In a £3.2 million project funded through the UK government, scientists from QinetiQ and the University of Exeter are studying the wings of butterflies to develop new anti-counterfeit RFID technologies. The surface of a butterfly’s wing controls light to produce colorful iridescence through subtle changes in size and shape of tiny scales. By manipulating electromagnetic […]

Toronto-based Zerofootprint is developing a new device for the home called the TalkingPlug that uses RFID technology to track how much energy a given appliance is using. The device is plugged into a wall outlet first, and then an appliance is plugged in on top of it. An RFID chip installed in TalkingPlug records the […]

Atmel Corporation has released its new ATA5575M1 transponder, a low frequency OTP (One Time Programmable) chip designed for next-generation access control systems. Application areas include: hotel rooms, engineering departments, offices, time recording systems and parking lots, as well as customer loyalty and membership cards. The new 0.9 square millimeter transponders feature trimmed 250- or 330-pF […]

If you think that campus ID programs aren’t using smart cards, think again. More than 200 universities have signed on to work with Banco Santander’s University Smart Card program. The massive financial institution based in Spain has issued more than 4 million smart cards to the university ID cardholders for secure contactless access to facilities, […]

HID Global announced the introduction of the OMNIKEY 5321 CR USB Reader, a waterproof contactless PC-linked smart card reader that enables the use of logical access in hygienic environments. The reader is designed to be an extension of HID’s logical access reader line, enabling end-users to experience the convenience, speed and security of contactless technology, […]

The Indianapolis-based Indiana Blood Center had a problem. Regulations required that blood donors be positively identified each time they donated blood, but the problem was donors don’t always have their government-issued identification card, such as a driver license. “You would be surprised how annoyed people would be when they couldn’t give blood,” says Pete Lux, […]

AuthenTec announced the shipment of its 50 millionth fingerprint sensor. Founded in October 1998, AuthenTec established a previous industry benchmark of 25 million sensors in November 2007 and took less than two years to double that mark to 50 million. AuthenTec’s 50 millionth sensor was shipped to Fujitsu Limited for integration into its smart phone, […]