RFID Gazette

RFID In Hollywood: Law and Order

Or New York, to be precise, where the TV show Law + Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU blog) is filmed. Tonight's episode, Choreographed, starred a bunch of well-known TV actors, including Bob Saget. Saget's character explained to Detectives Elliott Stabler and Olivia Benson (who is back from a special assignment with the FBI) about how he uses RFID, radio frequency identification to get access into the building the lives in.

If you've followed the L+O franchise for more than a year, you know that their scriptwriters usually do due diligence and at least seem to make an attempt to research the science and technology that gets mentioned in the series. They didn't go into it in great detail, but the fact that it got mentioned typically means it has some importance in the episode. It's the old smoking gun method of fiction writing: don't introduce any prop that does not have some significance.

Of course, you don't find out RFID's relevance until there's about 15 minutes left. It appears that someone has implanted an RFID chip into one of the characters without her knowing, as the lab finds out when the woman collapses. Guess who? It's Bob Saget's character who did it, and he says "in 15 years, everyone will be implanted with a chip," in response to the question about why he did it. But the gist of it is that he implanted his wife because she was cheating on him.

The problem is, Saget's character didn't sterilize the chip, and because his wife is septic, she had an allergic reaction. How did he do it? He drugged her tea. Now, I didn't see where the implant was made, but this is a bit of bunk. If she's that sensitive, she would likely have felt some discomfort after the implant. Even if it was implanted in the back of her neck, where she couldn't get at it, the average human being would have used to mirrors to detect some skin disturbance at the site of the implant.

Still, kudos to the writing team of Law + Order for at least trying to bring to light some of the negatives. As I mentioned before, Hollywood will be affected by RFID in that scriptwriters will need to educate themselves to plausible uses of radio frequency technology.

Supply Chain Advances Are Maintaining Productivity

US Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered one of his fearsome talks today at the Italian-American club. If what he's saying bears out, the labour force is not growing at the rate it used to, especially amongst the female population. He did say, though, that improvements in SCM (Supply Chain Management) are helping maintain/increasing productivity for the time being.

I'm reading between the lines here and guessing that he's referring to radio frequency technology. Even if that's correct, there will still be a shortage of skilled workers that have an understanding of RFID - even more so if the workforce size is not growing. Fortunately, the number of organizations offering RFID training is growing.

RFID Trailer Seals

A large UK grocery distributor, Nisa-Today's, is using RFID-enabled resuable electronic seals on their trailers as an increased security measure. The seals, whenever they're closed, record a random four-digit number as well as the date and time. The use of a random number ensures that, should a seal be opened and re-closed, there will be evidence of it. That is, if a trailer comes into the holding yard and the seal is closed, tampering will generate new random numbers, which obviously will not match the initial number stored. Yard operators can retrieve this information via an interrogator at the gatehouse or around the yard.

While there are other companies, such CN Railways, using RFID to manage shipping trailers (train or truck), only a few are likely using electronic seals. Though this is such an innovative use of raadio frequency technology, and the resulting ROI (return on investment) is high enough that we're likely to see more use of such systems.

How Will RFID Affect Jobs?

While RFID is expected to create many jobs and opportunities, this isn't the first time that people have predicted that the use of RFID in the enterprise may affect jobs, namely the loss of them. There are other concerns, such as employees will be affected by process. Amid concerns about how RFID and employees in the retail sector, the ILO (International Labour Organization) met in Geneva earlier this year to discuss the issues. Two reports resulted, one entitled Social and labour implications of the increased use of advanced retail technologies (PDF, 60 pgs). [via The RFID Weblog]

The latter report is split up into 7 main sections:

1. Retail trade: Characteristics, trends and prospects
2. Retail trade: Regional overview
3. Technology and supply chain management
4. Radio frequency identification
5. RFID and commerce
6. Social and labour implications
7. Social dialogue

   

Regions analyzed include the US and North America, the European Union and other parts of Europe, Japan and other Asian countries, and Africa and the Middle East. Included in the report is a discussion of the benefits of RFID, both in pallet-level and case-level tagging, as well as how RFID affects workflow processes.

