Matrics Fine-Tunes Radio ID Tags

At the end of a busy Saturday night, a video store clerk would be able to press one button and see what movies are on the shelf. If anything is missing that was not rented out, the system could identify the video and when it left the building.

This is just one possible application of new technology from Matrics Inc. of Columbia. Matrics executives said they have come up with a cheaper and more capable twist on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, the same system used by E-ZPass to collect highway tolls.

With RFID, a microchip embedded in an identification tag transmits a signal to a receiver that records the information. In the E-ZPass example, a tag transmits a code to a receiver in the highway toll, which records a toll payment and debits the driver's account. Unlike bar code readers and other indentification technologies, the RFID tag and the reader don't have to touch or be close by.

Michael Arneson, co-founder and chief technology officer of Matrics, got the idea for the company after watching a TV documentary on RFID technology. He was struck by how useful the system could become if it could be implemented more cheaply, and he was unhappy with his job at the National Security Agency.

"I just knew this would revolutionize the world if someone could make this work right," Arneson said.

Arneson worked with William Bandy, his supervisor at the agency, on nights and weekends to find a way to simplify the circuitry of RFID transmitters. Most RFID tags cost more than $1 each to make, but Arneson and Bandy hoped to lower the cost to 5 cents to 10 cents each, making them cheap enough for applications such as tracking rental videos.

Once they hit on their technological breakthrough, they filed patent applications and quit their National Security Agency jobs. Though the company was officially launched in spring 1999, Matrics is just now preparing to roll out a commercial product.

Matrics's prototype RFID tag is paper-thin and about three inches long. can be glued to the surface of a product or embedded in it. The tags can be identified by Matrics readers from up to 10 feet away, and Matrics software can aggregate data from the readers and send the information to a customer's computer system for inventory tracking.

Arneson said that he believes that this technology will manage warehouse inventories, regulate supply chains, compile data on retail trends and even eliminate the possibility of losing airline baggage.

"The possibilities are limitless," Arneson said. "It's almost too good to be true."

More stories in SOFTWARE/SERVICES online at Washtech.com