanotechnologies, cutting energy consumption and new forms of energy production, capture and management), the need to train sufficient numbers of technical staff to ensure this technology can become widespread, associated competitiveness questions, pilot-projects that are advisable to test integration of this technology in complex systems on a large scale, privacy and security requirements to be adopted and new consumer protection aspects that may emerge.

Organisations from European industry and civil society, together with researchers from Europe and elsewhere, especially those involved in international knowledge networks under Portugal’s Partnerships for the Future Initiative (more specifically with MIT, Carnegie Mellon University and Fraunhofer Gesellschaft) will participate at the On RFID – The next step to THE INTERNET OF THINGS Conference in Lisbon. There will be an open call for innovative ideas from pilot-projects with technology and business components so that some cases can be selected and presented at the conference.

The main objectives of the conference are to:

• Disseminate and discuss RFID topics in the EU (benefits and concerns)
• Discuss issues related to privacy and security in the content of the work carried out by the Expert Group on RFID set up by the European Commission.
• Promote and strengthen knowledge networks and research partnerships that may contribute towards more rapid and ongoing progress in RFID and the Future Internet.
• Identify ideas for demonstration projects for the Future Internet that are innovative both in their business applications as in their use of technology.
• Identify innovative ideas for key research projects that try to solve the technology issues that have been flagged as obstacles to further dissemination of RFID and the Future Internet.

The from the various sessions include:

• Keynote speech:  RFID 2.0: The Next Step to the internet of Things, Professor Michael ten Hompel, Director IML Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany
• Keynote speech:  RFID: Today and the Future, Professor Sanjay Sarma, Director and Founder of Auto ID Labs – MIT, USA
• Security and RFID – Strengthening European Expertise, Professor Reinhard Posch, IAIK – Institute for Applied Information Processing and Communication, Graz Technical University, Austria, President of the Executive Committee of ENISA – European Network and Information Security Agency
• Smart Systems on Tags the Next Generation Devices for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks, Dr. O. Vermesan, SINTEF, Norway
• Future Roadmap for Research, Dr. Gerd Wolfram, Coordinator of CERP – Cluster of European RFID Projects, Germany
• Developing RFID ICs and Solutions in a Complex Environment, Dr. Klaus G. Rischmüller, STMicroelectronics, France
• Combining the INTERNET of THINGS and the INTERNET of SERVICES, Dr. Joachim Schaper, Vice President SAP Research EMEA, SAP AG
• RF Interoperable Portable Contracts Making daily life easier for Citizens (powered By SmartCITIES technical approach),  João Almeida, José Marques, Link Consulting SA, Portugal.

An international jury selected 4 innovative project ideas from the open call for innovative ideas:

• Labelling assemblies and components for the production of exchange parts or reuse by means of RFID
• Safe transfusions and total blood traceability in the ward thanks to RFId technology
• Based on the technology of radio-frequency-identification (RFID), the things obtain an electronic identification and get connected wirelessly to the environment
• RFID for Wood traceability across the entire wood supply chain.

Below are presentations of these ideas that were made at the conference session on this aspect:

• Components Labelling, Markus Kuhn, Fraunhofer-Institute Material Flow and Logistics, Germany
• Safe and integrated transfusion process, Elena Sini, CIO Fondazione IRCCS “Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori”, Italy
• The Idea of HubNet, Octavio Lopes, Center IBERLOG Logistics, Portugal
• RFID in Service of Forest-Based Industries, Pedro Moura, Portucel Soporcel, Portugal.

Slightly over 400 participants attended the conference, including 200 from Portugal. Roughly 30 companies presented RFID applications at the exhibition. The size of this Conference was therefore similar to the one held by the German Presidency of the EU in Berlin in May 2007. More than 700 registrations were received, which meant that a considerable number had to be rejected as the conference was only designed for 400 people. Furthermore, participation was markedly greater at this event than at the Berlin conference, which shows the wide-ranging interest this topic is attracting.