While the report says that some jobs may be lost, employees could be trained for customer service work. I find this hard to accept, as not everyone is cut out for customer service. Since RFID will make business process workflow more efficient, it's likely that labor needs will be reduced. There will be a shortage of skilled workers in relation to RFID, so employers considering a switch to RFID should consider in advance where they may want to reposition to-be-affected employees, if at all. Retraining may have to be part of the process, which will potentially cut into any profits gained from the use of radio frequency technology - something to be considered.

The Cell Phone As A Consumer Tool

The versatility of smartphones as a consumer tool might escape you consciously until someone spells it out. The fact is that with the right modules (sometimes native, sometimes plug-in), a smart phone or PDA can read barcodes, download video + audio clips from a Bluetooth enabled movie poster, be used to renew special parking meters, secure a hotel room and store a digital room key, function as a loyalty card + coupon generator, pay for movie tickets, buy items from a vending machine, function as a POS (point of sale) unit and, as a result a CRM (consumer relationship management) device.

And there's more functionality, most of which is enabled by radio frequency technology. Storefront Backtalk has a write up about actual case studies. ZDNet UK talks about how mobile operators are pushing for RFID in phones, to the point of willing to work together to achieve this goal. As such, the mobile RFID solutions market is expected to heat up.

RFID Roundup - Sun Nov 26/06

Ireland's 18M Euro Fingerprint System
The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service are spending 18M euros for an electronic fingerprint system. Called AFIS, the system will take nearly 18 months to be developed. Biometrics techniques will be used on asylum seekers and non-EEA (European Economic Area) nationals to ensure that they are not lawbreakers elsewhere. [via Silicon Republic]

Online RFID E-learning Program
Abhisam Software offers an online RFID training program for a cost of US$99. This is a supplement to their US$399 CD-based program. The course outline contains discussions of basic concepts, the physics of RFID, RFID systems, middleware, applications, security, and privacy. More details about the course's contents here. [via Processing Talk]

Active RFID Summit
Lost or stolen product costs European distribution centers as much as US$24B annually. Active RFID has the potential to help reduce such undesirable operating costs. This was the focus of the Active RFID Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, recently - an event hosted by IDTechEx. Circuits Assembly has a synopsis of the event.

RFID Roundup - Sat Nov 25/06

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.

RFID Roundup - Thur Nov 23/06

RFID In The Beef Industry
A Canadian beef producer is using RFID to track product through their processing plant. The intent is to be able to any part of any butchered animal, should the Canadian Food Inspection Agency wish it. The system they are using, which has both supply chain and cold chain management features, was designed and installed by Merit-Trax Technologies and Psion Teklogix. [via RFID Journal]

MicroTRAKgps JaguarWatch
The classic Jaguar automobile is one of those commands a high-price, whether sold legitimately or on the "street". To prevent the latter, MicroTRAKgps has introduced its JaguarWatch Auto Theft Recovery System. MicroTRAKgps is a division of The Tracking Corporation, who make GPS and RFID
products. MicroTRAKgps was awarded a patent for their hybrid technology. Jaguar cargo containers are also tracked with hybrid RFID and GPS tech from Savi Networks.

RFID Is Red Hot: Top 10 Countries
IDTechEx has reported their findings about the top 10 hot countries for RFID. Number 1 is the US, in terms of adoption of the technology, followed by the UK, Japan, German, China. Canada is the last of the top 10.

Big Brother and RFID

During American Thanksgiving today, CNBC TV is running a long segment on "Big Brother" and surveillance societies. If you haven't seen it, there may be reruns later. Or check their website.

What I'm watching right now is a segment on the implanting of RFID chips into humans. One small company in the US supposedly made their employees get microchip implants. The representative that CNBC interviewed said, and I quote, "It's not Big Brotherish." No, of course not. Thank goodness that some US states such as Wisconsin have signed a law banning forced microchipping.

