Impinj, Inc. has announced the availability of the Speedway Revolution (News - Alert) reader that incorporates Impinj’s Autopilot technology to deliver new standards in RFID reader performance, versatility and cost of ownership. Impinj, Inc. develops UHF Gen 2 RFID solutions for both item-level and supply-chain tagging.

 

Speedway Revolution builds on the reputation of the original Speedway reader. It is 80 percent smaller than the original Speedway reader, consumes less than half the power and has a 20 percent lower MSRP. The features present in the Speedway reader include Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) and support for the standard application interface and EPCglobal Low-Level Reader Protocol. In addition, Speedway Revolution provides low cost of ownership and also integrates easily with RFID middleware platforms.

 

The patented Autopilot technology from Impinj is critical to Speedway Revolution's outstanding performance and ease of use. The Autopilot technology will continuously and automatically optimize the reader for its operating environment to deliver peak performance at all times. Since RFID system performance depends upon a number of ever-changing environmental conditions, users configure readers for worst-case scenarios and thereby compromise on optimum performance. The Autopilot technology guarantees peak performance while eliminating the need for manual tuning by integrating several features.

 

The Autopilot technology contains a feature named Autoset, which continuously optimizes the reader's configuration for the most reliable performance. Speedway Revolution readers will automatically select the appropriate settings by sensing levels of RF noise and interference. Another feature integrated in the Autopilot is low duty cycle, which reduces RF interference, power consumption and energy costs. Speedway Revolution readers eliminate unnecessary RF noise by transmitting only when tags are in the field of view. Dynamic antenna switching, which improves throughput and efficiency is another feature integrated into the Autopilot. Speedway Revolution readers will sense where tags are in the field and automatically focus more time on antennas with the largest tag (News - Alert) populations in view.

 

According to Kerry Krause, vice president of marketing at Impinj, while end-users need RFID systems to deliver great performance in dynamic environments, they also look for easy-to-use and inexpensive readers. The combination of Autopilot along with Revolution's small size and low power consumption provides consistently superior performance, ease of use and significant cost savings for end-users.