RFID Gazette

Texas Instruments and Philips Semiconductors will begin RFID tag manufacturing in early 2005, joining companies such as SmartCode Corp, Alien Technologies, and Symbol Technologies in an industry-wide effort to ramp up RFID tag production.

According to Information Week:

Although Texas Instruments and Philips say they'll have no problem meeting demand in the years to come, they're waiting for EPCGlobal to finalize the next-generation, or Gen 2, specification for RFID chips. Debate lingers over when that specification will be ready.

"It's been postponed twice already," says Roy Apple, VP of business development for SmartCode.

Read more: RFID Tagmakers Escalate Production

The American Civil Liberties Union is claiming that the Bush administration ignored security and privacy warnings by experts when it decided to promote new passports that implement RFID technology. The ACLU is warning Americans that the new passports could make individuals susceptible to identity theft.

According to RCR Wireless News:

The ACLU said U.S. passports, which are currently being bid out for contracts and will contain a face-recognition biometric as well as the RFID chips, are being designed in accordance with a standard developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization. During the process of developing that standard the Bush administration successfully fought a battle to spurn security protections for these passports despite the warnings of security experts and the objections of other governments, according to the ACLU.

"It is shocking that the American government fought against basic security and privacy protections such as encryption for these wide-open passports," said Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU's office here.

Read more: ACLU says RFID in passports leaves Americans vulnerable

Next Monday, CompTIA and AIM Global will announce plans to offer an RFID training and certification program. With mandates being issued by many retailers and the Department of Defense, there is a shortage of professionals trained in RFID.

According to eWeek:

Some manufacturers have been working with RFID internally—in what are known as "closed-loop systems"—for the past 10 or 12 years, AIM Global president Dan Mullen said, also during the interview.

"What you're seeing now is companies looking at RFID for supply chain initiatives," Mullen said. The U.S. Department of Defense and large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Albertsons all have issued mandates to their product suppliers to start using RFID in 2005.

Read more: Program to Offer RFID Training, Certification

Boeing and Airbus are using RFID tags to track their airplane parts to improve maintenance and replacement services. Airbus will have passive RFID tags on all removable parts of its new A380 superjumbo.

According to Information Week:

Now Boeing has an RFID project under way in its 7E7 Dreamliner program launched in April, where time-controlled, life-limited parts and replaceable units have been identified with RFID "smart labels." These smart labels contain a microchip and an antenna and store data, including part and serial numbers, manufacturer codes, country of origin, date of installation and maintenance, and inspection information. This information can be particularly useful in the maintenance of airplanes because the service history of a part is stored on the RFID label as it goes thorough different stages of its life cycle, says Kenneth Porad, automated identification program manager at Boeing.

Read more: RFID Tags Fly With Airplane Parts

The FDA has approved the use of an RFID surgical marker to reduce the likelihood of surgery mistakes. The SurgiChip Tag Surgical Marker System is manufactured by SurgiChip Inc. of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

According to Medical News Today:

The patient's name and surgical site are printed on the SurgiChip tag. The inside of the tag is encoded with the date of surgery, type of procedure and name of surgeon. The tag is scanned with a desktop RFID reader for confirmation by the patient and is then placed in the patient's hospital file.

Read more: FDA Clears New Surgical Marker; Uses RFID to Protect Patients

The Spring Independent School District in Spring, Texas, located just north of Houston, is using RFID badges to monitor the movements of 28,000 schoolchildren. Good luck ditching class now.

According to the New York Times:

When the district unanimously approved the $180,000 system, neither teachers nor parents objected, said the president of the board. Rather, parents appear to be applauding. "I'm sure we're being overprotective, but you hear about all this violence," said Elisa Temple-Harvey, 34, the parent of a fourth grader.

Read more: In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye

With Wal-Mart's January 1 deadline given to their top 100 suppliers to implement RFID looming just weeks away, ABI Research is estimating that only 30 will be compliant by then.

According to TelecomWeb:

According to Erik Michielsen, ABI Research's director of RFID and ubiquitous technologies, the fact that only around 30 percent of Wal-Mart's suppliers will have done full-scale RFID implementations by New Year’s Day isn't the issue. What's really important, he believes, is what the other 70 percent will do during the course of the coming year.

In a new RFID study produced by ABI, Michielsen says he doesn't believe that lack of money for integration trials has been the problem for most of these laggards.

Read more: Why Wal-Mart May Have To Scale Back RFID Plans

The bottom line results and ROI have been the main focus of RFID implementation thus far in many businesses. But security issues should remain a major concern.

According to Information Week:

A number of security measures, including ISO standard 15693 for data authentication, already are used in applications such as banking-card authorizations and building- access systems, and could play a role in RFID security, Sabetti says. But not all of them are being considered for adoption by the EPCglobal Network, which provides the infrastructure for sharing RFID-enabled information about products in the supply chain. EPCglobal maintains the electronic-product-code database, which identifies a manufacturer, product, and version and serial number; provides middleware specifications for data exchange; and administers the Object Name Service for matching an electronic product code to information about the associated item.

Read more: RFID's Security Challenge

Pfizer will add RFID tags to Viagra bottles and Purdue Pharma will do the same to bottles of their painkiller OxyContin to fight counterfeiting.

According to Information Week:

Pfizer Inc. plans to start shipping bottles of Viagra with radio frequency identification, or RFID, by the end of next year, Pfizer spokesman Bryant Haskins said.

"We're starting with Viagra because it is probably the best-known and one of the most counterfeited pharmaceutical products,'' Haskins said.

OxyContin is a powerful narcotic that has become a target for drug abusers who figured out how to use it for a quick, heroin-like high.The new bottles also should help authorities and the company in its battle against theft of OxyContin from pharmacies, Purdue Pharma security chief Aaron Graham said.

Read more: RFID To Fight Counterfeiting of Viagra, Painkilling Drugs

The lack of RFID data synchonization and quality will prompt a huge surge in the RFID middleware market, according to a Venture Development Corporation research report.

According to Tekrati:

VDC surveyed organizations that currently use, plan to install, or are evaluating RFID technology. Overall, the survey respondents contend that as the supply chain moves faster, deductions and penalties from retailers will be greater. This, in turn, means clean data and data synchronization represent top priorities for any RFID implementation.

Read more: RFID Data Synchronization and Quality to Fuel RFID Middleware Market, Says VDC