News | August 5, 2008

Visible Assets Selects CipherLab To Offer RuBee Mobile Computers, An RFID Alternative For Asset Management And Logistics Systems

PLANO, Texas & STRATHAM, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Visible Assets, Inc. recently announced that it has selected CipherLab, a leading innovator in Automated Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) for the retail, warehouse and distribution markets, as a partner in offering an alternative to RFID-based asset management and logistics systems. A new interface with Visible Assets' RuBee™ protocol (meeting IEEE P1902.1) enables CipherLab's 9400 and 9500 mobile industrial computers to overcome many of the problems currently experienced with RFID in harsh environments, particularly those near water and metal. The integrated solution will be particularly ideal for the healthcare, government and defense, agriculture, mission critical tools, transportation and logistics industries.

"CipherLab is a great choice for Visible as a partner to help us transition customers with existing manual data capture or logistics systems to fully automated Visibility Networks based on RuBee and Dot-Tag™ networked solutions," said John K. Stevens, chairman and CEO of Visible Assets. "Many customers want a ruggedized, Windows-based system without multiple wireless communication protocols, and CipherLab's handheld mobile computers are reliable, affordable and easily tailored to meet individual customer requirements. Together, we offer a logistics and asset management system that delivers enhanced security, longer range and that is unaffected by noise and traffic."

RuBee is a bi-directional, wireless peer-to-peer protocol based on magnetic energy. Industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan categorize RuBee as a compact, low-power, competitive-cost solution for supply chain asset identification tracking and full Visibility Networks. Unlike RFID, which generally becomes line of sight in harsh environments, RuBee is volumetric — its signals are unaffected by steel, water or living organisms, such as cattle. Users do not need to do anything different in order to manage inventory on shelves, in metal shipping containers or in hospital clean rooms. RuBee is already in use by customers such as the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture.

"The CipherLab 9400 and 9500 units already offered customers anywhere mobility through a number of choices in connectivity platforms and applications at an economical price point, but by adding support for the RuBee protocol, we've opened up many more exciting possibilities," said Leslie Mesh, senior vice president-Americas for CipherLab. "Together with Visible Assets, we can now deliver an affordable logistics system that solves the RFID headaches prevalent in many harsh warehouse environments. We also gain a strong product entry in the asset management market.

About Visible Assets, Inc.
Visible Assets, Inc. based in Stratham, New Hampshire designs, manufactures and supports wireless real-time asset visibility solutions and networks based on the RuBee (IEEE P1902.1) standard. RuBee is highly secure, human safe, intrinsically safe wireless technology that works in harsh environments. RuBee tags have a range from 1-100 feet, are not blocked by steel and are not affected by water. RuBee tags may be directly embedded into items such as weapons, mission critical tools, medical devices, cell phones, and products stored on shelving. Visible Assets provides integrated visibility solutions for a variety of markets though RuBee partners, like SIG SAUER. RuBee Visibility Networks are installed and working in numerous hospitals, mobile service vans, livestock sites, integrated circuit production facilities and many secure DoE sites. For more information, go to www.visible-assets.com.

About CipherLab
CipherLab is a global leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture/Collection) products and systems. The company's award-winning mobile computers and scanners are integrated into the networks of some of the world's best known government and logistics, grocery, manufacturing, retail, distribution, agricultural and healthcare companies, helping them run more efficiently and effectively via "anywhere mobility," onsite and on the road. CipherLab Solutions Certified value-added resellers and integrators further extend the company's expertise, particularly within the small- to medium-size business market. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan with North American offices in Plano, TX and operations in EMEA, the Americas, Asia Pacific and China, CipherLab is publicly traded on the Taiwan stock exchange. More can be found on the web at www.cipherlab.com.