RFID Gazette

According to IN-FORUM:

"'We're looking at combining our technology with readers, making RFID smaller and more cost effective,' said Bruce McWilliamson, chairman, president and CEO of Tessera Technologies Inc. of San Jose, Calif.

"McWilliams was the keynote speaker Thursday as more than 500 business, government and academic leaders gathered at the Fargodome for R&D Showcase III. [...]

"Tessera's McWilliamson said his company was made aware of Fargo and Alien Technology's RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology work at NDSU by U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D." Read more

According to Information Week:

"California's state Senate gave its stamp of approval Thursday to a bill that would place limits on the use of radio-frequency identification technology in stores and libraries. However, the bill faces what's expected to be more-heated debate before the state Assembly's Business and Professions Committee.

"SB 1834, introduced by state Sen. Debra Bowen, seeks to prevent stores and libraries from using RFID to collect any information beyond what a customer is buying, renting, or borrowing." Read more

RFID Journal reports:

"Wal-Mart today begins receiving cases and pallets of product with RFID tags carrying Electronic Product Codes (EPCs) at a distribution center in the Dallas/Fortworth area as part of a test being conducted with eight suppliers. The tagged goods will be tracked to the back of seven Wal-Mart stores in Texas.

"Wal-Mart is billing this as a trial, but Simon Langford, Wal-Mart's manager of RFID strategies, told RFID Journal that this is the beginning of the company's planned roll-out of EPC technology." Read more

ZDNet Australia reports:

"A leading IBM executive has described critics of radio-frequency identification technologies as confused and described their push against the technology as masking an 'anti-retail' thrust.

"Dr Cheryl Shearer, Big Blue's global leader, business development for emerging markets, told ZDNet Australia in an interview this week 'I think the RFID privacy movement is primarily an anti-retail movement, because no one is discussing this at all in manufacturing process control or its use in libraries.'

"Shearer added that much of the confusion was generated because individuals mistook the capabilities of RFID for those of location-based services." Read more

According to ZDNet:

"The overwhelming message from the world's biggest retailers and RFID--fans to their suppliers is--don't wait to be told to use RFID, start your projects now. The only problem seems to be that suppliers are less than clued-up when it comes to the supply chain chips.

"Speaking Wednesday at a conference organized by not-for-profit RFID standards organization EPCglobal, both Wal-Mart and Tesco were encouraging their suppliers to adopt the tracking technology now." Read more

According to Information Week:

"The Danish amusement park lets parents tag their children and track their whereabouts wirelessly.

"Parents visiting Denmark's Legoland amusement park are signing away their privacy rights for a little peace of mind. Legoland, one of Europe's largest amusement parks, has bridged the great divide to deploy a Wi-Fi-based wireless security and location RFID technology in the 2.5 million-square-foot park for its annual 1.6 million visitors." Read more

Massachusetts state Sen. Jarrett Barrios is working on a piece of legislation that would regulate the use of RFID technology. There is also legislation under review in California and Utah.

According to Information Week:

"Barrios says his bill probably will contain three similar points: that consumers have a right to know RFID is being used, that consumers can opt out of using the technology at the point of purchase, and that consumers can deactivate that RFID tags at the point of purchase.

"Privacy concerns regarding RFID shouldn't be rooted in outlandish conspiracy theories, Barrios says, but at the same time, 'dismissing everybody's privacy concerns is too easy and would be a long-term disadvantage to all of us.'

"Barrios also says he expects RFID legislation to begin at the state level but ultimately should be handled by the federal government, much like spam legislation has moved from states to the federal government."

Business Wire reports:

"Maxell Corporation of America today announced a significant market expansion into the life sciences industry, with new customer engagements and the launch of its RFID-embedded test tube form factor. The new customers and product developments leverage Maxell's highly successful Coil-on-Chip RFID tags that are ideal for applications where size and writable memory are critical engineering considerations.

"Maxell's unique Coil-on-Chip architecture, where the antenna is directly mounted on the surface of a tiny 2.5mm silicon wafer, brings the benefits of industry standard 13.56 MHz RFID technology in a miniature platform to the life sciences market." Read more

According to Tech News World, the Department of Defense is stepping up its RFID effort:

"'The way we fight wars is changing. We need to keep abreast of changes in the way that we do logistics in order to maintain the support that our forces deserve,' says Alan Estevez, assistant deputy under secretary of defense for supply-chain integration. 'We feel that the use of RFID technology is critical to doing that.'" Read more

According to COMPUTERWORLD:

"Start-up venture Sandtracker claims to have cracked the $US0.05-per-tag barrier for RFID with a radically different technology which 'doesn't need silicon in quite the same way other tags do,' according to one of Sandtracker's backers.

"Jan Hilder, of financial services software firm Tacit Group, says the breakthrough stems from a "laterally different" idea from other RFID implementations.

"'The competition has concentrated on getting better and better at pursuing the same path. We've taken a completely different path.'" Read more