A startup called Wirama has announced proprietary technology that it claims allows precise locationing using Gen2 passive RFID. It is an unusual application for passive RFID, which has historically been used to determine if a tagged object is present within a read field and what its tag data contains, but not to identify the exact position of the object. RFID Update spoke with Wirama co-founder and president Ben Wild about his company's innovation and its potential applications.
Specifically, the Wirama technology is an algorithm, programmed into software, that is designed to be installed on a mobile Gen2 RFID reader. It does not require special hardware for either the reader or the tags. The read range for the algorithm software (or "locationing engine") is about 15 feet; that is, tagged objects more than 15 feet away from the current location of the mobile reader cannot be precisely located. Those within 15 feet can be located to within six inches, according to Wild. "That's functionality that doesn't currently exist in the market," he said.
Wild sees a number of retail applications for the technology, which would enable retailers to quickly obtain precise, shelf-level location information about their inventory. For example, in the backroom of a shoe store there could be 50 pairs on a single shelf. While existing Gen2 technology would enable a clerk to know that a particular pair was there somewhere, it wouldn't be able to specify exactly where. Wirama's software, on the other hand, would. "In a few seconds, you could figure out exactly where the box is that you seek."
Determining location using passive RFID technology is no small feat, according to Wild, which is likely the reason such functionality hasn't existed before. He said the company's exact go-to-market strategy is not yet decided, and options like product manufacturing and licensing are being considered. One way or the other, Wild expects that the technology will be commercialized in the second half of this year.
In addition to Wild, Wirama's two other co-founders are Dr. Upamanyu Madhow, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Santa Barbara, and Dr. Kannan Ramchandran, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley. All three are involved in wireless technology research, work which led to the development of their algorithm.
Wirama (pronounced "wire - amma", rhymes with "gamma") is based in Sunnyvale, California, the heart of Silicon Valley. The company raised $1 million in a first round of funding last year, and is now looking to raise more, though Wild wouldn't specify how much.
Wirama is a wireless locationing company whose patented RFID reader technology allows customers to precisely locate standards compliant passive RFID tags. Wirama was founded in 2006 by a group of wireless researchers and engineers from UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara.
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Contact Information
Telephone
415-992-9612
Address
440 N. Wolfe Rd.
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
E-Mail
info@wirama.com
Press Releases
These are the press releases we've issued over the last year.
Recent Media Coverage of Wirama
- Wirama Gets Series A, silicontap.com, February 22, 2007
- Wirama, Wireless RFID Co., Raises First Round of Funding, venturebear.com, February 28, 2007
- Wirama Raises $1M, unstrunt.com, March 07, 2007
Relevant RFID News
Press Release 2 |
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Wirama Demonstrates World's First RFID Reader Capable of Precisely Locating Passive RFID Tags
Silicon Valley startup demonstrates breakthrough RFID reader technology capable of solving core locationing problems across industries.
San Francisco, CA ? Feb. 5, 2008 ? Wirama, Inc. announced today that the company has demonstrated the world’s first RFID reader that is capable of precisely locating passive RFID tags based on the EPC Class 1 Gen 2 standard. Traditionally, locationing
has been possible only with more expensive active tags that run on batteries and cost significantly more than passive tags, limiting their applicability to tracking more expensive assets. With the advent of Wirama’s new technology, locating a 10-cent passive tag precisely is now possible, thereby significantly reducing the price of entry for location-enabling any RFID deployment.
“Wirama has discovered some very novel approaches to achieve this major milestone,” said Ben Wild, President of Wirama. “We are very excited about the new applications that are enabled by these fundamental set of patent-pending innovations.” Wirama’s cofounders include Chief Scientists Dr. Upamanyu Madhow (pioneer in wireless communication and Professor at UC Santa Barbara) and Dr. Kannan Ramchandran (pioneer in signal processing and Professor at UC Berkeley).
