RFMicron rides rising Wireless Tracking market in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas–A new wireless tracking trend may soon become a large part of mobile broadband applications. Locally, investment in the industry is starting to heat up. As the brainchild of RFMicron, Shariar Rokshaz graduated from the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) in July 2010 with $1.5 million in funding and an additional three directors on RFMicron’s board. The company has since raised an undisclosed amount and is expected to be in full production by the end of 2011.

The ATI is excited about the possibilities for RFMicron’s product, a first in the radio-frequency identification (RFID) industry, which offers a hardware and software package tailored to suit each other and allows for enhanced range, flexibility and security for wireless tracking of items.

The tracking is accomplished by placing a transmitter on or incorporated into an item for identification and tracked using radio waves. Clients for such services are typically system integrators that manage inventory and order information in such areas as carriers, manufacturers and retailers.

The unique addition to tags offered by RFMicron is the versatility in the tags they are creating, which Rokshaz says are not currently as flexible in the rest of the market.

“Tags are traditionally 10 to 15 cents, you can put it on a box and it works fine but put it on metal and it fails,” said Rokshaz, founder and CEO of RFMicron. “A shielded one can work on metal at a $1.50, but you put it on something that contains water and it fails. We found a way around that.”

Rokshaz said his chip, integrated with a technology trademarked by RFMicron and known as Chameleon, will revolutionize supply chains by dropping costs down from dollars to cents on a tag and allowing different radio frequencies used in Europe or Asia to not interfere with the device that reads the tag.

The possibilities for mobile broadband applications are certainly there, with RFID already linked to bank accounts, credit cards, and promotional use through restaurant and retail stores. Rokshaz said he is in the process of developing an application for the mobile industry that he has not seen yet, and believes the spread of RFID in mobile devices will explode.

“Information is so important now and really is the driving factor,” Rokshaz said. “RFID will be ubiquitous and is starting like the Internet of the 1980s but with much faster growth.”

The range of a typical bar-code reader is only a few inches, but Chris Politte, VP  of business development at RFMicron, said that the distance a tag may be read with their technology is cost-effective and efficient.

“Using a mobile phone to read a tag within 30 feet is a possibility,” said Politte. “The range increase makes it more cost effective because users will be able to save a tremendous amount of time.”

The company was named one of the “most promising Internet technology and Web companies” at the eighth annual Rice University Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship I.T. and Web Venture Forum last month and is in the process of growing high-profile clients and expanding partnerships on a global scale.