This is the goal set for Aspire, a European project launched last January. Aspire endowed with a 4.7 million-euro European grant over a three-year period brings together some ten partners, including UAEPME (European Association of Craft, Small and Medium sized Enterprises), an association that brings together more than 12 million small businesses. Two INRIA teams are involved: the Lille based Pops project team and the Grenoble based OW@INRIA development team. The project is based on the fact that RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) technology, which is spreading throughout large groups, has trouble taking hold in small businesses, essentially because of its high cost. Small and medium-sized businesses also fear they will not be able to manage the complex system.
This report prompted Aspire, a project focused on the developed of middleware, i.e., software serving as communication mediator between several applications, that will be innovative, low-cost, extensible, copyright free, light and secure. To facilitate middleware use, the engineered system will have to be able to self-adapt to the input values, which will be variable according to the RFID version of each business, and be parameterable regardless of targeted application.
