Security Printing and Imaging : Track and Trace

GS1 Announcement of the Food Recall Portal

StevenSimske — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:45:00 GMT

Yes, this is an HP blog, and so you forgive me when occasionally (and inevitably) I take an HP line on an announcement, event or trend. Out of interest of serving the broader anti-counterfeiting/anti-fraud/anti-tamper/customer safety community, I point you to our partner, GS1's, announcement on the HP/GS1 Product Recall program:

http://www.gs1ca.org/Page.asp?LSM=0&intNodeID=6&intPageID=1396

I couldn't agree more with their opening statement:

"November 3, 2009 – GS1 Canada, as part of a coalition of leading Canadian industry associations representing over 65,000 manufacturers, distributors and retailers, today launched a national product recall program that will enhance consumer safety and reduce the administrative burden for business. With the increasing complexities of a global supply chain, this launch could not have come at a more important time."

Further down, you find the statement:

"The Program is founded on a standardized process created by GS1 Canada, the neutral, non-profit supply chain standards organization most well-known for creation and management of the universal product code (bar code), used by millions of businesses worldwide. This global online platform uses robust HP cloud-computing technology and is based on global GS1 standards."

This is a good approach. GS1 provides accepted and well-considered global standards through GTIN, GDSN, etc., as noted in past posts here. Who wants to spend time dickering over competing standards? Not I. A better use of time is working with the industry experts to create a single standard that is simultaneously useful, fair and globally available, and then spend time differentiating applications built atop these standards.

Cheers,

Steve

Looking for that lost waffle?

StevenSimske — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:20:00 GMT

Many of you are aware that 2D barcodes--which look like waffles--are becoming ubiquitous for location-based services, mobile commerce, and increasingly point-of-sale and track and trace applications.

Did you know that there are many more you cannot see? They're covert 2D barcodes. And the master at providing reading equipment to find these hidden waffles is John Hattersley of InData Systems. I've had the pleasure to work with him on "ink-specific handheld readers". The concept is simple. The barcode reader has LEDs (or other light source) built-in that are tuned to the excitation bandgap of the covert ink (usually in the UV band), and bandpass filters tuned to the (higher-wavelength) reflected light.

See InData System's brochure (attached below) on John's presentation at the upcoming ITI Security Printing Conference (see http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/securityprinting/archive/2009/09/12/imi-s-security-printing-conference-nov-16-18-2009-baltimore-usa.aspx) for more details. And enjoy the waffles.

Cheers,

Steve

Variable Data Printing and Improved Pharma Product Protection and Brand/Customer Interaction

StevenSimske — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:18:00 GMT

My previous post was a link to the excellent In-Pharma Technologist blog edited by Nick Taylor. Nick solicited a posting from me back in April, but I could not find it on In-Pharma, so given a 1/2 year grace period, I think its time to post here:

Variable Data Printing and Improved Pharma Product Protection and Brand/Customer Interaction

Pharma brands are concerned with the integrity of their product. All successful pharmaceuticals have one thing in common: they improve the quality of life of the customer. Counterfeit pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, are harmful to both the customer and to the manufacturer; that is, they can simultaneously destroy lives and jobs. Brands pay many times over for counterfeits: loss of original sale, loss of future sales due to erosion of consumer confidence, loss of market capitalization due to perceived non-efficacy of the product, and potential legal recourse as a consequence of the consumer receiving phony goods.

All pharmaceuticals share another important thing in common. Information about the product must accompany the product. From packaging to labels to inserts, this information is conveyed by printing. Therein lies the solution to the problem.

Printing is pre-adapted for its use in security. Useful already in product identification, the variability printing provides is a natural fit for security. Variable Data Printing, or VDP, is the technology enabling the varying of every aspect of a print job. This is advantageous for individually tagging an item—a process called mass serialization. Mass serialization is a means of ensuring that each label, package or document contains a different identifier that can be read (which means interrogated and the data encoded successfully interpreted).

However, VDP can be used for far more than mass serialization in protecting a product. With security VDP, or SVDP, the different printed regions—be they text, image or graphics—contain not just variable data, but usually uniquely variable data. Also, this variable data can be (but isn’t always) read by some type of inspection, authentication or forensic device. That is, every variably printed region contains not just data, but security information. Thus, every region is novel, or unique identified, and so capable of being interrogated for its information.

