Beijing traffic lights help the blind
Around 800 traffic lights in Beijing have been upgraded with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to broadcast voice reminders to alert the blind, says People's Daily Online.
The traffic lights are getting smart since Beijing is using the latest information and communications technologies to streamline the city's traffic.
The traffic lights have also been designed to give priority to mass transit vehicles. The reader detects RFID tags aboard buses and sends signals to the traffic light, which changes to green to allow the bus to pass.
Scientists improve RFID security
US engineers have developed a fingerprinting method to block the cloning of RFID tags, to prevent counterfeiting, reports SecuringPharma.
Researchers claim this technology could address security and privacy issues that are holding back the adoption of RFID in some business sectors.
The lead researchers for the project, Dale Thompson and Jia Di of the University of Arkansas, point out that it is easy to clone an RFID tag by copying the contents of its memory and applying them to a new, counterfeit tag.
RFID smartens up blood bags
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in partnership with T-Systems, Vierling, Delta T and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg have developed RFID tech to improve safety in blood transfusions, states Science Centric.
Radio nodes attached to the blood bags and to a patient's wristband contain information to prevent the wrong blood being used during a transfusion. The radio nodes also monitor the temperature of the blood.
A six-month test phase is set to begin at Erlangen University Hospital in January 2010, and the Opal Health system could be ready for use in around two years.
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