Sensing a Sensor Censor

An RFID trade group stages a campaign to get vendors to stop using the word "sensor" incorrectly, arguing that incorrect references are starting to hurt the RFID market.

As retailers and manufacturers start bridging the gap between passive and active RFID chips, one RFID consortium is cautioning vendors to watch their mouths when talking about sensors. The self-appointed sensor censor is the nonprofit SAL-C (Smart Active Label Consortium), which has about 20 members from the RFID manufacturing community. The only correct use of the word "sensor," according to SAL-C, is when discussing a devices ability to "sense and report the status and value of environmental and physical attributes such as temperature, humidity, gases, radiation, temper, vibration, shock, etc. Such sensors may communicate by many different means, from screen displays to wired and wireless networks," according to a statement the group issued.
Vendors have been using the term to mean a wide variety of things, including equipment that scans the tags and even the tags themselves, said Baruch Levanon, SALs chairman. "You need to have a common language," Levanon said. "Otherwise, it creates a mess and confusion in the industry." The group quoted board member Bob Zaccone (who is also the vice president of vendor Graphic Solutions International) as saying that the confusion has already started to hurt the industry. "We actually had a passive tag manufacturer say they didnt need to consider involvement in environmental sensor standardization as they were already leaders in the sensor market, by which they meant RFID tags," said a statement attributed to Zaccone. "This shows how differing understandings of the terminology can have a direct adverse impact on speed of adoption and the bottom line." Retail Center Editor Evan Schuman can be reached at Evan_Schuman@ziffdavis.com. Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on technologys impact on retail.