To prevent counterfeiting, brand owners need to provide a moving target for the would-be counterfeiters, staying one step ahead of them in the deployment of security features. However, this is a tedious game, and often expensive, as brand owners continually research and purchase new deterrents. SVDP offers, however, an innate moving target—the ability to change the very nature of the variability on the fly. With SVDP, a moving target of deterrents is obtained without having to change the technology.

Linking or hybridization is how the set of variable features relate to one other. Examples of deterrent relationships include replication, hashing, sequence fragmentation [sharing the mass serialization data between two or more variable regions], and other techniques for making the multiple variable regions “cooperate” with each other. One particularly powerful method is to use one deterrent—usually one already used for track and trace or point-of-sale—as the registry “look up” sequence from which the signed-in user may then obtain information on one or more other variable regions. The method of hybridization can be changed from one print job to the next, meaning that the would-be counterfeiter must replicate all of the variable features which are monitored to be able to pass the phony product as authentic. Which “extra” features are actually monitored can be varied from day to day, making compliance both simple and thorough.

Monitoring information-containing printed images is getting easier every day. The near-ubiquity of camera-enabled mobile devices, therefore, strengthens the value of SVDP. Already, bar code interpreting software is native or readily downloaded to most internet-enabled mobile devices. Piggybacking image authentication services for other printed patterns is straightforward to implement.

Different variably printed regions can be used for track and trace, authentication, forensics, recall and other contingencies, or just to decoy the would-be counterfeiters. The way in which deterrents relate can be tied to pragmatic product details. For example, if the shelf life of a product is six months, it makes sense to change the relationship between deterrents every six months, so that expired products also exhibit “expired” security strategies. In the meantime, if certain deterrents are being successfully attacked, then adding new variability to the printed material is another way of gathering information on who the counterfeiters might be—insidious insiders, for example, may quickly incorporate these new variable regions, even if they are not tracked by your authenticators, and so tip their hand to you.

Incorporation of SVDP into the printing is straightforward, as there are only three rules: (1) meet compliance standards first, (2) vary several additional regions, and (3) change the relationship between the variable regions (hybridization plan) frequently.

Counterfeiters know all about SVDP, and they’re reading this and other related articles. Recall that there is no security through obscurity—counterfeiters reading this will know what they’re up against, but will not easily be able to spoof SVDP, except one item at a time (which makes the cost of counterfeiting higher). Thus, SVDP offers a means of staying one step ahead of the counterfeiters without running yourself ragged.

Cheers,

Steve

Rude Food? A Bright Future is Ghana Make a Difference

StevenSimske — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:56:00 GMT

If recent salmonella, e Coli, melamine and other food scares have you second-guessing your food chain, imagine what it may be like in some rural areas, where connectivity and information technology knowledge may be more limited.

A recent announcement states that "Researchers have presented a low cost track and trace and authentication system, which they believe could be implemented immediately, to combat counterfeiting in the developing world".

The full article is posted at:

http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/Processing-QC/Phone-based-anti-counterfeiting-proposed-for-developing-world/

I chatted with Ghana's Bright Simons, an Ashoka Fellow (http://www.ashoka.org/bsimons) and the Coordinator of the mPedigree network (www.mpedigree.net), about this article, since it alludes to mPedigree. Bright noted that there are some misrepresentations in the article, but overall the mPedigree approach is to associate a tamper-evident seal with a unique ID (e.g. mass serialized identifier), which is a strategy that leads to copy-based attacks by would-be counterfeiters. A cloud-based network supporting the unique IDs (i.e. providing track and trace and provenance) will help to defend the system from copy attacks. Overall, the approach is elegant--low-cost to implement, free for the consumer, and potentially ubiquitous through its mobile on-ramp.

The appropriately-named Bright was also recently named to the Tech Awards Laureates 2009, "as one of 15 global innovators recognized each year for applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change. The Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum, and presented by Applied Materials, Inc., selected mPedigree Network from among hundreds of nominations representing 66 countries."

"The Tech Awards: Technology Benefiting Humanity (www.techawards.org) is one of the premier annual humanitarian awards programs in the world, recognizing technical solutions that benefit humanity and address the most critical issues facing our planet and its people. The awards program honors 15 scientists and innovators annually alongside the recipient of the Global Humanitarian Award. This year’s Laureates include Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States of America (Global Humanitarian Award)."

Protecting our food and our supply chains is more than just high-priority. It's award-winning.