And of course what would a segment about RFID be without interviewing Scott Silverman, CEO of VeriChip's parent company. My interpretation of what he said was a skirt around the answer he should have given and instead said there was no tracking ability, or some such - using his hands to make "quote marks".

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. You can feel free to blast me, but I will never be convinced that implanted RFID is anything but Big Brotherish, despite my respect for RFID for "legitimate" uses. I've highlighted my reasoning, with facts, many times here. The people who've willingly implanted themselves have their own reasoning, and that's fine with me. In that sense, it's no different than a tattoo or a piercing (of which I have both) or other willing body modifications. My beef is with people like Silverman who are trying to force implantation on certain groups of people and then suggesting there's nothing wrong with it, and that privacy is not being violated.

Does Wal-Mart Have Scale Advantages For RFID?

Imagine you are in a group of tired, chained beasts pulling a wagon and being whipped if you stop. That's what I imagine some suppliers to Wal-Mart, the US DoD (Dept of Defense), and other influential organizations may feel regarding RFID mandates. The latter organizations are seeing (or claiming) a high ROI (return on investment) on RFID implementation, the suppliers they have mandated to join the RFID club have not seen similar returns.

It's easy to say suppliers see no incentive for implementing the technology, but no doubt some of them feel that they might as well go out of business if they don't accomodate retail giants such as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has also indicated that, aside from helping prepare their suppliers to be compliant, companies have to find their own ROI in RFID. Which I think might be part of the problem of adoption.

As I haven't seen the balance sheets for any of these companies, I'm hypothesizing. Wal-Mart may have an "economies of scale" advantage over their suppliers in terms of cost of radio frequency technology. Though I'll admit I'm not sure whether Wal-Mart sources RFID technology for their suppliers, but I doubt it. That would mean, then, that suppliers pay higher prices for the same technology and likely cannot have the same type of ROI.

Even if Wal-Mart had a "Sam's Club" for RF tech for their suppliers, the latter are still at a disadvantage because implementing radio frequency technology cuts into heavily into the bottom line of smallest suppliers, who are already supply on slim margins for the bargain atmosphere of Wal-Mart. Where's the ROI in this scenario? Such a cost means bottlenecks in implementation.

RFID To Fuel Internet of Things

SEDs, or Service-Enabled Devices, will form a network of ordinary objects. So says Steve Ranger in a Business Week article. The term SED doesn't appear in the article, but ordinary devices that can communicate with each other are often referred to as SEDs. Item-level RFID tagging is still relatively expensive, but when your common household objects eventually get tagged, they could potentially form a network with each other. [via Loftware]

RFID isn't the only technology necessary, as the communication of data requires any one of the several wireless protocols. Potential candidates include ZigBee and possibly the new Wibree wireless communication protocol from Nokia, which is a low-power alternative to the popular Bluetooth - something many mobile devices already have. Wibree is intended to be used with small wearable objects such as watches and intelligent jewelry, or even computer keyboards and mice. So it could likely be co-opted for SED use, in tandem with radio frequency tech.

Nottingham University Hospital Leverages RFID

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.

Marks & Spencer Clothing Stores To Rollout RFID

One of my biggest beefs with large department stores is that there is so much variety of style and size that I often can't find what I need. Marks & Spencer is one clothing retailer that is trying to solve this and other inventory management problems through RFID.

Based on a successful trial, M & S plans to triple the number of their stores, up to 120, that will use RFID item-level tags on merchandise. Their target period is spring 2007. During the trial period, the retailer doubled the number of their tagged items to nearly 50Mln over the summer and fall seasons. This necessitated item tagging by 15 suppliers in 20 countries. The current trial involves items from six clothing departments, which will be expanded to thirteen by fall of 2007. Said James Stafford, head of clothing RFID,

Stock accuracy has improved and stores and customers have commented on the more consistent availability of sizes in the pilot departments.

