Partnership yields optimal media theft protection
Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 7/23/2007 1:06:00 PM
NXP Semiconductors and Kestrel Wireless announce RFID technology for protecting optical devices such as DVDs, MP3 players, flat screen TVs and the like from being stolen from the supply chain and retail outlets. The application combines specially designed RFID chips from NXP with radio-frequency activation (RFA) technology from Kestrel that enables manufacturers to embed enabling/disenabling technology directly in the optical product. Retailers or authorized users urn off the disenabling function at point of sale using an RFA device.
“We’ve developed a solution for optical disks that places an electronic optic film on the disk, connected to an RFID chip,” says Paul Atkinson, president and CEO of Kestrel. “The film works like an optical shutter, where the laser is unable to get the information it needs. Without the information, it won’t play. The idea is people won’t steal things that don’t work.”
Besides cutting down on theft, the new technology will aid in cheaper, simpler, “greener” packaging and retail display, says Atkinson.
