Representatives of the entire RFID value chain have formed a consortium for the K-project SeCoS.
Under the direction of JOANNEUM RESEARCH, SeCoS includes three leading international scientific groups and five global corporate partners. The goals are the development of an Internet of Things platform that meets the high demands of security and privacy from the level of the chip to the application. Additionally, component sizes should be reduced, unprecedented carrier frequencies and data transfer rates should be reached, and object tracking accuracy should be improved.
An estimated 50 % of all RFID chips used globally have been developed in Styria. Styrian companies have led the field in chip innovation with applications such as access control, electronic tickets and electronic payments. All this makes Styria the only place in Austria where the necessary skills and expertise are available and can be combined. Short-range wireless communication technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication) have been considered prerequisites for the Internet of Things. The vision of the Internet of Things is to connect objects in everyday life with each other and to the Internet. These are able to detect features of their immediate environment using integrated sensors, process the information obtained, communicate with other objects and people, and even trigger actions.
Planned technological developments in the research project SeCoS:
- State-of-the-art technologies are used to develop a new “Internet of Things Platform”. Thus, mobile and cloud-based applications are built on a modular basis.
- “Integrated Secure Technologies”will by far fulfill individual, social and legal requirements in relation to security and privacy.
- “Future Contactless Transmission Technologies” will result in the reduction of component sizes, unprecedented carrier frequencies, increase in data transfer rates and will explore improvements in the accuracy of object tracking.
Several application scenarios will strikingly demonstrate the research results.
- Industrial Lean Maintenance: NFC technology simplifies the maintenance of household appliances. For example, the washing machine or refrigerator notifies us of failures or required maintenance. New firmware updates will be installed over the smartphone.
- Fraud Protected Object: RFID tags are used to monitor the transport chain of goods from the manufacturer to the consumer and make sure that they arrive intact, in compliance with all regulations and in their original condition.
The K-Projekt SeCoS is supported within the framework of COMET – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies, BMVIT, BMWFJ, Steirische Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft mbH (SFG) and the Land Steiermark. The COMET program is managed by the FFG.