This highlights one of the benefits of item-level RFID tagging in retail: more efficient control of out-of-stock items. Better inventory management, of course, leads to satisfied customers who can actually find what they're looking for, in their size, and thus greater profits.

[sources: Computer Weekly, VNUNet]

RTLS: RFID For Personnel Safety

Contractors and employees for Occidental Petroleum will be receiving dual-active RFID identity badges that are part of an RTLS (Real-Time Location System). The badges, issued to 2,700 personnel, would be used in a closed system of 75 sq miles as a means to determine where workers are in the event of an emergency. [PRNewswire via Yahoo Biz]

The RTLS market is split in two categories: 802.11 Wi-Fi components and unlicensed spectrum.  Some other environments for RTLS applications include correctional facilities, mines, and theme parks. The market is budding and expected to have a 30% yearly growth up through 2011, with companies like Ekahau recently receiving US16M in funding.

McMaster University Gets RFID Lab

McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, an institution known for several top-notch programs including medicine, recently announced the creation of the McMaster RFID Applications Lab (MRAL), to be situated in the McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton. It's said to be the only one of its kind in Canada. An equipment management system for hospitals will be one of their first projects, to be jointly developed with Hamilton Health Sciences. MRAL itself is being supported by several companies and organizations including EPCglobal Canada, Hewlettt-Packard, Sun Microsystems, RF Code and others. [via EurekAlert]

There are so few academic RFID labs in North America, so this is excellent news for academic development of radio frequency technologies. Hopefully it will lead to an RFID study program at McMaster. As I've said many times previously, industry has to get involved and even approach universities and colleges to build more labs, offer degree courses. The predicted worldwide market for RFID for 2016 may be US$26B, but not if there are not enough qualified workers.

Consumers Want Fingerprint Verification?

According to a Harris Interactive survey, 72% of 2000 people surveyed seem to indicate that fingerprint scans at ATM/ debit machines would make them feel more secure. I have a hard time believing this, and Evan Schuman at Storefront Backtalk says there are reasons to be suspicious of such data because of the way that a question about biometrics was worded.

Fingerprinting still and probably always will have connotations of being arrested, despite the fact that some employers expect it. I still believe that if biometric authentication has to be used for various reasons, with or without RFID, that consumers would rather it be something like voice recognition. Though that has a number of technical issues that need to be resolved, including its usability in public. On the other hand, other recent surveys in other countries suggest that younger people would be all for identification via palm vein scans and even from implanted radio frequency chips.

Cisco High Tech Ballpark

Baseball's Oakland A's are moving to Fremont, California and a new US$500M high-tech ballpark. Not only will fans be able to to watch instant replays, order food and drink, and communicate with friends over a wireless network, they'll be able to download online tickets to their cell phones, which will be validated with RFID readers at the stadium. [PC World via Loftware]

Since the Soccer World Cup earlier this year, a number of other sports including cricket, football, NASCAR racing, golf, and hockey are using RFID in numerous capacities. This includes game use (soccer: to settle goal decisions), asset management (NASCAR: track tires), ticketing and concession payments, seat management, etc. There have even been a few soccer teams suggesting that their star players be implanted with radio frequency chips.

RFID Roundup - Thur Nov 16/06

Railway Sees RFID Return
Canadian National Railway (CN) moved to [RFID Journal] an RFID-based chassis-rental system for their trailers last year and have already seen a return of Cdn$500,000 as a result. Traffic at their cargo-container storage area has also reduced as a result, by allowing the efficient transfer of cargo containers to the appropriate chassis.

Open Standard Pet Microchip Reader Project
MaxMicrochip.com has a detailed, step-by-step tutorial, complete with pictures and screenshots, on building a pet id microchip reader to read all types of these chips. The project consists of parts that can be purchased at Radio Shack/ The Source, and doesn't even require a soldering iron.