Cheers,

Steve

Food Safety Act HR 2749

StevenSimske — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:03:00 GMT

The United States House of Representatives (HR 2749) is called the “Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009” is apparently not without its problems. No one is speaking out against the bill, although "the proposed implementation worries some because it assumes equal responsibility for everyone along the food supply chain, particularly food warehousing companies and 3PLs, whose sole responsibility is to store the finished products." The complete article is accessed at:

http://www.foodlogistics.com/publication/article.jsp?siteSection=8&id=3051

Overall, this argues for a cloud-based solution to food safety. A cloud evens out reponsibilities, since all signed up for the cloud agree to share data, responsibilities, etc. Costs are distributed fairly, as parties can pay according to numerous factors--not only responsibility, but for example relative profit, relative risk, etc. This may help to address the following concerns:

"Other concerns in the industry point to the House bill’s overly broad traceability requirements and the introduction of civil monetary penalties for things like record keeping errors that could carry fines up to $250,000 for each violation. Furthermore, new fees include a registration fee of $500 per facility and another $175,000 per company, which is significant for companies with a number of facilities."

To address, simultaneously, concerns relating to record-keeping, auditing, track and trace, and potential fines, one solution that satisfies Occam's razor is a cloud-based approach, where the auditable data and associated risks are shared across the supply chain. Fines in this scenario are far less likely, since non-compliance is more difficult to hide, and more rapidly ameliorated.

Cheers,

Steve

Big news: HP Develops Cloud Service with GS1 Canada to Enhance Product Recall Process

StevenSimske — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:39:00 GMT

Our work on the food recall portal, in conjunction with GS1 and Microsoft, went live today! The HP press release is located here:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090824xb.html

and is given below. This is an important step for food safety, supply chain visibility and consumer confidence (see text from the press release below in italics).

To make a long story short, this has been an effort long in planning, long in aspiration, and never short in temper. Thanks to wonderful colleagues in HP Ireland for making all this possible!

HP today announced along with the Canadian arm of GS1 – a leading global nonprofit organization dedicated to improving supply chain efficiencies – a cloud-based recall service that traces and removes potentially harmful food products from the supply chain.

The GS1 Canada Product Recall service will run on the HP cloud computing platform for manufacturing, which allows companies to see and share information across the supply chain. Food and consumer products organizations can use the service to reduce errors, decrease the amount of time it takes to respond to a recall, and mitigate the costs associated with managing the recall process.

“Global supply chain standards are foundational to effective product recall,” said Art Smith, president and chief executive officer at GS1 Canada. “GS1 global standards are used by millions of companies around the world to enhance the safety, security and efficiency of their supply chains. With the integration of GS1 standards and HP’s cloud computing platform, we are reinventing the way that recall information is exchanged between businesses, and further supporting industry efforts to improve consumer safety.”

The GS1 Product Recall service will offer businesses:

Clear handling, disposal and reimbursement instructions to speed the recall process
The ability to customize alerts and target specific retailers with relevant information
A traceable security and audit trail to ensure compliance
Built-in security that sends notifications to authorized users and targeted retailers

“The ability to mitigate consumer safety concerns around product recall is extremely important for manufacturers and retailers,“ said Russ Daniels, vice president and chief technology officer at EDS, an HP company. ”By simplifying the product recall process, we can demonstrate how cloud services add real value to our everyday lives.”

Developed in conjunction with HP Labs, the company’s central research arm, GS1 Canada Product Recall service consists of HP software, services and infrastructure as well as the Microsoft® .NET Framework.

The initial rollout for the GS1 Canada Product Recall service targets the Canadian food industry. It is expected to extend to other industries and regions that require similar processes and services in the future. The HP cloud computing platform for manufacturing is available now.

About GS1 and GS1 Canada

GS1 is a leading global not-for-profit organization dedicated to global standards and solutions that improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains. The GS1 system of standards is the most widely used supply chain standards system in the world. GS1 Canada is the Canadian member of the Global GS1 organization, enabling its more than 10,000 members – organizations of all sizes from 23 sectors across Canada – to enhance their efficiency and cost effectiveness by adopting electronic supply chain best practices.

About HP

HP, the world’s largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/.

Cheers,

Steve

Un faux pas...ou bon mot?

