New RecoHand Wearable Glove Reader Captures Touchable Tags
by CLAIRE SWEDBERG

ASReader and Teijin Frontier released the reading device designed to only read the tag being touched by a worker wearing the glove.
Apr 11, 2024

One of the greatest benefits of UHF RFID technology is the fast, long read range between reader and tag, but there are times when that long RF transmission limits the tag’s use for everyday tasks. If someone is seeking to read just one tag, and not the others around it, they have been forced to rely on another technology such as a barcode scan or near-field communication (NFC).

AsReader has teamed with sports and outdoor materials company Teijin Frontier to release a solution to that problem—RecoHand. They product, announced at RFID Journal LIVE! in Las Vegas last week and a finalist for best new product will be commercially available in the U.S. later this month, according to Paul Whitney, AsReader’s COO and VP.
“For decades now, everyone in this industry has been telling all customers that ‘you can’t reliably read just one tag with UHF RFID,’ but now you can,” Whitney said.

Only Reading the Tag You Touch

RecoHand was designed for rugged warehouse environments where workers handle products or assets. The RecoHand is designed to only read tags within about two centimeters, which means users need to touch (or nearly touch) a tagged object with their gloved hand to read the unique ID on the tag. By doing so, they pinpoint the read to an individual item, even when it may be surrounded by other RFID tags.
The wearable device consists of a specialized antenna design woven into the conductive fabric of the glove that only reads tags at the very short range (typically two centimeters).

It connects to Bluetooth-enabled phones or tablets and can be charged via a USB-C port. The product includes a LED light that turns green to indicate a proper RFID tag read. Additionally, the glove comes with a small battery-powered reader worn on the back of the hand.

Applications in Factories, Stores and Warehouses
Whitney explained applications for the RecoHand can be found in warehouses, healthcare facilities or factories, as well as stores, where tagged items are picked according to orders, shelved, sorted, inspected or packed. Other applications would be any cases in which precise one-to-one scanning is needed.

“This is actually new technology: allowing users to get reliable one-to-on reads of existing UHF RFID tags, without worrying about misreads of neighboring tags,” Whitney said.

Latest Product From AS Reader
In January of this year, AS Reader released its Smart Jewelry Tray with embedded RFID sensors to record customer interactions with watches and jewelry pieces. The Smart Jewelry Tray was developed in partnership with PT Next.
AsReader, with partner Xemelgo, has developed a free app known as QC Checker to aid companies— such as those deploying RFID for the first time— to meet retailer requests or mandates and ensure the tags are operating properly before shipping them to those retailers.
Suppliers can use AsReader’s sled, pocket, dock-type or gun-type scanning devices, to read an RFID tag that is being applied to a new product, and the app will then detect any duplicated tags, or to confirm the correct information is encoded on the tag and if the EPC matches the correct UPC (barcode number).

Key Takeaways:
• RecoHand RFID-enabled glove isolates a tag read to the item that a worker touches while wearing the glove.
• The wearable device from AsReader leverages the specialized fabric from Teijin Frontier, that incorporates the reader antenna.