The St. Gallen Lab with offices both at University of St. Gallen and ETH Zurich currently conducts research on eight different topics ranging from more near term questions such as how to efficiently manage and maintain large scale EPC-Networks to the development of future EPC-Network features such as adding uncertainty, location and sensors.
Valora Kiosk of the Future
Understand and experiment with the relationship between consumers, social media and products in a live setting. The focus is on public displays and mobile phone applications at various small-retail outlets, leading to a “kiosk of the future” where digital information co-exists with traditional media and consumer products. In addition social networks and RFID / magnetic cards will be used to adapt the shopping experience to the personal needs of the customer. The outcome of the project is list of ideas to be implemented in the kiosk at Central.
AppAware is a mobile application that shares online installations, updates and removals of Android applications. In this way a user becomes aware of what other people are installing on their Android phones right now or in her proximity, learning from them. This continuous stream of application events provides the basis for serendipity for other users. AppAware does not aim at replacing the Android Market, it is rather a companion to discover interesting applications with the help of other users, thus bringing the social factor into application portals.
Public libraries offer the possibility for the visitors to find themselves the books they need. It often results in (un)intentional book misplacement thus requiring a great amount of time spent for shelf reading and inventory. To overcome this problem we propose implementation of autonomous robotic system, capable of navigating through the library shelves and detecting the books based on RFID technology. In addition the robot will interact with the library visitors thus introducing additional richness to the offered services. In cooperation with HSG Library.
Consumers seek for trusted advice during buying decision. Brand owners and retailers invest large sums in marketing and market research, trying hard to find out what customers really want. Using the innovative technology information will be brought to the place where the questions arise. Mobile phone applications that support this concept are:
Upcoming use cases show, that even in the retail industry some business processes might require their objects to collect data about their status or environment (e.g. temperature tracking in the meat and fish supply chain) themselves. In other businesses, e.g. in the automotive and production business, this trend seems to be clear-cut. While the principle design of the EPC network allows adding sensors, there is massive work required to ensure that the proposed Auto-ID infrastructure also works robust and scalable with higher class tags.
Use of probabilistic measures to detect and reduce false positive and negative RFID readings and thus improve the quality of generated process information.
Contact: Christian Floerkemeier, Thorben Keller
Smart Products and Services
The EPC-Network enables the extensive collection of data at very low cost which in many cases will serve as the basis for new services and product features such as use-based payment models or self-checking services. This research activity develops new services and products based on the emerging EPC-infrastructure.
After a trademark dispute, the EPC Prototyping Platform is now called "Fosstrak" (previously Accada). Fosstrak stands for "free and open source software for track and trace".
Erica Dubach Spiegler
Gilad Geron
