WALKIES: EDI director
Mark Powell coaxes labrador Hershey through the walk-through scanner,
which can read a microchip embedded in teh dog, eliminating the need to
use hand-held devices. JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post
Walk-through reader a first
24
January 2005
Auckland engineering company Electronic
Data Identification is claiming a world first after building a
"walk-through" machine which can read microchips implanted in dogs.
Director Mark Powell says that, till now, microchipped dogs
have had to be hand-scanned using a chip-card reader about the size of
a TV remote control.
"This is not an ideal system when dealing with dogs,
particularly ones that are trying to bite the operator."
The company has supplied six pre-production units to US
animal control firm Avid Identification which has been trying to source
walk-through readers for seven years.
Mr Powell says an order for 5000 units worth many millions of
dollars is now in the bag.
The devices can extract information from tags while dogs are
walked on a leash.
Avid is the largest supplier of pet microchipping devices in
the US and Canada, he says.
Electronic Data Identification (EDI) has been building RFID
chip readers since 1999, mostly for use in the agricultural industry in
the US and Europe, and employs 22 staff.
This makes it "one of the larger RFID companies in the
world", according to Mr Powell.
He says EDI has had to overcome big engineering hurdles to
build the walk-through dog readers.
Microchips implanted in dogs are only 12mm long and their
size means they are capable of sending out only a weak signal.
They are also implanted in the "worst possible orientation"
in the scruff of the neck, parallel to the spine, making them hard to
read from the side.
Mr Powell says he can't give too much away about the "massive
engineering effort", but says finding a solution had "a lot to do with
power level controls, autotuning, and a hell of a lot involved digital
signal processing".
He says EDI might bid through a subsidiary company for the
contract to supply the chip readers that will be used in the New
Zealand dog microchipping programme next year, and possibly to supply
and implant the tags themselves.
Avid president and founder Hannis Stoddard, a former student
at New Plymouth Boys High, will visit New Zealand next month.
According to reports from the United States, Avid and fellow
US tagging firm Digital Angel are currently the subject of a $US10
million lawsuit lodged by Alabama microchip manufacturer Crystal
Import.
It alleges a "monopolistic conspiracy" in the sale and
distribution of microchips and scanners used to identify lost pets in
the US.
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