Tracking RFID--it's everywhere
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roundupThere's no question retailers love RFID. But will problems of privacy and unreliability prove to be too great?
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Radio frequency identification tags, usually used to track commercial products, are helping researchers study the movements of Amazonian peccaries.
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The Web 2.0 application Doppir lets users track their travel and buddies at once.
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Ziff Davis - Despite significant RFID adoption from the biggest companies, IBM is turning its attention to the midmarket.
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The tech giants are injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into RFID technology, which aims to advance the tracking of items from ho-hum bar codes to smart tags packed with data.   -washingtonpost.com
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PC maker shoots for a million RFID tags placed on shipments of printers, handhelds and dozens of other products this year.
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A Singaporean IT products distributor is introducing radio tags to track inventory and delivery.
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The dusty shelves of your local library are going high-tech with tagging chips. Civil liberties groups warn of a privacy nightmare.
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(InfoWorld) - On Wednesday, presenters at RFID World in Boston focused on using second-generation active and passive RFID tags to provide advanced security and authentication, as well as ways to broaden the reach of the technology. Among the buzz from attendees was how the average wireless device could soon become an RFID reader, or perhaps a related radio-capable device for Near Field Communication, a short-distance radio technology to give a mobile user easy access to all kinds of data. One attendee, Russ Lamer, said he was just starting early investigation into ways that fleet truck drivers could equip their standard cell phones to act as a kind of "speed pass" to quickly pay for fuel at a truck stop, similar to the Speedpass used at Mobil gas stations. Lamer, manager of emerging technologies at Wright Express in South Portland, Maine, said drivers might also have fuel discount coupons delivered wirelessly to their phones that could be used during fuel purchases. With some of the mobile payment technologies he is investigating, Lamer said the modern trucker may eventually be able to pay by authorizing a credit card via the cell phone. "It makes the most sense" for the cell phone to work as the RFID reader, Lamer said, adding that he is interested in finding which chips could be used to provide the functions and at what cost. Other attendees said they were dazzled by an MIT presentation last night that showed emerging technologies similar to RFID that would allow someone with diabetes to read his or her blood sugar level easily several times a day with a cell phone receiving data from a patch on the arm. Steven Georgevitch, senior manager of supply chain technology at Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems, said in an address that all the emerging wireless technologies are exciting, but warned IT managers to plan ways to prevent RF interference, especially in large companies with many wireless applications. At Boeing, there are 150,000 employees in 70 countries, and a variety of wireless technologies are used, including active and passive RFID, GPS, and two variations of wireless location services. Badges worn by employees also use proximity radio technology, in which an employee is identified by passing close to an RFID reader at entrances to buildings, Georgevitch said. With so much variety in unlicensed spectrum, Boeing has tried to manage possible RF interference with an internal organization called the Frequency Management Organization. The group studies a proposed wireless use from an employee group, conducts technical tests on it, and then approves or rejects the project, Georgevitch said. Boeing's chief technology officer also has veto rights over which projects can move forward. "RF should be treated as a scarce resource," Georgevitch advised IT managers in other organizations. "Everybody wants to use RF or plug into Bluetooth or 802.11. Collisions are inevitable."
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This company has just started using some new RF guns in its warehouse. Workers use the handheld terminals to scan RFID tags on the conveyor -- or at least they're supposed to.
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Report gives mixed reviews on the use of implanted radio frequency identification (RFID) based technology to keep track of medical patients.
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RF Code has unveiled a device for tracking assets with active RFID tags that can be worn on the belt, transferring the data wirelessly to a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device.
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RFID World attendees were interested in flexing the uses of RFID beyond tagging pallets in the stock room, including using RFID with cell phones to read blood sugar levels or to pay for fuel.
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IBM used RFID technology to track the movements of attendees at its Information on Demand conference in Las Vegas.
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Analysis Prospects bright in the Wi-Fi arena
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Aethon Inc. has brought out a system that uses two robots -- Homer and Tug -- to monitor the movement of medical equipment using RFID technology.
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Hewlett-Packard has jumped on the RFID bandwagon, embracing the wireless tracking technology aimed at replacing the decades-old product bar code.