StevenSimske — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:54:00 GMT

Today was the second day, and the indepth workshop on how to move trace research and development forward in Canada, at Trace R&D 2009 (http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/trace/home.html). It was an honor to be part of this rather intense, interesting and intellectually invigorating interchange of ideas. Particular thanks to John Graham of IBM for moderating the discussion for the eclectic and energetic group I was part of.

I won't go into the details of the traceability plan forward, as the organizers will be assimilating feedback before a plan of action is put in place. Two funny things happened during the session, however. The first stems from the fact that the conference, as is required in Canada, had English to French translators at work, translating the English presentations into French real-time for the francophiles wearing headsets. A small but important contingent of Quebecois were at a table near ours, and they were split between headset wearers and those bearing the English in raw form. My table happened to be right in front of the translators, who were behind not-quite-soundproof glass, actively converting English into its more mellifluous and more Romantic cousin.

The speaker was describing differences between North America and Europe, and mentioned that in Europe "moving forward is often derailed by fringe groups". The translator behind me, however, heard the word "fringe" as "French" and translated it as such. The headset-wearers quickly exchanged words with their colleagues not wearing headsets and began laughing together. The rest of the room didn't get their joke, but I was strategically positioned to join in their mirth. I guess there is a similar relationship between the Quebecois and French as there is between anglophonic North Americans and the British. Of course, the most interesting part is the translator. Why did she hear "fringe" as "French"? It couldn't be a Freudian slip--he was Austrian. Was it, even, a faux pas? If you ask me, it was a bon mot.

Translate this!

In addition, we noticed that the list of trite expressions for describing traceability from the raw product (food, animal) to the human consumable (food, drink) was short and popular. The list includes:

1. From gate to plate (and its variant "from farm gate to dinner plate")

2. From paddock to plate

3. From farm to fork

4. From dirt to dinner (not the most palatable trite expression)

5. From farm to fryer

Ugh. Nothing against the companies involved in the creation of these expressions, just that they were repeated so many times this week, that some sort of rebellion against the cliché was inevitable. I began wondering what other expressions were due to pop up as this current, er, crop, wore thin. Perhaps the following?

1. From bull to bowl

2. From steer to steak

3. From bull to belly

4. From cattle to cutlerly

5. From stable to table

6. From calving to carving

7. From branding to breakfast

8. From farmstock to facestuffing

9. From round-up to ground-up

10. From feedlot to foodfight

11. From farm to feeding frenzy

12. From cowtown to chowdown

and perhaps the most unsavory (and suitably number 13):

13. From sty to stomach

Do I expect any traceability providers to take these kindly offered clichés nouvelles as their own? Hardly. Je ne suis pas né hier. They would look silly, and I do not advise it. But it would break up the monotony, er, ennui...

Alors, à bientôt,

Steve

Trace R&D 2009

StevenSimske — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:44:00 GMT

I'm in windy Winnipeg today and tomorrow for the "research & development conference & strategic workshop for agriculture and food traceability," as so noted at: http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/trace/home.html. What does food traceability have to do with security printing and imaging, you may ask?

Security printing and imaging is the strategic application of explicitly printed information being used for product safety, messaging, interaction or other workflows (supply chain visibility, authentication, etc.). It is where the cloud, mobile and security come together; where the digital and physical meet and share a pint. So, what better application than food and agricultural traceability?

Say for the sake of my cadre of Irish colleagues and friends that we are indeed sharing a pint of Guinness. There's a lot in a Guinness, even if we only consider the hops, barley malt, yeast and water. From where did each of those ingredients come? What if a farm somewhere in Ireland had a high level of dioxins--it's happened recently...see my earlier post:

http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/securityprinting/archive/2008/12/08/irish-pork-recall-another-track-and-trace-debacle.aspx

We want to know, when it becomes necessary, what the provenance of every ingredient in everything we consume is, right? No, I don't want it printed right on the package--there's too much information there already, and if I felt like reading something, I'd grab a Malcolm Gladwell before a Guinness, n'est'ce pas? But I do want the package to point to information, somewhere in the cloud (to use a suddenly trite expression), when I need to know.

That's traceability (in at least a simplified way). So, traceability is brand protection, it is security, and it is anti-counterfeiting.

The only time I want to disappear without a trace is when I'm...

...somewhere like this.