Wirama and its partners will offer RFID reader systems to their customers for pilot testing during Q1 2008. Wirama will also demonstrate its technology in booth #715 at the upcoming RFID Journal Live Conference April 16-18 in Las Vegas, NV.
For More Information Contact:
Ben Wild
Wirama, Inc.
415-992-9612
info@wirama.com
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This site was last updated 02/04/08
Wirama Raises $1M Series A
Emerging technology firm creates breakthrough solution for RFID deployments. Reliability and effective range key to broad use of RFID is now possible due to Wirama’s revolutionary reader technology.
San Francisco, CA ? March 6, 2007
? Wirama, Inc. announced today that the company has closed a $1.0 million Series A round of financing from a prestigious group of experienced technologists. The investing group is led by Silicon Valley veterans, Dr.Steven McCanne and Jerry M. Kennelly. Mr. Kennelly will take a seat on Wirama’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Kannan Ramchandran, a co-founder of Wirama, and a pioneer in wireless infrastructures, explained that the main barrier to widespread RFID adoption is the inability of today’s antenna and reader technology to deliver the required reliability and range at a low cost. “Despite high profile mandates from both government and large enterprise customers, the adoption of RFID has been slow. Wirama’s products provide a robust solution that is simultaneously accurate and cost effective.”
Founding Team
Wirama was co-founded in 2006 by Ben Wild, Dr. Upamanyu Madhow and Dr. Kannan Ramchandran. Mr. Wild was previously founder of Algochip Corporation, a consulting firm specializing in embedded system design for commercial and defense applications. Several of Algochip’s customers include defense giants Northrop Grumman and DRS Technologies. He has over 10 years experience designing systems for wireless communications, laser radar systems and signal processing. Dr. Madhow and Dr. Ramchandran were co-founders of Bytemobile, Inc. (http://www.bytemobile.com/), a wireless network infrastructure company, whose products are deployed at over 50 wireless carriers worldwide, including Sprint, T Mobile and Vodafone. Dr. Madhow is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where his current
research focuses on wireless sensor and communication networks. He is recognized as a pioneer of adaptive interference suppression, space-time communication and optimization of network design for TCP. He is an IEEE Fellow, and is among the top ten most cited researchers in computer science over the period 1993-2003 (http://www.in-cites.com/top/2003/first03-com.html). He holds 7 US patents. Dr. Ramchandran is currently Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research spans the areas of wireless sensor networks, multimedia communications and networking, wavelets and multi-resolution image and signal processing. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, has won several prestigious Best Paper awards for his research, and is considered a pioneer of distributed signal processing and coding for wireless sensor networks, and robust video communications over wireless networks. He holds 6 US patents and is actively sought after as a consultant and technical advisory board member in the wireless and multimedia industry. “Wirama’s products allow customers to deploy more economical and efficient use of RFID systems in warehouses, stores and loading docks,” said Ben Wild, company president. “This is enabled by a fundamental set of novel, patent-pending innovations that increase range and reliability of RFID systems by essentially eliminating the effects of fading.”
For More Information Contact:
Ben Wild
Wirama, Inc.
415-992-9612
info@wirama.com
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Wirama Gets Series A
Oakland-based Wirama, a stealth startup in the wireless RFID space, has raised a Series A funding round, silicontap.com has learned. No details of the funding have been released, however, according to a posting on Craigslist Monday, Wirama was founded by a group of wireless communications researchers and engineers from U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Santa Barbara, and has recently closed the firm's series A financing round. The company said in its job posting that it has discovered a solution to a difficult problem in the RFID space.
posted on Thursday, February 22, 2007 (Link to more information)
updated 3/8/07 with website and funding amount
Oakland, Calif.’s Wirama, a secretive startup (no web site) in the wireless RFID area, has raised a Series A funding round, according to SiliconTap. No details of the funding have been released, however, according to a posting on Craigslist Monday, Wirama was founded by a group of wireless communications researchers and engineers from U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Santa Barbara, and has recently closed the firm’s series A financing round.
