Omni-ID launches new passive sense range

Temperature, moisture and volume sensing passive RFID devices, developed for datacenter, industrial and healthcare markets.

Omni-ID, the pioneer of passive industrial radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, part of HID Group, has extended its Sense family of devices with the introduction of its new range of temperature, moisture-sensing and liquid volume measurement devices that incorporate the Axzon Magnus® M3D chip and meet a broad range of industrial, IT and healthcare requirements.

The new passive Sense range includes ceramic tags and printable on-metal and off-metal self-adhesive labels which can accurately read live temperatures as low as -70°C and up to 125°C; indicate the presence of moisture; and measure the volume of liquids in containers. The battery-less devices do not require maintenance and are ideal for monitoring the condition of assets in transit and storage.

The Sense range evolved from custom devices that Omni-ID developed to meet specific client requirements, in particular live temperature monitoring in data centers: a sector that is strongly served by the company, with millions of its RFID tags used in data centers around the world.

The new passive Sense devices serve a broad range of use cases including monitoring the volume of liquids in glass vials for vaccine management systems; monitoring the temperature of machine components to enable predictive maintenance; cold chain management of foods and pharmaceuticals and monitoring the moisture levels and temperature of servers in data centers. The wireless devices accurately measure temperature to a tolerance of 0.5°C and offer read ranges between 1.75m and 5m, making them ideal for use in hazardous industrial environments where thermocouples would traditionally be used to monitor the current temperature of assets. 

The tiny ceramic tags measure 15mm x 15mm and are designed for monitoring the condition of assets where space is limited, while on-metal and off-metal labels are designed to attach to assets with flatter surfaces.

Commenting on the new range of passive Sense devices, Dr. Tony Kington, CEO of Omni-ID said, “We take the opportunity to embrace all the latest technologies available when developing new products, which gives us the flexibility to apply exactly the right technology to meet our customers’ requirements. By incorporating Axzon silicon into our new Sense devices, we can offer customers the convenience and cost-effectiveness of highly accurate asset condition monitoring using wireless, passive ceramic tags and printable labels that can be used on metal, glass or textiles. We foresee truly exciting applications of these devices that can save time in industry, downtime in data centers, and lives in healthcare.”

To aid organizations that are developing asset management and monitoring solutions using the Sense IoT range, early last year, Omni-ID launched its ‘OmniSphere’ middleware IoT platform, which simplifies asset data analysis by delivering Sense device data seamlessly to existing corporate systems, or customer applications.

OmniSphere dashboards display various sensor data, including temperature, range measurement, motion alarms, push button alerts, navigation, satellite system (GNSS) coordinates and assets’ current and previous positions, all of which can be viewed on a configurable map.  

The rules engine within OmniSphere enables alerts to be generated based on sensor data, for example, sending an email when a device enters or leaves a geofence, or notifying when a device’s temperature goes above or below a pre-configured threshold. The middleware platform also enables rapid technology evaluation and proof-of-concept applications that involve Omni-ID Sense devices.