Evrythng deal to push Thinfilm’s NFC labels as key IoT component

Thinfilm has signed a collaboration deal with Evrythng, to gain access to the company's Internet of Things (IoT) software system.

Under the agreement Thinfilm will work to develop its products - including the world's first Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled smart label - to endeavour to make them one of the fundamental building blocks of the IoT.

Evrythng
Evrythng is a high-profile UK-based software development company. Its business model is built on a software-as-service model, for a program package that can give and manage individual active digital identities for real world objects. The software engine is cloud-based and scalable. It includes application programming interfaces (APIs), semantics, temporal data storage, active computational capabilities and access control.

Giving a unique digital identity means any physical item with an electronic tag or QR code can be identified, tracked and managed on smartphones, computer and other connected devices.

Thinfilm
With NFC, Thinfilm is fast developing the capacity to print labels with electronics that can hold and wirelessly communicate these identities at an economic cost. In January 2014, it acquired a series of patents for using NFC on printed electronics when it bought US developer Kovio. In late May, this was combined with the company's existing expertise in printed memory to produce its - and the world's - first demonstration NFC-enabled smart labels.

The initial commercial NFC-labels systems are due for release in 2015.

Thinfilm has already enjoyed penetration with its labels carrying printed electronics sensors in some niche markets, like monitoring the temperature exposure of drugs. However to display the output from the sensors' it has been necessary to integrate a screen, which is costly and increases the size of the label.

NFC
The NFC protocol offers a wireless medium for communication, and printing electronics is a mechanism to produce these tagging circuits, at a cost low enough to make them economically feasible.

Evrythng CEO, Niall Murphy, says: 'Thinfilm is leading a paradigm shift in the way digital interactivity is delivered to the market - even at the level of disposable items. The use of printed electronics specifically addresses the traditional cost and scalability barriers, while NFC connectivity significantly improves the ease of initiating interaction with a connected product.

'Our partnership with Thinfilm extends Evrythng 's ability to make physical products smart, interactive, and trackable by connecting them to the web.'

IoT
A forecast published by International Data Corporation on 3 June 2014, estimates that the number of internet-connect items will rise at an annual rate of 17.5% from 9.1 billion in 2013 to 28.1 billion in 2020. There will be a corresponding expansion in the market, from a global value of $1.9 trillion (€1.3 trillion) in 2013 to a predicted $7.1 trillion (€5.3 trillion) in 2020.

Thinfilm and Evrythng are each developing a separate key element for enabling this massive expansion of the IoT. If successful this will move the IoT away from its current limitation to high-value industrial and consumer equipment to include even mundane or disposal items like food packages - transforming it into an Internet of Everything. Though this will only be possible if digital identifies can be assigned and managed cost-effectively.

Davor Sutija, CEO of Norway-based Thinfilm says: 'Evrythng has built a powerful software engine and intuitive interface to help companies create and manage engaging digital extensions of physical products.

'Combined with Thinfilm's printed memory, sensor-equipped Smart Labels and NFC Barcode technology, [it] will enable digital and mobile interactivity in applications where connectivity was previously neither economical nor practical. Our shared vision in bringing intelligence and digital interactivity to the billions of physical objects in the world makes Evrythng an ideal partner for us.'