Japanese tech RFID giant looks to the future of retail to ease the workload for staff and enhance customer experiences

Portland, OR, January 10, 2025. . . Visitors to the AsReader Booth #6763 at the 2025 National Retail Federation (NRF) show in New York’s Jacob Javits Convention Center this weekend will see a host of new advances in the retail space. Among the 1,000 exhibitors and more than 175 sessions, AsReader will show new ways to use RFID for inventory management, retail mastery, quick customer service, including self-serve terminals and software that turns any phone any a scanning device. AsReader–which literally was named to “use your phone as a reader”—is coming to the show armed with technology that makes smartphones even more important for business efficiency.

AsCode
Barcodes were historically designed to be read one-by-one with a dedicated device such as a laser and had several issues with devices reading them with a smartphone, such as reading distance and reading speed. In addition, two-dimensional codes are also designed to be read optically, so as the amount of information increased, the bits became smaller, and the reader was taxed with more and worked less efficiently.

Enter AsCode from AsReader, a new two-dimensional code demonstrated for the first time outside of Japan, making it possible to manage a variety of information on a smartphone, which was previously difficult with barcodes. Simply put, AsCode is a new variation of the barcode, similar to a QR code.

The AsCode user can do inventory, check selling prices, and inspect goods just by holding their smartphone while moving by the items they’re scanning, and it does so quicker than the codes in use now. Employees can scan shelves as they walk through the store, inventorying as they go and immediately be alerted if something is expired or in the wrong section. When used in the retail environment, AsCode improves data accuracy and realizes information visualization and real-time utilization. Beyond retail, this new code for scanning will be used in distribution, logistics tracking, and events. Here’s what sets AsCode apart from the rest:
• AsCode can be read faster and read text from farther away because the AsCode dots are bigger than QR Codes.
• AsCode charges “per device” not “per app,” unlike competitors
• Users have the ability to pick the size of code that is best for their use case. If they only have a need for 7 or 8 digits, the code can be simplified even further for faster reads
• Because AsCode is unique, the data is safer and not everyone with a cell phone can simply read it, like one can with a QR Code, so the security is enhanced.

AsCameraX
Now in its newest version called AsCameraX, this Camera Barcode Scanning Software was developed by AsReader’s engineering team in Japan and is available with a one-time installation fee and a nominal subscription fee for users to simply do one thing—to use company phones as readers, especially for retail. Available on the Google Play Store, AsCameraX is currently in use at a number of retail locations including a high-end men’s clothing retail chain. AsCameraX allows staff to do what had previously been impossible. With a scan rate of 1,100 scans per minute or approximately 18 scanned tags per second, AsCameraX does what no human or other barcode scanner can do in that short amount of time.

At NRF, smartphones will be in use to demonstrate how the technology works. No hardware is needed for AsCameraX, unlike competitors, and the software is used solely on Android company-issued smartphones such as the ruggedized Kyocera DuraForce Pro 3 and DuraSport 5G Androids.

Wearables

AsReader’s booth will also showcase Wearable RFID technology such as Teijin Frontier’s RecoHand™ a UHF wearable reader from a well-established textile manufacturer based in Japan for more than a century. This technology that confines radio waves and offers 1:1 touch reads, made from the same materialization as a golf glove, and was put to use by the Japanese government two years ago. Employees learned to scan bins by running their hands across products, and while grabbing the items they’re able to read it simultaneously. Used at hospitals’ warehouses for first responders and COVID-19 response, the Japanese government reported that using RecoHand more than doubled their productivity speed.

RecoHand was a finalist for the Best New Product of 2024 award, and was hailed by RFID Journal as “an engineering win” for “technology.

RecoHand works well with the new “Locus Origin” robot, also showing at NRF. The AMR links with RecoHand’s RFID technology to create a state-of-the-art warehouse management system with a new approach to improving logistics efficiency and automation.

The Locus Origin robot allows humans and robots to collaborate on automation and optimize manual processes, without replacing humans. The robots travel the warehouse floor with totes, and humans pick the product and put it into the totes.

Point of Sale (POS) technology through RFID
AsReader offers three sizes of POS technology with RFID: large, medium and small;

Large: RFID POS Checkout technology continues to evolve with a large antenna tub with special shielding that keeps the reads to exactly where users want it. This tub is for self-checkout for shopping baskets.

Medium: AsReader’s new Desktop POS reader can read at checkout when a person is folding the clothing, for example, putting it neatly into a bag.

Small: AsReader’s Smart Jewelry Tray monitors all items going onto tray and coming off, thereby enhancing tracking, traffic and can identify stronger appeal items without relying solely on sales data. Due to this technology, the future of inventory for jewelry is RFID and AsReader shows how a stealthy RFID Reader located inside the jewelry tray can “watch” the items as they go on and off the tray for a customer.

RFID standards
Fast and accurate RFID Inventory will also be on hand at NRF in the form of AsReader’s GUN-Type ASR-L251G-V2 & PADDLE-Type ASR-P252B are the kings of inventory management. With a sleek new “V2” design, this best seller is the epitome of inventory management and can scan over 1,100 tags per second at a distance of up to 40 feet.

More information on AsReader, Inc.
AsReader, Inc. specializes in AutoID, particularly mobile Barcode Scanners, RFID Readers/Writers, and all things Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC). AsReader, headed by COO Paul Whitney, is an Oregon Corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Asterisk, Inc. of Japan. Asterisk was founded in 2006 by charismatic CEO Noriyuki Suzuki and is headquartered in Osaka with additional offices in Tokyo, Kyoto, Shiga, and Nagoya in Japan, Dalian and Shenzhen in China, and Portland, Oregon in the U.S.A. The company went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2021 (TSE:6522). Major clients include a household-name beverage and snack logistics/transportation company in North America using over 20,000 AsReaders, manufacturers Toyota and Kawasaki, retailers Tokyu Hands and Aoyama, over 350 hospitals worldwide, and well-known package delivery companies in Japan using over 30,000 and 80,000 AsReaders each.