RFID Gazette

A roundup of recent RFID-related news.

NFC Vending Machine Demo
RFID in Japan has a YouTube video showing someone buying a drink from a vending machine and paying for it with their NFC-enabled cell phone.

RFID Implants For Payment Systems
A nightclub in Barcelona, Spain is allowing patrons to use implanted RFID chips to enter a VIP area and pay for drinks. Said one of the owners of the club:

I know a lot of people have fears about it. Having a radio-transmitting chip under your skin makes you very unique.

Right. So do horns sticking out of your head, which I'll have implanted before an RFID chip.

Dual-Purpose RFID Labels
Checkpoint Systems is introducing an inventory tracking and anti-theft system for retailers. The system uses RFID labels that serves the dual purpose by having two different circuits. This is apparently worrying privacy advocates who feel the system might track customers who chips after a purchase.

RFID is arguably a very efficient technology, made for multiple purposes, useful for private and public sectors. The benefits of RFID are far too numerous to mention in a single article, as the potential applications are seemingly endless. Many in the industry and elsewhere feel that the technology will become ubiquitous and replace older technologies because of its efficiencies and extra functionality. The problem is, it is also a very controversial technology for many reasons, which are thus a barrier to widespread adoption of RFID.

So you're a company that is thinking about using RFID technology for asset management. Maybe you have to use RFID to meet some compliance requirements? What do you do? Where do you start? RFID training is highly recommended, but a supplement to this is an RFID starter kit.

Now, there are the toy kits and the more serious ones like the RFID starter kit offered by Fluensee, which can actually be used in a production environment. This one costs $10,000, includes asset tracking software, a handheld reader (ruggedized), and a few hundred passive tags. Not quite as cheap as the $99 toy kit, but likely more useful.

As RFID matures and becomes more commonplace, we should see more specialized kits at difference price points. This will be almost necessary to entice smaller businesses that could benefit but are concerned about the total cost outlay.

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.

RFID Mirrors
A new mirror from Paxar for the retail clothing industry uses RFID technology to help customers learn more about a particular item of clothing, including garment descriptions and suggestions for matching items and accessories. Touching the mirror will also signal sales staff that a customer needs assistance. [via The Retail Bulletin]

RFID + Parking
"Meter maids" are getting help with the out of control parking situation in South Korea thanks to RFID tags on every car. Handheld readers would scan car tags to determine if a particular car is allowed in the city on a given day, and a fine issued if not. [via PSFK]

Managing RFID Adoption
Line56 has a three-page article outlining how to break RFID adoption into five stages, to more easily understand what your returns might be, as well as how process workflow might be impacted. The five stages they discuss are Creep, Crawl, Walk, Run, and Sprint - the latter of which includes actual implementation. I've only scanned the article but it does appear to have some generalized value for a manager researching how to go about RFID implentation for their company.

Brush fires have been a serious, sometimes fatal, problem in the SouthWestern United States (and elsewhere) for the past few years because of environmental reasons, lightning strikes and arson. And once they get out of control, it's all that short-staffed firefighting crews can do to stop it. So any solution that that gives crews a leg up with an early warning is likely more than welcome. That's exactly what a new RFID-enabled fire mapping sensor will do.

The Telepathx Firesight sensor mesh network system notifies fire brigades in less than 2 minutes - compared to 1-24 hours for GPS-based systems. The system is set up by placing the wireless thermo sensors in a grid and monitoring them with an RTU (remote transmission unit). The RTUs send messages to cell phones, etc. The Telepathx FAQ says that each kilometer of roadway requires nine sensors and four RTUs to be effectively monitored. At about Aus$35 for each sensor and about Aus$200 for each RTU, that's about $315+800 = Aus$1115 per kilometer. But given the cost of fire damage, it's probably a small price to pay.

Other applications of RFID-based sensors including seaport security monitoring in container yards and aiding in some disaster recovery scenarios.

[additional sources: I Newswire]

In my post Can RFID track people?, I talked about "after the fact trail analysis", where companies can at least see where their employees have been - if not track them - using contactless employee pass cards. It isn't a real-time location system (RTLS). To do that with RFID, without using GPS technology. Or at least specialized hybrid RFID and Wi-Fi technology.