RFID Door Locks
Coolest Gadgets has some pictures of a very slick looking RFID door lock. The lock has the option of a numeric keypad for PIN-based access as well as contactless key fobs, cards, and tags. Of course, you could also have a chip implanted in your hand.

More European Consumer Trials Of RFID

In an increasing trend towards mobile use of RFID, NFC-enabled cell phones are being used in trials in France and other European countries as means of electronic payment. In these trials, the technology follows the EMV (EuroPay MasterCard Visa) payment protocol and allows consumers to make debit-based purchases of up to 150 Euros at select merchants. In 2004, ABI Research predicted that 50% of mobile phones would use NFC by 2009. A credit card usage report indicated that in 2003, electronic payments had overtaken paper payment in some countries. It remains to be seen whether consumers will embrace this form of payment, but companies like Wireless Dynamics are making it easier with their SDiD RFID minicards that can be use with any smartphone/ PDA having mini-SD memory/ module slots.

Contactless Credit Card Confusion: Biometric Authentication

The ability to skim information discreetly off of the RFID chip in contactless credit cards is causing a stink, thanks to a big NY Times article recently, and eliciting questions that either credit card companies either have ignored or never asked themselves during the design phase. One important issue is secure use, another is credit card selection when a consumer is carrying more than one contactless card.

Of course, there is a way that these cards could be made more secure, but it would require more technology and another generation of cards before they're widely available. Biometric techniques are already being used for access control and identity verification, such as in e-passports. Several forms are in use, including fingerprints,  palm vein scans, retinal scans, and voice recordings. (DNA biometrics is infeasible, at least at present.) From a consumer perspective, most of these techniques are invasive, with maybe the exception of voice recordings.

People are used to recording their voice, so voice biometrics may be a method for solving both issues: secure use and card selection. During a transaction, the customer would be prompted to select the card they'd like to use and recite their name.

Problem is, this isn't a guaranteed solution, as there are technical issues that might hamper its use. For example, if you are in a very noisy shopping mall during Xmas holiday rush, voice authentication may not work unless your mouth is close to the merchant scanner's microphone - which leads to issues of hygiene. The other problem, and more serious, is what if someone uses a recording of someone's voice? Ambient background noise would be expected during a purchase (except online), but with cheap/ free audio editors, that's not difficult to add. And if there is no cashier to verify that a person using a card is actually speaking instead of replaying a recording, then security isstill an issue.

This is, of course, something that all voice biometrics systems will have to deal with, but biometrics tech is costly, and if a merchant is "forced" to use it, there's another source of inflation for our cost of living. But what really worries me, though, is whether these sorts of flaws will lead to the thinking that we "have to" use something more invasive such as retinal scans or palm vein scans just to buy our groceries. Because if cold, hard cash and notes are eliminated, that's the direction we'll have to head down to "protect" consumers from security issues of contactless credit cards. Even if it's as simple as the idea that your contactless credit card requires your fingerprint to be recorded.

Contactless Credit Card Confusion: Wrap That Rascal

Bruce Schneier, a writer for Wired Magazine, has his own blog that has a short post about the ability to skim information off the RFID chip on new contactless credit cards. This is a post worth reading for the comments by readers. Many of the commenters echo my feelings about contactless credit cards and the supposed time-savings they offer, not to mention their security flaws. One commenter, Nicholas, says that you gain almost nothing since while you don't have to take your credit card out of your wallet, you do have to take your wallet out of your pocket. In other words - whoop-de-do. And even that little bit of time savings may not last. A bit further down the post, reader Daniel asks what happens when people start carry two or more of these cards. How will store scanners know which card to charge?

These contactless credit cards are expected to become popular for small transactions, so security issues aside, the likelihood that consumers will carry more than one, is increased. A merchant's RFID reader would thus detect more than one card in your pocket, unless you use an anti-RF sleeeve or wallet.

