17 June 2009

Times-7 Gives Airline Passengers Greater Satisfaction

Frustrating passenger delays at airport carousels waiting for luggage is providing new challenges for Lower Hutt company Times-7 to make its smart tracking technology, already in demand by some of the world's leading baggage systems companies, work harder and faster.

The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology is investing $400,000 through its business investment programme TechNZ for a Times-7 project aimed at improving the company's Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology so it can increase the throughput rate for tracking bags moving on airport conveyor systems.

"It is a revolutionary approach to antenna development that will accelerate the use of RFID in industry and opens new ways to track objects and people. Times-7 is setting new benchmarks internationally in this field of expertise," says Foundation Sector Business Manager Tom McLeod.

Times-7's SlimLine antenna technology recently went into action at Lisbon Airport where Danish company Lyngsoe Systems supplied and implemented eight RFID reading stations. This comes hot on the heels of similar success by Lyngsoe Systems implementing Times-7 antennas for use at Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy, which processes 24 million passengers annually. Times-7 antennas are also favoured by Dutch multinational VanderLande where their RFID portal is being trialled at Schiphol in Holland. Through relationships with New Zealand companies Glidepath and BCS Group, Times-7 technology is also working in airports here and in Australia.

"The pressure is on airports to handle more bags at a faster and more efficient rate so the challenge is for our technology to reduce the field size or read zone to accurately identify only one bag at a time even when luggage is packed closely together and moving quickly along conveyors," says Times-7 CEO Antony Dixon.

"The technology requires precisely engineered read zones to ensure accurate information is returned from the unique identifier as the radio frequency (RF) signals energise the labels," he says.

RFID technologies, as a replacement for barcodes and able to identify objects that existing systems cannot trace, greatly improve the tracking of baggage through and between airports and is being endorsed by the International Airline Transportation Association (IATA) as the technology of choice for the future.

Times-7 uses RFID and wireless technology, with antennas that work as transmitters to wake up the coded information on RFID bag labels which is sent to a reader device to provide accurate identification. Time-7's SlimLine antennas are just seven millimetres in height, which Mr Dixon says is a world first in convenience and flexibility of installation options.

A unique factor of the Times-7 system is that it can be easily retro-fitted into existing conveyor systems without major construction or disruption and is an affordable option for small and large airports.

International airlines estimate lost or mishandled luggage costs the industry $3 billion annually and an average of US$1,000 to recover and redirect each mishandled bag.

Mr McLeod says passive RFID technology is not new but existing systems are limited in their ability to identify multiple objects moving at speed, on metal surfaces and at distances greater than four to six metres.

"Times-7 is innovating in each of these areas at the tag and reader level. The RFID developments at Times-7 are producing highly innovative and potentially lucrative technology which competitors are, as yet, unable to match, creating the potential for significant export revenue," he says.

A smaller TechNZ investment two years ago helped Times-7 with early development of its RFID technology. The company's patented sports timing technology, WheelTime, has been used successfully in cycle races such as the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge and both the New Zealand and Australian National Road Cycling Championships, to record exact times as each competitor crosses a finish line panel wired with highly sensitive antennas. WheelTime is capable of recording hundreds of bikes, moving at high speed and crossing an electronic finish line within seconds of each other.

"Times-7 has been swimming against the tide to create unique products on a very tight budget but the ingenuity of kiwi companies can never be underestimated," says Mr McLeod.

About Times-7

Times-7 are specialists in RFID solutions for industry and sport. Times-7's innovative range of antennas and tags help organisations reduce costs and transform processes by automating identification and tracking. With patented designs that make large scale use of RFID affordable, Times-7 is opening up new markets for tracking important objects.

Contacts

For further information contact:

Antony Dixon
CEO, Times-7
Direct: +64 27 444 0304
Email: antony.dixon@times-7.com