Active RFID isn't just for tracking arms shipments any more. BetaNews has learned that luxury consumer goods designer Gucci is working with Xpondr to test an emerging mix of technology for preventing theft aboard ocean ships.

NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - How can you keep international freight safe from the hands of terrorists and crooks? A tech start-up called Xpondr is now beta testing ANTS (Autonomous Node Transfer System), a satellite-, active RFID-, and GPS-enabled solution the vendor has developed to quell the security concerns of organizations ranging from national governments to Gucci and other makers of high-end consumer goods.

By means of wirelessly enabled remote sensor technology, ANTS wraps a layer of security around the contents of the large shipping containers that traverse the world's waterways, according to Xponder President Link Charlot, who spoke this week at the Maritime Security Expo in New York.

Although ANTS users can't literally see "inside the box," the system is able to alert the customer remotely of any attempts made aboard ocean vessels or at far off port facilities to open a container and alter its contents, whether to commit an act of IP (intellectual property) espionage or to slip a bomb -- or perhaps a human being -- inside.

Charlot told the audience that government agencies are looking at ANTS as a way of preventing the scenario of opening a container that has a live terrorist -- or even "a family of dead people" -- lurking within.

Private businesses carry additional worries about what might happen as a container makes its way across distant continents, often getting transported to and from multiple ships in various and sundry foreign port facilities.

One such business, Gucci -- a designer of luxury clothing and accessory items -- is an early customer for ANTS. But why on earth is Gucci testing active RFID? To make sure that, by the time shipments arrive in New York, "designs (have not been) copied or removed," Charlot said.

Beyond the very real possibilities of theft and terrorism, customers like Gucci fret over other issues around international shipments. If a shipment doesn't get there on time, for example, how can you tell where the cargo might be? That's one of the areas where Xpondr's utilization of GPS comes in, according to Charlot.

Charlot acknowledged that Xpondr isn't the first to combine satellite and RFID technology in efforts around container security. Other players in this area have included big names such as IBM, GE, Maersk, and RFID specialist Savi, to name a few.

But Charlot maintained that ANTS' unique blend of technologies will assure that Xpondr "succeeds where others have failed."

The ANTS system combines active RFID transponders, located inside containers, with uplink capabilities to Echostar's global network of LEO (low earth orbital) satellites. Xpondr is also able to integrate other sorts of sensors into ANTS, such as sensors intended to detect radiation and other hazardous materials, along with temperature.

ANTS' active RFID transponders "talk to each other," instead of only to a satellite, thereby overcoming issues around satellite blockages or "occlusions" in warehouses and other facilities, according to the Xpondr chief.

Essentially, container tags within a group communicate together until all tags in the group obtain all the data of all the other tags. The tags then pass the data to the satellite network through the tag closest to a satellite.

The transmitted data about the cargo containers is then downloaded from the satellite network on to a secure Internet site, accessible only to designated individuals such as business customers and government customs agents.

Implemented up to now largely in applications such as military shipments and vehicle tracking, active RFID uses a battery within the RFID tag itself for communications.

In contrast, passive RFID -- the type of techology being deployed for item-, carton-, and palette-level monitoring in some department stores and retail warehouses -- uses a generally less costly approach, in which tags are powered via external RFID readers.

But Charlot contends that Xpondr keeps expensives down by using reusable RFID tags, together with the relatively cost effective Echostar satellite network.