RFID Gazette

Walgreen's Expanding RFID Use
Drugstore chain Walgreen's started an RFID trial project in late 2005, in which 50 of their 5500+ stores took part in. They are now deploying another RFID system, Wireless Asset Net from I.D. Systems, for materials handling vechicles. The system will help control access to these vehicles, which is a requirement of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration).

RFID Aids Process Improvement
Managing Automation reports on a ChainLink Research survey finding of 275 manufacturers that RFID use is tending towards operational efficiencies. Another important finding of the survey is that many of the companies plan to spend twice as much on RFID in 2007 compared to 2006.

RFID 2007: NFC Contactless Payment Use To Grow
Mohammad Khan, President and founder of ViVOtech, Inc., says that contactless payment has become a worldwide phenomenon, with North America leading. There have been over 18M cards issued in the US and Canada, and over 250,00 POS (Point of Sale) systems accepting those cards. By the end of 2007, there is expected to be 40-50M cards and 400,000 POS systems. Then there's the rest of the world, with several dozen countries already in the middle of trials, and many more millions of cards lauched.

A couple of weeks ago, there were a couple of articles around the blogosphere talking about how to disable the RFID chip in your new e-passport. Engadget has a great photograph of a simple, low-tech option. Now, while one article said that a passport is still valid even with a disabled chip, The Inquirer says that a tampered passport might get you "25 years in prison and a special customs search with rubber gloves.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. The security issues have yet to be resolved and might be worse than formerly thought. Two European tech consultants found that cloned e-passport data can be purchased on the Internet. Not only that, the RFID reader they bought on eBay had a blank chip and software for cloning and copying the data onto the chip.

For the most part, many industries such as aerospace fix things when they need fixing (beyond any scheduled maintenance). That's mostly out of a lack of options. However, RFID's use in MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) is growing, and the technology can be used for predictive maintenance. This means that costly, even deadly, maintenance problems can be caught before they happen, simply by allowing easier data collection of maintenance checks and equipment status. Boeing is employing RFID in a similar fashion on their new 787 Dreamliners, each of which will have around 2,000 high-memory passive tags.

Nortel, the telecom equipment maker, is making it easier for wireless ISPs (Internet Service Providers), to offer RFID-based services. Nortel offers a municipal wireless platform, and now plans to enhance this with solutions for RFID applications. An example use might be for a municipal fleet management (cars, trucks, school buses, small aircraft?), monitored through RFID tags integrated with GPS receivers.

This could be where the ROI for municipal networks comes in. Municipal networks either have to be paid for by taxes, subscriptions, or advertising - or some combo. If RFID-based services could produce a return on investment, the savings could subsidize part of the infrastructure costs.

Nortel's Municipal Wireless Solutions combines a number of technologies including Wi-Fi, wireless mesh and WiMax.

Gentag, Inc., has received a broad patent entitled "RFID Based Sensor Networks" that apparently covers a wide range of wireless devices including cell phones, PDAs, and laptops. Such devices, if RFID-enabled, would be nodes in sensor networks such as those used in crowdsensing applications. [via MoreRFID]

It's hard to say right now what the implications of this patent are, by my own personal opinion is that this could be a coup, as sensor networks based on mobile devices will very likely grow in importance in the medium to long-term. This would be both for experimental community-based projects and commercial applications. Combined with Internet databases, some very powerful applications could result.

The patent is actually co-owned between Altivera (Gentag) and Symbol (Motorola).

Ginza shopping district is being 10,000 RFID tags and infrared + wireless transmitters as part of the Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project. Each beacon has its own unique code and the tags and transmitters will supply location information. The beacons are synced with an Internet server, and the idea is that, eventually, the system will help shoppers navigate this very popular shopping area. And in four languages, no less: English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (three of the big four Asian languages, typically labelled CJKV - though Vietnamese seems not to be part of this trial. [Korean is no surprise, as South Korea has been investing in RFID.]

