Posts Tagged ‘handheld device’

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Safety inspections with Near Field Communication (NFC) and RFID

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
NFC Apps within the Android Market

NFC Apps within the Android Market

We’ve been interested in RFID and Near Field Communication (NFC) for quite some time. As makers of inspection software that works seamlessly with RFID, mobile devices and the web, the idea that more and more mobile devices will include NFC readers is very exciting.

Just this month, ABI Research analyst John Devlin told USA Today that he expects the number of NFC-enabled handsets on the market to grow from 34 million this year to 80 million next year. In the same article, Gartner analyst predicted NFC growth in handsets passing 100 million this year.

Last month, our COO Shaun Ricci blogged about our discovery that a Samsung Galaxy S ll, running a simple NFC reader from the Android Market, could quickly and easily scan a piece of safety equipment. Today, Field ID CEO is featured in a new video demonstration. Somen shows just how easy it is to use an NFC reader for safety inspections.

View the demonstration below or on our YouTube channel.

You’ll probably hear more about NFC this year. Many may associate the technology with solutions such as mobile payments, as Somen notes in the video. At Field ID, we’re constantly looking at how contactless technologies like NFC can improve safety management from a software perspective, and from our users’ perspectives.

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Posted in Equipment Safety, Industrial Safety, Inspection Management, Inspection Software, Safety Management | No Comments »

Will NFC help change safety compliance?

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Mobile Inspection Software and RFIDIf you haven’t noticed, we at Field ID are phone geeks. When someone gets a new handheld in the office, we all play around with it. One of our software developers, Kumana, recently picked up the Samsung Galaxy S II.

As we were talking about it and testing it out, we remembered that it has Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities. And NFC means it works with RFID – the same standard technology that our customers use every day to track safety compliance for millions of assets.

Naturally, we were running around scanning slings and harnesses around the office with Kumana’s phone, having some fun with features, and exploring how this would complement our inspection software.

Why didn’t we try this before?

We’ve written about NFC being the same technology that we use for RFID tags in fall protection equipment in the past. So, what’s changed? Well, it was only last week that we actually fired up an NFC scanner and tested the tags. We headed to the Android Market in search of an NFC test application. We tried three of them, but it wasn’t working. Then, after waving the tag around trying to find the antenna…

“I think it worked!”

I was at my desk and Kumana sent me an instant message: “It worked!” I ran over and, sure enough, it was scanning one of our test tags. With any RFID reader, you need to find the sweet spot in the antenna to scan. The first tag was easy though; it was a sticker tag. We thought, “No way will this scan the tags embedded metal.” Sure enough, we scanned the metal tags too.

More testing, to be sure

Before we can absolutely certify that this use of NFC will work with Field ID (reliably, in the field), we need to do some more testing. We’re hard at work on the Android and iOS Field ID applications right now, so this random test came at the right time. It’s very exciting to uncover details like these.

Think about it. With many new NFC-enabled phones coming to market, we can harness the scanners on these devices to make Field ID even more powerful. Anyone will be able to put the power of electronic inspection management and safety compliance into the palm of their hand, and carry it conveniently in their pocket as they head into the field.

Stay tuned for more NFC testing in the New Year!

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Posted in Inspection Management, Inspection Software, Mobile Inspections, Safety Compliance | No Comments »

R.I.P. HP iPAQ 210 – The End of a Legend

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

I realize the title of this blog may be seem a bit dramatic to some of our readers.  The HP 210 is a “legend”?  Really?  Well, saying that the 210 is a legend may be a bit of a stretch, but the iPAQ family of products as a whole should definitely be considered legendary.  Years before the word iPhone was familiar to the general public, HP was cranking out PDAs for our mobile computing pleasure.  The iPAQ was one of the last PDAs with no phone capabilities released by HP.  The reason that I consider this device a legend is because of how many safety inspections our customer recorded on the device.