[Update: Here is the company's funding announcement, which shows the round was $1 million, and came from private investors Steven McCanne and Jerry Kennelly. Web site is http://www.wirama.com/]
| The Path to Hassle-Free RFID, Part 1 |
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It is time for the apparel industry to reap the benefits of RFID, but it’s important to consider lessons learned from other industries.
By Michael Ibrahim, AmberDove Solutions Inc.
The apparel marketplace, with its unique inventory challenges, is particularly ripe to take advantage of RFID technology.
Sizes and other variations drive SKU proliferation unmatched by virtually any other industry. Moreover, a single fiscal quarter of 12 weeks often exceeds a fashion design’s lifetime, making apparel inventory highly perishable.
These complications drive low labor productivity, lost sales and high levels of inventory spoilage. Nearly 50 percent of retail store labor time is spent searching for goods! And up to 20 percent of customers claim that they could not find a desired in-stock item! Improving these metrics translates into an opportunity to more than double operating income.
RFID to the rescue …
The (sometimes overblown) hype of RFID has now reached the apparel industry. This technology promises to supplement or replace barcodes in order to directly address apparel’s unique challenges. RFID’s automated and passive nature can perform frequent inventory checks, help locate items and increase inventory accuracy. Whereas today, a large department store takes inventory once to twice a year, with RFID the same store should be able to take inventory weekly or even nightly. The phrase every consumer knows ? “The computer says it is in stock, but I’ll have to go check the floor” ? should finally become obsolete.
RFID does have a natural affinity to apparel. Many of the technical complications RFID experienced in other industries ? e.g. consumer packaged goods ? do not occur both because of the nature of the goods being tracked and new advancements in the technology.
The RFID Research Center at the University of Arkansas recently conducted a study testing RFID’s efficacy in the apparel industry. The study, sponsored by the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions (VICS) organization and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, implied a very rosy outlook for RFID. The lab tested scenarios of increasing inventory frequency, managing dressing rooms and mitigating shrinkage and theft. Though the results are yet to be published, the center’s executive director, Dr. Bill Hardgrave, said the test results “exceed expectations in a realistic environment.”
… but not business as usual
The opportunity is huge, and the technology seems to fit ? which unfortunately presents the new danger of forgetting the RFID lessons learned from other industries.
Integrators are eager to deploy arrays of readers and passive tags throughout apparel retail stores and the apparel supply chain in a manner that is virtually identical to deployments in the consumer packaged goods industry that met with mixed success.
To guarantee RFID’s success in apparel, it is imperative that retailers and brands learn from the hard-knocks RFID deployments suffered in other industries. These lessons suggest that an RFID solution must meet the following three requirements:
1. Easy IT: Reduce the intensity of the IT infrastructure required to effectively run RFID;
2. Immediate payback: Provide “productized” solutions that offer payback in months, rather than integration projects which take many months to deploy; and
3. Manageable risk: Provide phased deployments where the smaller investment of each phase pays for itself, without the need for the entire investment to achieve meaningful ROI.
To be continued
In the next part of this two-part series, we will examine the motivations for each of these three requirements and potential approaches to ensure that they are achieved.
Michael Ibrahim is chief executive of AmberDove Solutions Inc., an RFID solutions company with a goal of revolutionizing the way that customers deploy RFID. As an operations expert, Michael optimized manufacturing and engineered supply chain services at multiple companies with more than $10 billion in sales. He was previously CTO of SafeWeb Inc., where he built the world’s first product that converted complicated extranet IT projects into drop-in appliances. Michael has worked at McKinsey & Co. and Goldman Sachs. He has an MBA from MIT Sloan, a Ph.D. in physics from Yale University and is a Suma Cum Laude graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College. AmberDoveTM develops software designed to turn RFID projects into “drop-in products.” For more information contact info@amberdove.com or visit http://www.amberdove.com. | | |
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