This a brilliant, innovative use of RFID and wireless technologies. I'm assuming that besides the 3.5 inch touch panel terminal displays they're using in the trial, suitable RFID-enabled wristbands/ watches or even smartphones might possibly used in the future. For a different look at RFID-enabled grids, see the badge-tracking array experiment conducted at the latest Chaos Communication Congress.

Wired's Quinn Norton writes about the Chaos Communication Congress (CCC) in Berlin, Germany, and how attendees are paying 10 euros each for an RFID badge that reports their location. There's an array of 35 monitoring stations that pick up badge locations and produce a constantly updated public XML feed.

The badges are part of an experiment and are voluntary, but it reflects exactly what I've been saying as to how RFID could be used to track people, given the right technical environment. There have been vocal naysayers here on this blog, but the CCC is proving exactly that it's possible. If you doubt me, consider that electronic civil liberties pioneer John Perry Barlow, one of the founders of EFF (Electronic Frontier Founddation), is talking at the CCC. One of this badge project's leaders also openly states:

The idea was most of this surveillance technology slowly faded into your lives, and we accepted them.... [we want to] make it possible to bring it into people's heads.

Meaning, if I've interpreted everything correctly, they want the general populace to be aware of what's going on and the potential misuse of RFID. Before you get your knickers in a knot, noticed I said potential, not actual. And that's all I've really been trying to do. Embrace the good, legit uses of RFID. Beware the questionable. You'll have to define the latter for yourself, but I partially define it as anything that violates a citizen's privacy and gives them no benefit whatsover.

RFID Tribe has put together an RFID map of the world (via The RFID Weblog) using Google Maps. The map geocodes uses of RFID by companies, associations, universities, etc. And you can add your own RFID points of interest. There are 233 points as of this writing What would be interesting is to cross-reference this map with IDTechEx's RFID case studies database containing over 2400 instances of projects in 92 countries around the world (as of Dec 23/06). The database is also categorized by industry.

Now assuming IDTechEx's information at least has city data, these points could be cross-referenced with the CIA's worldbook, which would include Latitude/ Longitude values for each city's geographic center. Grab a Google Maps API developer code, massage the IDTechEx data, and you have a great starting point for an auto-generated world map. Such a map would also provide a nice overview of where the most activity in RFID is.

The only drawback is that IDTechEx database is probably internal and the case studies themselves cost many hundreds of dollars each. Though who knows. Maybe IDTechEx will launch their own Google Map of studies.

RFID In Our Car Tires
RFID has been in used in the automotive industry for quite some time, both in vehicles and for SCM (supply chain management). Tag have also been used in tires by NASCAR. Now they're being used in tire pressure gauges, which seems to worry Bruce Schneier (a writer for Wired) but not Techdirt or Engadget.

Why Not Use RFID?
Boing Boing points to a story about a new mounted scanning camera being used in San Francisco to help the Dept of Parking and Traffic catch cars with unpaid parking tickets. Given that the system costs 92,000 for each outfitted vehicle, it seems like an opportunity to consider an RFID-based parking solution for the future, like Hoboken, New Jersey.

New Villanova RFID Lab
Villanova University will be getting a state-of-the-art RFID lab courtesy of a partnership with Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/ SEP). They'll also be getting a three other high-tech labs in the new 12-year partnership.

Hybrid RFID: GPS Receivers
Fujitsu Software Technologies has a hybrid tech device that combines an RFID tag with a GPS receiver. The receiver is accurate within 3-5 meters (10-16.5 ft) and the unit sends out a unique ID and geo info to an RFID reader up to 200 meters distant. The device is about US$170. [Nikkei via RFID in Japan]

Contactless Vending Machines
If you live in Dallas, New York or Chicago, that can of Dr. Pepper or Snapple that you're thirsting for can be paid for with your MasterCard contactless credit card. Cadbury Schweppes vending machines are going contactless and will also accept all major credit cards. [via Storefront Backtalk]

Worst RFID Uses?
Just catching up on my RFID reading and came across Gemma Simpson and Jo Best's Top 10: the best, worst... and craziest uses of RFID. I gotta say, pretty much all of these would have made it to my own similar list, with the exception being Dutch bookstore chain BGN, who have already proven the value of their conversion to radio frequency technology.