AIM celebrates 40 years of excellence in RFID

After humble beginnings as a Special Interest Group (SIG) within Material Handling Institute (MHI) in the early 1970’s, AIM established its identity with focus areas of standards, education and global chapter development.

Highlights of the past four decades includes:

Standards
- Approval of AIM as an ANSI SDO and first publication of an AIM/ANSI Standard
- Development of the direct part marking (DPM) guideline
- Collaborations with Japan and China to produce QR Code and HanXin specifications
- TSC development in cooperation with GS1, Ohio University and others of the 2D Judge.
- ISO’s publication of AIM’s RFID Emblem, developed by RFID Experts Group
- Collaboration with GS1 to form SC31, and AIM’s approval as administrator of the US TAG to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31

“Every one of today’s ISO standards for a linear or 2D bar code symbology, with the sole exception of EAN/UPC, was initially developed and published as an AIM standard and only then was submitted to ISO for international adoption.

"AIM was also instrumental in developing the RFID Emblem, which was published as an international standard (ISO/IEC 29160) in 2012.  The RFID Emblem provides a visible identification method for RFID transponders, interrogators, and tagged items, supporting consumer privacy protection,” said Rick Schuessler, AIM Board Member representing Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Education

The early 1980s saw the advent of Scan-Tech, a successful AIM-produced industry show that would attract thousands of vendors and attendees during its annual exhibition: the US show eventually led to exhibition development in Asia and the Netherlands

The QuickResponse event in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s in cooperation with VICs which directly served the retail industry’s growth in automatic identification solutions and EDI implementation

The long-standing Teacher’s Institute at Ohio University that has taught hundreds of professors from around the world on how to incorporate automatic identification curriculum in universities and colleges

Publication of the first RFID-centric electronic newsletter, RFID Connections

Establishment of annual AIM Industry awards recognizing the sizeable contributions of, and named after, Richard R. Dilling, Don Percival, Ted Williams, Allan Gilligan, and Bert Moore.

“With the first documented scanned bar code in 1974 at Marsh’s Supermarket, the value of automatic identification and data collection exploded across industries. For decades, AIM has been THE authority on innovations, standards, education, and networking in this market.