r.TAG

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r.TAGAug 18, 2008Geissler Technologies and
related Intellectual Property were sold to
Destron Fearing Corporation
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r.TAG
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r.TAG

• Low cost, full duplex radio technology for animal
  ID and information management
• Range 100 feet
• Battery life gt 2 years
• Tag, reader, and beacon built and demonstrated

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Mobile Reader
Fixed Reader
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System Components

• Animal tag attached to animal via traditional
  ear stud or adhesive
• Beacon identical radio implemented in
  solar/battery powered device for proximity
  detection
• Fixed Reader identical radio used to
  interrogate animal tags and forward information
  to management system
• Management System PC based animal management
  software application specific

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Reception flow
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rTAG resources

• 256 bytes of flash, 17 bytes of battery backed
  ram
• 1 byte of RAM is sent with every notification
  packet.
• Wake up interval and radio power level can be
  adjusted. Example When working with the
  animals, set up for fast wake up intervals and
  limited RF range. Normal operation would set the
  tags to slow wake up intervals with the radio set
  for maximum range.
• Three beacon counters (Food, Water, and Other).
  The counter will increment if the animal is in
  range of a specific radio.

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Field Installation
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On Livestock
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Animal Management Software
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rTAG commands

• Tag Notifications Automatically wakes up and
  sends a notification to the reader. Includes
  important information about the tags status.
• Read Tag Data Reads 256 bytes of flash and 16
  bytes of flash.
• Reset Beacon Counters Resets the three beacon
  counters.
• Set tag parameters Set the wake up interval and
  the radio settings.
• Write to Flash Write to next available flash
  location
• Write to RAM Write to RAM memory location(s)

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Animal ID and monitoring
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Animal management

• Readers will work in the presence of other
  readers and beacons.
• Beacons will work in the presence of other
  beacons and readers.
• Tags will work in presence of other tags
• Reader can address an individual tag in presence
  of many tags.

No pen-to-pen interference
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Animal Tag Form Factor

• Design of top half of tag similar to gTAG.
  Locking ring and stud identical to gTAG.
• Uses the same applicator as the low frequency
  RFID tags such as gTAG
• rTAG weighs 15.6 grams

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r.TAG Information Storage

• Which events do we record
• Birth, transfer, medication, replacement tag,
  animal imported/exported, ICVI, C-Scan, etc.
• What animal information do we record?
• C-Scan(Size, weight, frame score by date), birth
  date, birth origin, transfer dates, etc.

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r.TAG Information Storage

• rTAG has 256 bytes of memory available which is
  enough room for 40 to 50 events in an animals
  life.
• Data is stored in a compressed format, most
  events will use 4 bytes, events involving
  transfers will take 11 bytes.
• All information necessary for NAIS event
  reporting will be stored.

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Entering/Leaving Feedlot

• Read all tags as truck enters or leaves Feedlot
  within 1 minute.
• Automatically generate NAIS type reports.
• Uses multiple readers on both sides of truck to
  get maximum coverage despite the metal of the
  truck.

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Information Security

• The user will not be allowed to over-write
  recorded information.
• Currently does not have tag-level password
  protection.
• There is a trade off between ease of use and
  access to the tag information. If it is password
  protected or encrypted then what do we do when
  ownership changes?
• Auction facilities may need to quickly reset and
  reuse tags. Needs a special software key to
  reset the tags.
• May have a different types of rTAGs (i.e. Auction
  tags, feed lot tags, farm yard tags, etc.)

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Regulatory Issues

• What regulatory standards must r.TAGs meet?
• CCIA, ICAR, NAIS, FCC, USAIP, others?

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Thank You