RFID Gazette

Managing Portable Toilets With RFID
Many thousands of portable toilets across Europe will have their maintenance scheduled more reliably using low-frequency RFID tags. [via RFID Journal]

VeriChip Still Pushing Implants?
Despite VeriChip's poor showing post-IPO recently (due mostly to doubt about the market for RFID implants), their VeriMed Patient Identification System seems to have created a bit of a buzz at the Atlanta Diabetes Expo. The system requires an implant chip, and is supposed to help health professionals, if a patient arrives at hospital and cannot communicate. For some reason, VeriChip seems to always suggest that a bracelet or badge of some sort wouldn't be durable enough.

Intel Goes UHF
Intel, the world's largest manufacturer of computer processor chips, released their first UHF transceiver chip, the R1000, recently. [via RFID Blog] The chip has attracted attention from several companies. Alien Technology, who plan to use the R1000 in new RFID readers, as well as CAEN and ThingMagic, a startup funded by Cisco and MIT. Intel's chip is expected to usher in lower RFID reader prices.

In one of my random updates about VeriChip, I'm unpleased to report that the chairman of VeriChip's parent company still hasn't had himself implanted with an RFID chip - as far as I know - despite claiming he would do so, what, about two years ago? Now, if you've kept up with the RFID industry, you might know that VeriChip is planning an IPO (which they filed for a year ago). And this in the midst of poor performance for some companies in the industry and the generally accepted view that most human beings would never willingly allow themselves to be implanted. Feel free to disagree, but in my opinion, forced implanting is one of the worst applications of RFID, not to mention a travesty of personal privacy, regardless of the political BS being fed to us. Besides, there are so many useful, legitimate, non-infringing applications.

I haven't followed the IPO but I'm thinking they'll have a very hard time with it. (Even VeriChip, in their SEC filing, stated that many patients would be unwilling. Apparently a lot of doctors are uncomfortable with implanting their patients - thank goodness.) Nevertheless, they don't seem to be having any problem implanting 222 people in total with RFID chips, for a sales total of about US$100K. [Speaking of implanting, one of the character's in this week's episode of Smallville is abducted and has a tiny GPS chip implanted in his/her shoulder (don't want to spoil it). Though at first, I thought it might be an RFID chip.]

RFID In China
China's RFID market reached nearly 800M (about US$100M) Renminbi in Q3 2006 and increase of 30% over Q3 2005.

Managing Patient Records
Advanced Pain Management (APM), a clinic in Wisconsin state, is using RFID tech from Alien Technology and Symbol Technologies (Motorola) to manage the records of 50,000 patients. The legacy system involved medical assistants driving records back and forth between a central location and 28 other satellite offices on a daily basis. The middleware, SmartInstrument, is from Reltronics. The entire solution, hardware, software and integration, is US$5,000, and was integrated into APM's ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system.

Gutter Think: RFID In The Sewers
Warendorf, a German city, is using RFID technology to maintain its 127 miles of seweres. Their system, which is tied in the city's GIS (Geographic Information System), tracks maintenance checks and allows workers to not have to use pen and paper. The result is more accurately recorded maintenance data. [via RFID Journal]

RFID, Ltd., is completing the design of uniforms embedded with RFID tags. The uniforms would be worn by firefighters, EMTs, and police. In the event of a high-risk situation, the tags can be used to pinpoint the wearer's location, making rescue easier. The design was spurred on by fire chiefs, whose squads are typically at high risk. Said Nicholas Chavez, president of RFID, Ltd.

...not only monitor locations of their squads but also their heart rates, respiratory developments, and skin temperatures.

This could in fact be an incredibly groundbreaking application of RFID, if it saves even one life. The uniforms are been targeted at the one million US firefighters.

source: .

RFID Update has a 3-part series on RFID trends for 2006. Number 10 was "RFID and the Citizen: Passports, Privacy, and Politics". I would have have put this as number 1 myself, in terms of public concern. Their number 1 was "The Industry itself". Each item has a number of links to related articles, and the series is definitely worth a read to get a perspective of what's happening. These types of articles are never easy to write - I know first hand. But here are my 5 issues in RFID (not quite the same type of list).

1. RFID and identification. Should citizens be concerned? Is it all fear-mongering or do we really need RFID citizen cards between Canada and the US?
   
2. The industry itself. How's the industry doing? Can it support RFID IPOs?
   
3. Item-level tagging. I'm referring to the retail industry and the intent of giants such as Wal-Mart to tag everything. A reduction in price for item-level tags should push this application forwards.
   
4. RFID in the pharmaceutical industry. The FDA D-Day, Dec 1st, has come and gone, but in fact, a US Federal Court judge apparently issued an injunction lifting the e-pedigree requirements on certain drugs. The pedigree requirement is a good idea, especially for fighting drug counterfeiting, by the industry has been self-admittedly behind the curve. Will they catch up in 2007? Well, it's been 10 years since an e-pedigree solution was mandated. What's taken so long? (Item-level tagging costs, technological hurdles, etc.)
   
5. RFID in payment systems. Do we need contactless credit cards? Are they secure? And should it be legal for merchants to refuse cash?

Of these, three concern me, but only because of my own personal feelings about them. I've written about them often enough, so I'm not going to repeat myself. You'll notice, though, that I'm talking less about the technology and more about issues.