Cheers,

Steve

Not Gone Without a Trace

StevenSimske — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:12:00 GMT

Is Track and Trace dead for 6 years with the Ridley-Thomas legislation allowing pharma 6-7 years to bring mass serialization to their shipments? Hardly. As Gregg Metcalf of Nosco noted today in his keynote address at the Graphics of Americas Brand Protection Conference (http://www.graphicsoftheamericas.com/conferences/bpc.html), other legislation is in the works, which may even speed up adoption in California.

My friend and HP colleague, Ray Dickinson, provided this link, for example:

http://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/frontEnd/main.php?idSeccion=1081

This article (worth a read) begins: "While some wind went out of the sails of the national effort to implement item-level tracking of pharmaceuticals after California postponed its e-pedigree rules in September, new developments continue to push the topic along. These events are occurring both in Washington (at FDA and, potentially, in the U.S. Congress) as well as in Brussels, Belgium, home of both the European Parliament and the GS1 organization, whose GS1 Healthcare Group is producing a lot of paper (if not actually standards) on its campaign for identifying and tracking everything related to healthcare products."

Indeed, the Obama administration seems very interested (look at the headlines) in changing the game for Healthcare. So, there will be government regulation. The GS1, skilled at working across international boundaries (thus, the "lack" of standards--they provide solutions, not laws), makes sense for commerce. Stay tuned. Much more in the works here, and more to post in the coming few weeks.

Cheers,

Steve

What has four wheels and flies?

StevenSimske — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:15:00 GMT

No, it's not a garbage truck.

It is the GS1 MobileCom Extended Packaging Pilot Handbook. Where does this pilot fly? Into your mobile device, and into the hands of consumers, retailers, inspectors, auditors, and more. And the four wheels are the GTIN, the GEPIR, the GDSN and the GLN.

The full version of the pilot document is at:

http://www.gs1.org/docs/mobile/GS1_Extended_Packaging_Pilot_Handbook.pdf

The objective of extended packaging is "giving consumers access to additional information or services about products through their mobile phone". A big deal presently, as the OMA (http://www.openmobilealliance.org/), Microsoft Tags, Gphone barcode reading, ScanBuy, and more vend their solutions.

The difference? Extended Packaging can (and will) tie directly to product track and trace, provenence, consumer information and even security applications. Let's review the four wheels, and please dig deeper into the document if you wish to learn more...

1. GTIN:

"The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is the primary identifier used for identification of all products (usually barcodes and RFID). It is a globally unique identifier and universally adopted across all industries. It is the most widely used physical identification standard in the world (implemented by more than 1,000,000 companies in more than 140 countries worldwide)." In other words, this wheel is familiar to us all. It's the data read from the barcode or RFID chip.

2. GEPIR:

This is the Global Electronic Party Information Register. It is the "DNS" of the GTIN, if you will--the GEPIR can be interrogated by either the GTIN of GLN.

3. GDSN:

The GDSN (http://www.gs1.org/productssolutions/gdsn/), or Global Data Synchronisation Network, can be thought of as the "database filled with information about the products [a company] makes, or sells, or buys. [It acts] very much like a catalogue that customers can use to place orders and manage vendors. Difficulties happen when one company needs to change information in their database or add a new item or location to it: suddenly their "catalogue" isn't up to date anymore." GDSN synchronises data across these databases.

4. GLN:

The Global Location Number is a key for entry into the GDSN, and incoporates company prefix, location reference and a check digit.

Read more about how to go mobile while improving your supply chain visibility (and ultimately use the economy of the commons to get up-to-the-minute customer and retailer feedback).

Cheers,

Steve

World Economic Forum and Counterfeiting

StevenSimske — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:46:00 GMT

A quick set of thoughts from the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos last week (http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm). The first addresses Threats to Security: "The cross-border flow of global proceeds from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion is well over US$ 1 trillion, with illegal drugs and counterfeit goods each estimated to account for about 8% of world trade. Global Agenda Council Members and experts examined the impact of a global economic slowdown on the growth of illicit activities and transnational crime."

This is a not-surprising but still stunning admission of the extent of the competition. Which is what counterfeiters are to all of you trying to make products that legitimately offer the brand quality they (supposedly) represent. Scary--8%. The GDP of Mexico ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) ).

Next, from the session on Organized Crime: "Organized crime is a huge and growing business that pervades societies, undermines countries, encourages wars and deepens poverty in developing countries. The global economic crisis affect some of its operations, such as prostitution and recreational drugs, as the money available to clients dries up. But as a highly opportunistic conglomerate, it looks for commodities in short supply and is already moving into the credit business, stepping up loan-sharking operations for small businesses that can no longer obtain funds from banks and other legal sources. Counterfeiting of consumer goods will also rise sharply."

