Radio Frequency Id Tags

RadioFrequencyIdTags

Soon to replace bar codes, which are scanned individually at line of sight, the application of radio ID tags will overcome the need for visuality and singularity. The tags within the field of a wireless reading device can read hundreds of tags a second. The RFID tags can contain much more information than barcodes.

"This is the basis of the next 50 years of computing," and further that "The impact will be staggering."

attributed to Kevin Ashton, director of Auto-ID centre. Do we expect him to say anything differently?

The applications for this technology are ubiquitous with the possibilities of being installed in assemblies, containers, packages, clothing, shoes, luggage, books, rentable objects, saleable objects, and even your pet. (Yes they could conceivably be implanted beneath your pet's (or your own)skin.)

Feb05 news told the story of a grade school attempts to use RFID to track children, and one reason cited was to lower the costs of vandalism. Any US privacy laws restricting the use of electronic monitoring devices? See http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,66626,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_7

News and developments

Aug05 Patent management being pooled through a new consortium. At http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=168600352

Not quite the NextBigThing

More trouble than its worth. See http://search400.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid3_gci1114022,00.html

Privacy considerations related to RFID See 2003 CalBerkeley paper at http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hqu/papers/RFID.html

I have seen the predecessor of these utilized by manufacturers who need to track an assembly process to match the parts required at different stages of the manufacturing process. Utilizing tag readers and PLCs, over 100 bytes of information could be stored and written to as well as read from. This is an old technology which would be updated to be much smaller and less expensive.

See:

BusinessValue aspects

SupplyChainManagement

Boeing saves on labor. See http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2005/tc2005089_4131_tc_215.htm
Gillette product tracking. See http://www.computerworld.com.au/pp.php?id=1564008990&fp=16&fpid=0

InformationSecurity aspects

Track most important asset - People

A company called "Digital Angel" is marketing US$400 RFID devices that are linked to GPS, with objectives of thwarting kidnapping attempts of executives in third world countries.

In other articles it was stated there are desires to "track criminals" using RFIDs, but there are strong opposition to "Mark of the beast" scenarios from Christian community.

Homeland Security e-passport (required by 2006) trials

United Airlines test of e-passort use with Australia, NZ and US locations. Will yield information on durability of these devices. See http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68451,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

Nov05 BruceSchneier came out to criticize the US passport use of RFIDs, claiming "operating range" of 69 feet without use of specialized equipment meant privacy data can be leaked unintentionally.