BARCELONA, February 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext
Paris and NYSE: ALU) today introduced new capabilities for its Alcatel-Lucent
Venture product solution, touchatag, formerly known as tikitag. These new
enhancements include 2D barcode support, extended API, and new business
solutions. This will assist application developers, businesses and consumers
in creating contactless applications for touchatag that link real world
objects to information and applications on the internet, PC, Mac or mobile
phone.
touchatag is an online Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) service.
This service makes it possible for the creation of applications that enable
the launch of online applications with a simple touch of an RFID enabled
device, such as a mobile phone. Items tagged with an RFID chip provide users
with one touch, fast and easy access to on-line information, registration,
ticketing and payment.
"The new name reflects our expanded portfolio and strongly supports the
value of our service while differentiating our brand from others in the
marketplace." said Anthony Belpaire, Alcatel-Lucent General Manager of the
touchatag Venture. "Supporting our focus on open innovation and application
enablement, touchatag provides application developers, businesses, and
consumers with an open API and an application development toolkit. These
tools allow creative people to blend the flexibility of the Internet with
their creativity to deliver new user experiences and services. Our users are
our inspiration, and our new capabilities and features are based on their
feedback."
The touchatag suite of offerings includes five new business solutions
(http://business.touchatag.com). They are:
- electronic value transactions, such as loyalty programs or
facilitation of financial transactions,
- event experiences, whereby touchatag is used to streamline
interest recording and link attendees to key information of interest
online,
- interactive advertising,
- smart toys and media, and
- mobile workforce solutions for one touch service registration and
information access while on the move.
For the "Do-it-Yourself" consumers, touchatag has added a number of
enhancements. The new 2D barcode tag creation capability enables an RFID tag
to be read by a mobile phone camera with a 2D barcode reader. With this
capability, the touchatag online service then selects the right application
to initiate, given the tag reader ID and the context. For example, a user can
be seamlessly linked to a person's social network by reading a 2D barcode tag
on a photo on a business card. Additionally, consumers can use a Firefox
plug-in to quickly link a RFID tag to a website directly from their browser.
New touchatag enhancements provide application developers with a full API
suite enabling them to easily build and extend contactless applications. This
rich applications environment will foster a creative place where people can
build on the touchatag service. At the core of the service, is the touchatag
Application Correlation Server (ACS), which manages the link between an RFID
tag and a corresponding action to be initiated. When an RFID enabled device
touches the RFID tag, it automatically connects with the touchatag ACS. The
ACS then directs the internet-enabled device to access the appropriate online
content and applications. From smart toys to loyalty programs, the variety of
contactless applications that can be created is limitless. touchatag
application developers are provided with an easy to use interface and website
to share and promote their projects at http://developer.touchatag.com.
The City of Manor, Texas, USA has taken advantage of touchatag's unique
benefits:
"We use touchatag with most of our internal communications. It's much
easier to scan a tag that links to information stored on our intranet than it
would be to print out binders full of documents that would then have to be
distributed," said Dustin Haisler, City of Manor, Chief Information Officer.
"touchatag has been so well-received that we plan to expand it's use in order
to help residents manage their city accounts, for example, utility bills. We
feel touchatag provides users with improved access to their information and
will help us offer them faster, more accurate customer service."
To find out more about touchatag please go to our website:
http://www.touchatag.com.
touchatag will be demonstrated during Mobile World Congress at the
Showstoppers@Mobile World Congress on February 15th Hotel Majestic Barcelona
Spain at 5:00pm. It will also be a featured User Experience on the
Alcatel-Lucent stand #8A147.
About Alcatel-Lucent Ventures
Alcatel-Lucent Ventures is a business incubator within Bell Labs. It
identifies game-changing ideas within the Alcatel-Lucent community and
commercializes these ideas into new products and services for network
operators, enterprises and end-users. Ventures extend from the concept stage
to commercial readiness, driven by fast-moving teams of motivated
entrepreneurs who combine their own ingenuity with nimble business processes
to create product solutions that address customer needs. With competency
centers in Antwerp, Belgium and New Jersey, USA, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures has
successfully commercialized eight products and has a portfolio of ventures in
development. Along the way, it has garnered significant attention from the
industry and racked up an impressive track-record of awards, including
multiple CTIA Emerging Technology awards along with NXTComm EOS and Product
of the Year.
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of
service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions
that to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A
leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies,
applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical
and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation
powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130
countries and the most experienced global services organization in the
industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach.
Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 16.98 billion in 2008 and is
incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris.
For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet:
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