What a shock, then, that there was "consensus that with the economic crises, we will observe a sharp increase in counterfeiting, as argued by Naim Moises and Richard Noble from Interpol." Speaking of Mexico, one Common Internet rumor is that it will collapse this year...http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/The-Coming-Collapse-2-2-2009.asp. Is there an Internet term for "urban myth"? Hmmm...http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11606866?source=rss. Regardless of what happens to Mexico, imagine what its collapse would do to the world economy. Its manufacturing and oil alone put it in an elite list of economic powerhouses. The key point is that the counterfeiters are now as big an influence on the world economy as Mexico. Much as the world will work to help keep Mexico from collapsing, the world will work to make the counterfeiting menace go away...

Thanks to Justin Picard of Advanced Track and Trace for the update on the WEF. --Steve

One Ring to Rule Them All

StevenSimske — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:46:00 GMT

"Twas in the darkest depths of mordor, I met a GIRL so fair"...if that "GIRL" is Globally Idiosyncratic Recall Legislation, that is. This GIRL, if you're not careful, will be your business' Mount Doom until your track and trace, supply chain visibility, and inference model are standardized.

But fear not, perhaps there is One RING to rule them all. One Registered Identification Number for Global-recall, that is.

An OnTrace News Release reports:

"OnTrace Agri-food Traceability is pleased to announce that primary producers can now register a single premise directly with the Ontario Agri-food Premises Registry (OAPR). There is no fee for this registration...This new sign-up functionality is good news for primary producers who want a premises identifier that meets national standards"

Please see the full announcement at:

http://www.ontraceagrifood.com/admincp/uploadedfiles/OnTrace%20Individual%20OAPR.pdf

Not to "ramble on" here, but one RING to rule them all is what the GS1 Global Party and Location Registry is meant to provide:

"A GLN uniquely identifies a legal entity, functional entity, or physical location. Examples include a company, the accounts payable department, a warehouse, or a store. The GLN is used in electronic commerce transactions and is required to uniquely identify your organization in the GS1 Global Registry™. For more information about GLNs, please refer to the GLN Overview at: www.gs1us.org/gln."

Want to be a Lord of the RING? Give GLN a look,

Cheers,

Steve

World Economic Forum Selects Four Track and Trace/Anti-Counterfeiting Companies

StevenSimske — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:35:00 GMT

Recently, the World Economic Forum has selected 34 companies for special notice as "Technology Pioneers". Please see

http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/Technology%20Pioneers/index.htm

The selections are based on the following criteria:

"The World Economic Forum has announced 34 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2009 for their accomplishments as innovators of the highest calibre, and whose technologies will have a deep impact on business and society. The selection of these companies is the result of a vigorous selection process, for which the Forum received more than 320 applications from around the world that were evaluated by 44 global technology experts."

Of these 34 visionary companies, 4 of the 15 in the "IT" category are companies providing products in Track and Trace/Anti-Counterfeiting (TT/ACF). These four pioneers are:

1. Advanced Track & Trace
www.advancedtrackandtrace.com
Jean-Pierre Massicot, Chief Executive Officer
Advanced Track & Trace is a pioneer in digital security solutions applied to Brand Protection.

2. Mojix, Inc.
www.mojix.com
Dr.Ramin Sadr, Founder & Chief Executive Officer - read the interview
Mojix, Inc. was founded in 2004 by a team of former JPL/NASA scientists and engineers with the vision of applying breakthroughs in deep space communications to exponentially refine the precision, reach and scope of RFID technology.

3. MPedigree
www.mPedigree.org
Bright B. Simons, Chief Strategist
mPedigree manages the 1393 service, which has been deployed in Ghana since January of this year, and is the first system anywhere in the world by means of which consumers and patients can instantly verify the source of a purchased pharmaceutical at no cost, at the point of purchase, using standard mobile phones.

4. TraceTracker Innovation ASA
www.tracetracker.com
Ole-Henning Fredriksen, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer - read the interview
TraceTracker is the global information exchange for the food industry.

