As per Wikipedia, The actual technologies involved, the information obtained and the purpose of colletion vary widely.
- Barcodes are a bar of black and white vertical lines of variable thickness. These are as we see every day in retail and have been visible in our daily life routine. Higher end barcodes are used for industrial applications like track and trace.
- Magnetic stripes, as seen on credit cards, debit cards, key cards and swipe cards. The stripe consists of iron-based magnetic particles in plastic-like tape. Each particle is a tiny bar magnet. Information is written on the stripe by magnetizing the tiny bars in either a north or South Pole direction. The writing process, called flux reversal, causes changes in the magnetic field that can be detected by a magnetic stripe reader.
- Smart cards, which are plastic cards about the size of a credit card with an embedded microchip. A smart card can store much more data than a magnetic stripe card. It can be loaded with data, used for telephone calling, electronic cash payments, accessing services and other applications. The card can be refreshed for reuse. Some smart cards can include programming and support multiple applications.
- Optical character recognition (OCR), which is the recognition of printed or written text characters by a computer. The process includes scanning the text character-by-character, analyzing the resulting character image and translating that image into a machine-readable character code, such as ASCII. Among other things, OCR is used to digitize documents and books, sort mail, and process checks and mail-based payments by credit cards.
- Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, which consist of three components: an antenna and transceiver (often combined into a single device) and a transponder (the tag). The antenna transmits a signal that activates the transponder, which then transmits data back to the antenna. The data is used to notify a programmable logic controller that some specific action should occur. Because RFID does not require direct contact or line-of-sight scanning, RFID tags are replacing barcodes in many applications.
- Biometrics: Various biometrics applications, which identify individuals by comparing captured biological data, such as fingerprints, voice characteristics and iris patterns, against stored data for that individual. Biometric systems consist of a reader or scanning device, software that converts the scanned biological data into a digital format and compares match points, and a database that stores the biometric data for comparison. Authentication by biometric verification is becoming increasingly common in corporate and public security systems, consumer electronics and point of sale (POS) applications. Specific biometric AIDC technologies include finger scanning, electro-optical fingerprint recognition, finger vein ID and voice recognition.
- The Internet of things (IoT) is the inter-networking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), buildings, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
The AIDC summit titled “Tarang-The wave of digital India” was thrown open by lighting of the traditional lamp. After the secretary AIDC’s speech Pankaj Bhardwaj Senior Director and General Manager of Avery Dennison delivered the keynote address, appreciating the work of the AIDC association he added, a young and educated India is bound to ensure growth and emerging of new technologies and that Avery is committed to empowering their customers with knowledge.
Ajay Mehta of SMI Coated papers spoke on the enhanced reach and capabilities of SMI in regards to labelstocks manufactured by them. Other presentations were made by HP, Guagzhou Shangchen Electronic company, Novexx Solution, Stic-on papers and Epson.
This was followed by entertainment program and networking cocktails.
The next morning after the secretary’s speech the representative from GS1 came onstage to give a very informative lecture on the role of GS1 and the developments being made on evolution of data sharing and tracking with barcodes. GS1 India is a Standards body (registered under Societies Registration Act 1860) with founder members comprising Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, FIEO, IMC, APEDA, Spices Board, IIP and BIS. It is affiliated with GS1® a not for profit global standards organisation.
After a presentation by Avery Dennison on their products, a panel discussion took place on “Opportunity for AIDC industry in Transportation, Logistics and Retail Verticals.” Rohit Mehta of SMI spoke on labelstock selection procedures. He also informed that SMI had launched an App that can help users identify the product, its quantity, substrate and adhesive requirement. Chainway India spoke on their handheld RFID readers and devices. Ricoh Thermal informed the conference about their company, infrastructure and sales network that they have setup in India for their TTR Ribbons and other products.
This was followed by a panel discussion on services and regulatory in respect of healthcare, Government, transportation. After a presentation by Honeywell International, the survey vertical by AIDC association was made public.
It was indeed an interesting and informative session. According to the survey out of the total 52 companies reviewed, 32 companies had revenues of less than Rs. 5 Crores, 13 companies had between Rs. 6-20 Crores, 4 companies reported revenues of Rs.21-50 Crores, only one company had reported between Rs.51-75 and 3 companies had revenues in excess of Rs. 76 Crores. As regards usage of Labelstocks Avery Dennison heads the chart with over 50% market share in this segment of the label industry. The final session had more presentations from Todaytec, PGI Technologies, Xiamen Hanin, Armor, Heyday global Retail solutions and technologies before the final panel discussion on IOT (Internet of Things). IOT speaks about computers and smart devices communicating amongst themselves for data proliferation. It indeed was a conference full of high level of technological presentations about offerings of sponsors. There was also a table top exhibition for sponsors to display on the sidelines of the conference.
Written By Harveer Sahni, Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi June 2017