More RFID Training Options
A number of RFID courses will be offered in 2007 at Penn State Erie's RFID Center of Excellence. The dates are Jan 17-18, Feb 7, Mar 7-8. They are prep courses for the CompTIA RFID+ certification examination. PRWeb/ Biz Yahoo and RFID Solutions Online have details. RFID training options are finally popping up all over the place.

McKesson RFID Real-Time Location System
The Spartanburg Regional Medical Center in South Carolina recently installed the Horizon RTLS (Real-Time Location System) from McKesson, a healthcare service provider and technology company. The system will be used to wirelessly monitor the location of over 500 IV (intraveneous) infusion pumps. [via Gen Eng News]

Fish Olympics?
Fish Olympics is a university project (USC Interactive Media) which lets people construct a virtual tropical fish and test it against other creations. There isn't much more info, and the main site is under construction.

An RFID pilot study at NHS (Nottingham University Hospital) Trust is being conducted to achieve three purposes: (1) track medical equipment and manage IT assets; (2) locate emergency staff in real-time; (3) monitor babies. In the latter case, RFID would be used to prevent unauthorized removal of babies from the maternity ward. [via Computing UK] VeriChip's Hugs Infant Protection System is used in a similar manner.

Before this, most of the hospital case studies I've seen only had one application. It appears that hospitals are starting to see enough return in radio frequency technology that they are using it for several applications simultaneously. Some other hospital applications include tracking blood, monitoring bed cleaning, tracking sponges during operations, and monitoring the cleaning of hospital garments. The hospital market for radio frequency technology is expected to reach nearly US$9B by 2010.

Real-time location systems (RTLS) company Ekahau announced US$16M in financing earlier in the week. Only $12M is from Series B venture capital. The company's systems work over Wi-Fi networks. The funding would go towards the development of new products. [via RFID Update]

Earlier this year, Ekahau launched a 3G Wi-Fi tag for use in healthcare and other applications. The RTLS market is expected to grow past US$1.6B by 2010. RTLS systems fall into Wi-Fi-based and spectrum-based unlicensed categories. Common applications of RTLS systems are patient monitoring in hospitals and high-value asset tracking.

Digital Angel Corp, sister company of VeriChip - makers of the controversial implantable RFID chip - have come up with more implantable technology. This chip is glucose-sensing, and thus is designed for diabetics. Digital Angel also scored a patent for the chip, which is injectable by syringe.

After the chip is implanted, no typical painful finger pricks are needed to read body glucose level. The implanted chip transmits the information to a scanner. The chips are passive, so no battery is required.

According to the press release, there are 230 million people worldwide with diabetes - a huge market for Digital Angel and VeriChip Corp. It's becoming an epidemic in humans and apparently is also a major disease for livestock.

The armchair scientist in me thinks, "Wow, this is an incredible leap in diabetes management." But the VeriChip skeptic/ cynic in me thinks, "Wow, they figured out a way to 'legitimately' convince more people to implant themselves." My maternal grandfather, when he was alive, was a simple village physician who sometimes got paid in chickens and eggs. He was a humble, honest man. And he was borderline diabetic, as I am too. Yet he never once took any medication for it. He controlled his diet very strictly and managed to keep his diabetes fully in check. I struggle with mine, because I am not as disciplined as he was, but have little trust in allopathic ("Western") medicine, despite my grandfather being a doctor.

I also happen to know more diabetics these days than I've known previously in my entire life. The majority of them have to take daily needles; some take pills, and others, still, have lost limbs or even died in comas. It's a terrible, painful disease that has lots unfortunate side effects, including, sometimes, a weird sense of denial of the situation. Not all diabetics are disciplined enough to take their medication. In fact, up to 50% of patients for any illness do not take their medication as directed.

That said, I'd hate to knock anything that might help diabetics, but as per usual, I am reluctant to willingly accept RFID that is implanted in our bodies, no matter what the purpose. But that's just me. (I'm not a full-blown Luddite; just a hybrid.) There is, however, an NFC (Nearly Field Communications) RFID-based solution for diabetics by NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors) that does not require a chip to be implanted. Though it does require inserting a small tube into the belly area, and finger-pricking for blood droplets is still part of the daily regimen. Both products are prototoypes and, as I understand it, still require US FDA approval. So it may be a few years to reach the market.

RFID Cannes-Can
A hospital in Cannes, home of the famous French film festival, is using RFID in their laundry operations to manage hospital garments. Over 36,000 garments use TAGSYS tags that can repeatedly withstand water, heat and chemicals. Other hospitals in the area also send their garments to the same laundry. Information in each tag tells laundry staff where the garment came from and how many are in stock, amongst other things. [via PR Web/ ] Hospitals are already using radio frequency tags and systems for patient records management and other applications.

Europeans Wary Of RFID
A survey by the European Commission suggests that over of EU (European Union) citizens are strongly in support of de-activating radio frequency tags on consumer goods at the point of purchase. Two-thirds of survey respondents feel there should be more data protection and privacy legislation, especially if RFID use grows in the EU. This is something the Commission will have to take in account, especially since other research shows big potential in Europe for RF technology, despite the narrow band for RFID tech allocated by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute).

Take The First Step
For those companies not yet using RFID, take some risks and jump in, learn to innovate. For those already using RFID, share your successes in a community fashion. That's the advice from representatives of RFID early-adopter companies like Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble, speaking at the EPCglobal US's third annual user conference. [via RFID Journal]