Good Looks

HP iPAQ 210

HP iPAQ 210

I know that picture does not look good to you because you are staring at your slick Blackberry or iPhone on your desk while reading this blog.  Take it from me, when this device was originally released (I believe in 2007) it’s shiny black bezel and chrome accents made me feel like it was a slick device.  Not to mention, it was a great looking upgrade from the older HP iPAQs.

Full Featured

Nice screen, fast, SDIO slot for expansion – the HP iPAQ 210 had it all.  The 210 was powered by a Marvell XScale PXA310 624 MHz CPU with 128 MB of RAM and 256 MB of ROM.  Bluetooth and 802.11 b/g provided some easy wireless options.  ActiveSnyc over Bluetooth was a life saver in many trade shows and presentations.  All of this at a price under $500 made this device an amazing bang for the buck.

Served its Purpose

The HP iPAQ 210 is officially discontinued, and we are no longer selling it.  This device has served us well over the years.  Our customers have recorded thousands of fire extinguisher inspections, sling inspections and safety audits.  The ability to add an RFID reader to the top SDIO slot made this device even more useful.  We have many other devices to take the place of the 210 (such as the Motorola ES400), and are starting to look at other platforms as well.

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New Field ID Feature: Mobile Upload / Download

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog post – and what a few weeks it has been. In addition to the hiring frenzy we’re embarking on we are merely a few days away from our next Field ID Web and Mobile release. In advance of the full release notes I wanted to write a post about one specific feature – syncing your data on the mobile.

Currently on Field ID Mobile there is one button to download your data – it’s called Sync. The upload process is automatic and Field ID will upload your data as soon as their is an internet connection. This works really well but a common question we get is, “Where is the Upload button”. It seems that people like the comfort of hitting a button that says upload. We have talked with numerous customers and have concluded this is the best method. With our next Field ID release on June 5th you will now see the Sync button disappear and two new buttons appear – Upload and Download.

Download

The download button effectively has replaced the Sync button. This will be where you download your Customer or Job Site data. The screen has not changed at all so should be familiar to all users.

Upload

The new upload screen will show you all information pertaining to uploading your data. You will now see three boxes, Uploaded, Queued and Failed.

Mobile Upload Screen

Mobile Upload Screen

Uploaded is a counter of all asset and events that have been uploaded. This counter will continue to increase until you hit the Reset link which will set it back to zero. The Queued will display all assets and events that are still on your device and have yet to be uploaded. Failed will show all items (Assets, Events, Schedules, Pictures) that have failed to upload.

We hope you find having a separate Upload and Download page with some detailed information will make it clearer how you get data on and off of your mobile device.

Watch for the full release notes coming this week with more exciting features.

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RFID In Our Everyday Lives Outside of Inspection and Safety Compliance

Friday, November 5th, 2010

RFID seems to be sneaking into our everyday lives more and more these days.  Below are three RFID applications that show us RFID is going mainstream.

Border Control

Nexus Card

I now officially carry around an RFID tag most of the time (no, I am not wearing an Evotech harness around) ; I applied for a Nexus card.  For those of you who don’t know, the Nexus program is a “trusted traveler” program that allows residents of Canada and the US to cross the border quicker than usual.  When driving over the border, I hold up my RFID card and point it at a reader.  An LED display then shows the number of cards scanned in the car.  What’s really neat about this program is the fact that identification is performed by an eyeball scan when crossing airport security.

Portable Computing

iPhone

It has been rumored that the next iPhone (the iPhone 5) will have NFC ability.  NFC stands for Near Field Communication, and is a type of RFID.  I recently read on Boy Genius that the NFC may be used to support portable computing.  To be clear, this could mean that the your iPhone will store information about your user profile on your Mac.  When you wave your phone near another NFC enabled Mac, your settings about applications and some data are copied to the other device.  It will be like sitting at your computer at home, even though you’re out.  Instead of using VNC, you would just need your phone.

If NFC becomes more popular in smart phones this will be a huge step forward to making RFID as accessible as barcodes.

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Posted in Mobile Inspections | No Comments »

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