Mojix To Push RFID LimitsMojix To Push RFID Limits

After four years of development, Mojix is about to introduce an RFID system that promises to overcome some of the technical barriers that have hampered RFID's adoption. The company claims its Mojix Star system is more accurate and works at greater distances than other passive RFID systems.Mojix isn't ready to talk about its upcoming announcement, but I've been able to piece together some of the details. Mojix plans to unveil its system at the upcoming RFID Journal Live event, which begins April 16 in Las Vegas.

The company was founded in 2004 by Ramin Sadr, who previously worked on digital signal processing and "deep space" communications systems as a researcher at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Lab. The Mojix Star system applies some of the same science. Mojix says its system brings greater precision to presence detection and security in RFID supply chains.

Precision is one thing, distance another. One of the drawbacks of so-called passive RFID (in which the tags have no internal power source and, thus, don't broadcast a signal) is that the tags have to be relatively close to RFID readers for accurate data transmission. Technological advances have gradually increased the distance -- from inches to yards -- at which passive RFID tags can be read.

Mojix is now extending that distance to the length of two football fields, in part through its signal processing techniques. An increase in read distances generally translates into decreased infrastructure requirements because you don't need as many RFID readers. That, in turn, could mean lower overall costs, depending on how system components are priced.

Of course, the RFID market has had its share of lofty product claims that fell short of expectations. It remains to be seen if Mojix can actually do all of this.

Based in Los Angeles, Mojix is funded by Oak Investment Partners, InnoCal Venture Capital, and Red Rock Ventures.