Now contactless cards generally have too short a read range, but I'm hypothesizing that you can track a society's inhabitants using RFID and Wi-Fi. Let's ignore the logistics of programming, the cost of technology, and the sheer computing power needed. Say we want to focus on a tracking a single person. Here's the hypothetical scenario. The fictional society in question has a tight-knit grid of RFID scanners, and everyone wears an RFID wristband/ watch with Wi-Fi communication as well. Each wristwatch is coded with a unique value that identifies the person wearing it. It could be government tax id, such as the SSN - Social Security Number - or what have you.

Think that there would be too many wristwatches to track simultaneously? Some of the new RFID tech being used to handle bins of drugs or other product can read thousands of tags per minute. But in this case, you are trying to track a single person, a single code. Anything else can be ignored. So, continuing with the scenario, you have a person passing a scanner every few feet. Somewhere in some control room, that information can be filtered for one person/ code.

What results is a near real-time "trail" of where that person has been. From this, relatively simply mathematics can be used to study the person's "trail vector(s)" and determine where they might be going. Then a force of "robo cops" outfitted with wireless technology, HUD (Heads-Up Display) goggles, wearable computers, Bluetooth earpieces, etc., could be notified and move to intercept the person.

Now of course, I took a lot of liberties assuming this and that above. And since the devil is in the details, it's those assumptions that have to be resolved for such a science fictional scenario. But I stand by my position that radio frequency technology CAN be used to track a single someone provided the technical and financial conditions are satisified. And it's the ability, not necesarily the actuality, that is frightening.

Seems that Boredom Research is so bored that they've decided to do some tests using their own version of snail mail. What they've done is send short messages by email, then downloaded each onto an RFID chip attached to an actual real live snail. When the snail passes by a reader, the message is is captured. Because of the speed (or lack of), there's no problems with read rate accuracy.

Mighty bloody hilarious. Next thing you know, someone will use RF-tagged tortoises for courier delivery. It should be noted that Boredom Research is a "performance art" group. Hmm. Maybe Australia Post's RFID project could gain something from this. Of course, the giant cybernetic honeybees (first chapter) in Kathleen Ann Goonan's science fiction novel Queen City Jazz might be more reliable messengers. Speaking of bees, here's more unusual uses of RFID.]

[Technovelgy via The RFID Weblog]

Hitachi is working on a version of their Air Location positioning system which will use Wi-Fi RFID tags. The system would be used to monitor the location of people in buildings and possibly be used for emergency use such as disaster relief. [via RFID in Japan]

This system is a form of RTLS, Real-Time Location Systems, which are a growing niche of RFID suitable for both inanimate objects and people using wearable RFID wristbands or badges. Several water parks are using them, including Great Wolf Lodge, or planning to. In fact, PDC, Precision Dynamics Corporation, is planning to demo their Smart Band RFID Wristband at a waterpark symposium in late October.

Hitachi and KDDI Develop Miniature RFID Tag
A miniature RFID chip, designed for use with Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, has been developed by Hitachi Ltd and KDDI Corporation. The chip, dubbed the Muchip, can hold 38 digits of information and is used in tandem with the Muchip RFID Reader. [JCN Network via The RFID Weblog]

Low-Cost Temperature Sensitive RFID Trackers
Pharmacies and distributors that need to keep track of the drug supplies in their cold chain have a new option. Intelligent Devices Inc. has an RFID temperature tracker designed specifically for pharmaceutical Cold Chain Distribution. More details at Temp Sensor. Other temperature-sensitive RFID tags have been brough to market recently by companies that include Savi Technology and LogicaCMG.

DoD-Compliant RFID Labelling Solution
Looking for a DoD (US Department of Defense)-compliant RFID solution? Avery Dennison is offering a solution that includes software, a scanner, and optional labelling systems. More details at Thomas Net.

Zebra To Share RFID Patents
Zebra Technologies recently spent US$10M to acquire over 200 RFID patents from BTG. Their plan is to add these to the RFID patent pool they helped co-found, known as the RFID Consortium.