The platform consists of ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID readers with integrated antennas, wired to an Intel Gateway device that forwards the data to a server. The platform also includes an Intel application programming interface (API) that allows RFID systems integrators to write software for linking the RFID data to a store's existing software.

Since this past spring, Levi Strauss and Co. has been piloting the Intel Retail Sensor Platform at its Levi's Plaza store, located at its headquarters in San Francisco. That pilot is still ongoing, says Dan Gutwein, director of retail analytics for Intel's Retail Solutions division (part of the company's Internet of Things group).

At the Levi's Plaza store, Intel installed approximately 21 readers (each complying with the EPC Gen 2 standard) and a single Intel Gateway device, with Smartrac providing the software that integrates the reader data with Levi Strauss' back-end software. Gutwein says the Retail Sensor Platform supports any of its Gateway models, but in this case, the platform used one made with its Core i7 processor. The Retail Sensor Platform is about 34 to 40 percent faster and easier to install than a traditional reader and antenna deployment, he reports.

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