Each of these companies has a different story--bringing advanced digital security printing to the play (ATT), bringing remote sensing advances to RFID (Mojix), making a difference where the introduction to the Internet is largely via phone (MPedigree), or providing food information exchange (TraceTracker). The creativity and utility of these four companies in obvious, and the fact that fully 12% of the World Economic Forum selections are in TT/ACF this year is a clear sign that this is not a fringe, an add-on, a secondary consideration any more. For all the right reasons--product safety, product recall, consumer empowerment, brand protection, supply chain visibility, product freshness, and many more--TT/ACF is the disruptive set of technologies that will be what consumers expect in just a few years.

[Thanks to Justin Picard for the link]

Best wishes for the Holidays!

Steve

Willing Loss of Privacy ... Shotcode and Mobile Barcoding

StevenSimske — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:09:00 GMT

Shotcode (http://www.shotcode.com/) promotes mobile tagging as linking "people from offline materials to mobile internet pages". The process is simple. Point your mobile phone camera at the barcode on a physical object--person, place or thing--initiate the service, and find the salient web page. They've been doing this in Japan for a number of years with their QR codes...see for example http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/10/30/qr-code-usage-in-japan/, and http://www.barcode.com/2008/07/qr-codes-in-japan/ (the latter of which includes a comment by Philip on 24 July 2008 stating he "hope[s] the ‘free’ formats like QR will gain enough ground in the rest of the world compared to closed systems like Shotcodes etc.").

It's simple, really. The ubiquity of cameras and the ease of which to ornament an object with a barcode is a logical step toward the internet of things. An open standard is nice, so long as all the data talks together. The big item is, who owns the data? Can it be linked to track and trace? How is the data authenticated?

These are important issues, to be sure. However, privacy seems to take a back seat on many of these discussions. All of which makes the recent article in the Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/5vux8y) more interesting. Their scenario focuses on that continual driver of internet services--connecting singles:

"You see an interesting girl at the bar. Before you approach her, you take a quick snapshot of her with your phone, and -- within seconds -- get automatically connected to her Facebook page to find out her favorite song, or to see if she's even single...The barcodes correlate with any URL you want -- your Facebook page, your blog, whatever. Anyone else can take a photo of the barcode with their Internet-enabled cell phone and then automatically be directed to your URL within their phone's browser. It's just like a regular Web link, only transported to the real world."

Not everyone is going to want to sacrifice their anonymity this way. It's not subtle, for one thing. "Barcode me!" is hardly a way to play hard to get. But, it certainly shows the potentials around connecting the physical and electronic worlds. Regardless, it will likely be an on-ramp to ubiquitous track and trace and product interrogation.

Rest assured, the privacy of all will suffer. Nothing will stop someone else from placing a barcode about you somewhere without your permission. Think of it as the 21st Century equivalent to truck stop bathrooms--it's as sordid as it sounds. Except you won't know where that barcode about you is until you read it yourself (and not with your own eyes, unless you are fluent in barcode). The insult may be hiding in plain sight. So, even for those of us who aren't barcoding ourselves, anticipate a whole different mobile barcoding world we'll soon live in.

[Thanks to John Keogh for the Washington Post article!]

Cheers, Steve

No Re-Packaging Ban in EU

StevenSimske — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:26:00 GMT

Under pressure from repackagers, who have convinced the EU in this time of economic meltdown that banning repackaging would be a misstep, the EU has changed its decision.

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/12/05/afx5786503.html

"EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen faced heavy pressure from parallel traders who said such a ban would have wiped them out, as they have to repackage drugs so that explanatory leaflets to patients are in the right language."

However, the EU is going to provide a more US/New Zealand like model of advertising for the pharmaceutical providers, another contentious issue (generic pharma feels it is unfair): "Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs is permitted only in the United States and New Zealand and was heavily attacked by consumers in the wake of the 2004 withdrawal of Merck & Co's heavily promoted painkiller Vioxx."

The main thrust of the legislative reform is to increase customer safety, and to do so requires deft political maneuvering, since repackagers, generic manufacturers and brand manufacturers will all find elements of the legislation against their best wishes. There is to be a more powerful system of safety monitoring for patients, improved anti-counterfeiting legislation, and more direct-to-consumer (DTC) information on the products allowed.

The biggest safety concern is response time--getting all potentially dangerous products out of customer-facing locations as soon as possible. The Irish pork recall showed that the response system is indeed fast, and generally seems to provide patient welfare. But, it needs to be more cost-effective. Full provenance track and trace, then, is more or less inevitable.

Cheers,

Steve