In the late 1990s, a research and development team of dedicated, talented scientists and engineers was formed within QinetiQ, an international defense and security technology company. Within this culture of science and innovation, the team was inspired to explore their “wilder and wackier” ideas. They were encouraged to “think outside of the box” and search for answers to real world technology problems in unexpected places because that is where breakthroughs are found.

One real-world problem they addressed was the inability to read radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that are in close proximity to metals and liquids. For example, if a traditional RFID tag was placed on a metal roll cage or on a bottle of wine, no return signal would be received or it would be quite unreliable. As a result, this problem was a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of passive ultra high frequency (UHF) RFID technology.

To develop an RFID tag that would not be disrupted by metals or liquids, the team turned to biomimetics—the application of designs and processes found in nature. Committed to thinking outside of the box, the team studied how the wing structure of the Blue Morpho butterfly reflects light. Rather than simply attempting to mimic what the team found, they looked at these structures in the broadest sense hypothesizing how the concept could be applied to RF technology and the inability to read RFID tags in harsh environments, specifically metals and liquids. As a result, the team developed a tag that reflects a strengthened RFID signal, ensuring that it will always be readable. An element of the tag’s “secret” is in its structure, an intricate arrangement of metal layers that affect radio waves the same way the butterfly’s wings affect light.

Numerous, successful pilot programs, testing tags in real-world settings, proved that the technology developed worked in harsh environments. The tags maintain near-perfect accuracy (99.9%) and reliability, even in the presence of metals and liquids. With this breakthrough, Omni-ID was formed, funded, and spun-out of QinetiQ. As a stand-alone company with patent-pending technology, Omni-ID’s mission is to become the world’s leading supplier of high performance, reliable radio frequency identification tags. Today, the Omni-ID team maintains the same spirit of innovation that resulted in its breakthrough technology. At Omni-ID, we don’t just think outside the box. We live there.