The Wireless Internet for the Mobile Enterprise Consortium at the University of California at Los Angeles on Wednesday is expected to showcase several applications built on its radio-frequency identification middleware technology called WinRFID version 1.0.

The consortium developed the RFID middleware stack that manages read-and-write functions. It can monitor processes as tags are scanned by readers throughout the network. It also provides links to databases and a uniform interface for application development. The middleware architecture supports standards from both EPCglobal and the International Organization for Standards, according to Rajit Gadh, UCLA professor and the consortium's director, who will be present at the daylong event.

The WinRFID middleware is supporting feasibility studies and pilot projects in supply-chain, medical, health-care, security, warehousing, smart-shelf, asset-tracking, inventory-management, and manufacturing applications.

At the conference, the consortium will demonstrate asset tracking for containers with electronic and electrical components where RF interference can disrupt and play havoc with RFID signals. By repositioning readers, however, companies can overcome the problem.

Research is ongoing for asset-tracking applications and more. Demonstrations at the event also will include RFID tagging for library use to check books and other media in and out, control of multiple readers for various protocols and tags through one central station, and an interface tool for monitoring an RFID-based sensor network.

Select industry leaders are expected to make presentations at the event on the impact of RFID on supply-chain management, security, and the food-supply and pharmaceutical industries. Others will discuss the status of RFID implementations by suppliers of Wal-Mart, Target, and the Department of Defense; implementation strategies, adoption cycles, standards and deployment lessons; business-process modification for successful return on investments; and embedding RFID into an existing business processes.