New York pharmacist teams with daytaOhio on RFID tool

By Thomas Gnau
Staff Writer
Sunday, September 07, 2008

FAIRBORN — How does a New York pharmacist start a potentially game-changing company with the help of visualization technology specialists based in Southwestern Ohio?

Ask Benson Chanowitz.

Radio Frequency in Dayton LLC is the company Chanowitz has formed with visual data and software enterprise daytaOhio, based on Wright State University’s campus, about 600 miles from New York.

Now, the joint venture is examining sales and manufacturing prospects — including the possibility of making a new RFID tool locally.

In recent years, Chanowitz, 51, grew disenchanted with the pharmaceutical business and began searching for new avenues. At one point, he wondered: How can runners in the New York City Marathon have their race times registered so exactly?

He soon found the answer on the Internet: radio frequency identification, better known as RFID.

From there, Chanowitz ended up at a RFID convention in Dallas. After a course on the technology, he landed at another convention, where he met Dr. Vikram Sethi, who today is interim director of Wright State University’s Institute of Defense Studies and Education.

A conversation with Sethi led to connections with Dayton Development Coalition and Terry Rapoch, daytaOhio chief executive. Based on the Wright State campus, daytaOhio focuses on using visualization and computing technologies to boost human and business performance. The organization’s R.C. Appenzeller Visualization Lab — which offers users a 3-D, immersive experience — has attracted attention.

Chanowitz mulled what seemed to him a logical partner to RFID technology: The ability to read the signal transmitted from RFID tags, which can be placed on product parcels — or nearly any item meant to be tracked.

Rapoch was impressed with Chanowitz’ developing business plan.

“I took one look at it and said, ‘Yeah. This is a great idea,’” Rapoch recalled.

Soon enough, daytaOhio’s for-profit holding company formed a joint venture with Chanowitz’ company, Lackawana Logistics, in late 2007. The venture is Radio Frequency in Dayton (RFID) LLC.

RFID works when a tag’s signal is perceived or tracked. If a signal isn’t tracked, tests must be conducted: Is there a metal plate in the floor under the signal’s “read” zone? Was a tag damaged in shipping?

Chanowitz developed hardware and software answers, giving RFID users insight as to whether tags are working. His invention — dubbed a “portal reality check” — shows which parts of a radio field where RFID signals are strong, weak or non-existent.

“I’m definitely not an engineer,” Chanowitz said. “I just looked at something, and it made sense to me.”

Rapoch — a former chief information officer for NCR — believes manufacturers want RFID, whose tags offer more information than bar codes.

RFID opportunities The RFlD market will exceed $6 billion by 2010, well above the estimated $2 billion in 2005. Passive RFID tags are required for all Department of Defense contracts issued on or after Oct. 1, 2004, for delivery of materials on or after Jan. 1, 2005. Passive tags need to be applied to all freight/cargo containers, cases, pallets, and to individual high-value items that required the military’s unique identification code. The FDA has mandated that by December 2006, the pharmaceutical industry must implement “pedigree and authentication. This will include item-level tagging resulting from pilot programs.” Wal-Mart initially targeted Jan. 1, 2005, as the date the company would require its top 100 suppliers to use RFID tagging. The company has revised the plan, with a longer implementation date. Source: Benson Chanowitz’ business plan

Users need to know that RFID works, he added. “You never get those benefits until you anchor the technology.”

Chanowitz has spent more than $100,000 in developing software and his plexiglass prototype, which today sits at Wright State’s Joshi Research Center.

His focus now is shifting from testing to selling, based on what a marketing study — conducted by Keystone HR Consulting of Centerville — will reveal.

Rapoch said it’s possible the readers will be manufactured in the Dayton area. The National Composite Center in Kettering is examining manufacturing possibilities, he said.

Chanowitz’ goal is to have a transportable product in the next two to three months. He plans to attend a RFID World convention in Las Vegas, starting Monday, Sept. 8.