If you don't use a sleeve (but you should - always use protection), that means you have to remove the desired card from your wallet/ purse. If you do use sleeves, then you still have to remove the right card - not just from your wallet but also from its sleeve. Where exactly is the time saving in that?

These are more reasons why I've said for some time that contactless credit cards are stupid idea that only benefit the issuing companies and the merchants, not the consumer. And they're presently more of a risk to carry than regular credit cards. But since they're probably here to stay, wrap that rascally card with an anti-RF sleeve - something issuing companies should already be doing for you.

RFID Roundup - Wed Nov 08/06

Honey We Shrunk the Contactless Payment Key Fob
Texas Intruments is offering a new contactless payment chip inlay [PCB007] about the size of a postage stamp, as well as an oval-shaped inlay antenna. Both products are compatible with MasterCard PayPass contactless payment systems, and open up the possibility of very small form factor payment keyfobs and wristbands. PayPass compatible wristbands were given away by MasterCard Worldwide recently to fans at the New York Giants' Giants Stadium. Texas Instruments recently gave up buying RFID inlays to manuffacture their own.

China Approves Savi Technology
The SRRC (State Radio Regulation Committee) in China has approved Savi Technology's active RFID tags and readers , which operate at 433.92 Mhz (ISO 18000-7) for use in the country. [via FCW] Savi was acquired recently by Lockheed Martin.

Cricket Welcomes RFID
Cricket is the latest sport to use radio frequency technology, in this case for event ticketing for the Rajasthan Cricket Association. The RFID tags used are from NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors), the readers from Gemini. [via The HIndu Business Line]

Combining RFID and Wireless Tech

Symbol Technologies, now part of Motorola, is working on making a RFID and a number of wireless technologies (Wi-Fi, mesh, VoWLAN, WiMax) play nice together, with the goal of converging "infrastructures beyond voice, video and data." Their new RFS7000 RF switch, available early 2007, can manage RFID readers, Wi-Fi access points and, with extra modules, FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) for dual-mode cellular/ Wi-Fi mobile handsets.

This means that a wide variety of wireless devices for human and machine communication can be managed centrally, potentially allowing for some very powerful applications. Not everyone thinks there is a market for it, though, as VoWLAN (Voice over Wireless LAN) and FMC are relatively new technologies that enterprise is still considering. However, Intel and a few select others are pushing WiMax in the United States.

[sources: Computing UK]

Mobile NFC RFID Modules

Last year, Wireless Dynamics Inc. (WDI) introduced their SDiD cards, which provide NFC (Near Field Communication)  RFID capabilities in an SD (Secure Digital) card form factor. These standard sized SD cards can be used in the SD memory/ module slots of various smartphones, PDAs and other mobile devices for contactless payments. ACG Identification Technologies, also a player in the NFC RFID market, has signed a deal to distribute WDI's SDiD card. WDI also offers NFC reader/ writers in mini-SD card form. Both types of SD cards operate on HF (High Frequency) protocols and are targeted to "public transport, financial transactions, and access control," amongst other uses.

[additional sources: More RFID]

Fake e-Passports? What About Fake Boarding Passes?

Bruce Schneier of Wired News writes about Christopher Soghoian, whose home was visited by the FBI, his door smashed in and his computers and other items seized. Seems Christopher wanted to revisit a known flaw for Northwest Airlines - the ability to create fake boarding passes - by creating a website that lets people create and print their own. A bit extreme, and I'm not sure he got his point across. And here we are worrying about security flaws and cloned e-Passports. Schneier then continues on to explain how fake boarding passes can, unfortunately, be used for nefarious purposes. You'd think that someone would have plugged this problem by now. The printing of boarding passes from home computers has been available since 1999, was apparently halted after 9/11, and then brought back.

Contactless Payment? Why We Still Need Hard Cash

Years ago, when the first RFID contactless payment cards made their appearance, I wrote several editorials in various local + regional weeklies about why society would always need cash. Fifteen years later, I'm of that opinion still, and more strongly than ever, especially in light of the fact that respectable researchers have shown that some of the current breed of contactless credit cards have security flaws.

