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HP is openning its Noisy Lab, a new 2,500-square-foot testing facility to help its RFID customers solve particularly tough RFID problems such as RF interference and product packaging containing metal, which reflects RF signals, and liquid, which absorbs them. Built in an existing HP manufacturing and distribution center in Omaha, Neb., the lab will provide a controlled environment to test RFID equipment, solutions and technology from a range of vendors. "Having the Noisy Lab as part of the Omaha facility means that we can borrow parts of the working facility to suit our RFID testing requirements and then return them when testing is complete," says Salil Pradhan, chief technologist for HP's RFID program. HP already has RFID demo centers, which the company uses to show its customers the potential of the technology, in Palo Alto (see HP Kicks Off U.S. RFID Demo Center) and Taiwan, and will soon open centers in Singapore, Geneva and the U.K. The Noisy Lab, however, will be for developing specific solutions. "This isn't like a one of our RFID centers," says Pradhan. "This is a real manufacturing environment, and it's not pretty. It's not a show lab." Instead the facility will enable HP engineers to simulate real-world manufacturing and distribution center conditions to pilot and evaluate RFID technology and products. "We have customers that have unique requirements and are struggling to get the kinds of performance from RFID with their products that they need," Pradhan says. "They can't slow down their production speed to suit RFID. These are problems that need to be solved and that we can work on in the Noisy Lab. The new Noisy Lab will include a range of equipment including a high-speed conveyor; moveable RFID print, write and read stations; an RFID portal to read pallet and case tags while a forklift moves through the station; and a wrap station, where loaded pallets are wrapped in cling film on a turntable and the pallet RFID tags can be read. The lab will also use three RFID middleware products so that the features of each can be compared. Printronix, ADT Sensormatic, Alien Technology, Applied Wireless Identifications (AWID), OATSystems, Shipcom Wireless and other HP partners will supply equipment to the lab.

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