Reader RFBase rightly points out that consumers are not responsible if someone else commits fraud on their cards. Cardholders may not be responsible, but that doesn't mean it might not affect their credit rating. We all know how (in)accurate credit reports have been in the past. What's more, someone pays for the cost of fraud, and that probably means that interest rates go up, or yearly card memberships do. Or both. Or the products themselves go up in price. Basically, most of the benefit of using contactless payment cards is to the technology supplier and possibly to the merchant. This seems to be a re-occurring theme in some applications of RFID: the consumer, from their point of view, gets very little extra benefit that they actually care about.

Then there's things like contactless transit passes now. What if I don't want a whole month's worth of credit? Why would I want a piece of plastic for a two-way trip, especially if I rarely use transit? Contactless payment cards, in some cases, force you to commit to a certain expected transaction amount - possible more than you intend to spend.

But these aren't the only reasons to not move to a completely cashless society. Here's a concrete example of why I don't believe in moving to a cashless society. I went shopping yesterday and a young army cadet was selling poppies for Veterans/ Memorial Day. I always donate, even when I already have several already on my person. I had less than a dollar in change, but I contributed that. Now what if we never carried cash anymore? I know that debit/ ATM cards have moved us closer to that state, but we still have cash and we can still make small donations that matter. It would be ridiculous to expect that charitable organizations should pay for the technology required so that they might still take donations in a cashless society.

Promoting RFID

Don't know if these are still around, but when I was a kid in the 1970s, there was a "home electronics lab" kit that I had two of. I was into electronics from an early age, seeking out any motorized toy and tearing it apart to see how it worked. So these kits were also a great deal of fun, as were all the other electronic kits I had afterwards. It suddenly occurred to me that despite my desire to experiment with RFID, the cheapest kits I've seen start at about US$150 or so (I could be off by a bit) and generally consist of the ability to do one or two things.

What might spur interest in RFID would be mass-produced RFID kits with some goofy commercial showing kids saying "wow" or "cool" when shown what they could do with RF tech. But having just gone through my weekend quota of sarcastic comedy shows, I have this image dancing in my head of kids using these fictional kits to inject themselves with RFID chips, then annoying family and neighbors with their ability to open and close doors at will.

Maybe such a RFID DIY project kit, if anyone were to make it available for purchase, isn't exactly ready for prime time. On the other hand, some specialized kits might have a market, with the proper promotion. For example, anyone who has a cat or dog knows they like to wander in the yard. And you have to get up and let them out and in everytime, lest they scratch your door. An easy kit to rectify this might help. While the chips used to tag our household pets probably don't have the range to do this, it might be possible to rig a doorway that opens with an RFID-enabled collar. So they can come and go as they please, and there isn't as much concern that some burglar would try to squeeze their way in through some of the traditional pet doors.

Another kit that might be popular, at least among Trekkies, would be an RFID-enabled sliding door a la Star Trek Enterprise. You wouldn't need to have an implanted chip, but something on a watch or wristband. A kit with such a band, and the choice of specific experiments, might be an ideal way to promote awareness of RFID. Just some thoughts.Promoting RFID

The Network Effect Of RFID Use

Paul Faber of Industry Week gives a very nice explanation of a phenomenon called the network effect, where the value of a good or service increases in direct proportion to the number of people or companies using that good or service. For example, early email systems were only of value to those few researchers who had access. Now, email access is ubiquitous and valuable. Faber discusses how the network effect applies to RFID in retail, EPCglobal's EPC (Electronic Product Code), and container tracking.

The beauty of the EPC, aside from the fact that it's being promoted as a standard, is that it is designed for the sharing of information, collected by RFID readers, between organizations. So anyone in a particular supply chain that uses EPC could benefit from it. So while Wal-Mart's use of it is unfortunately relatively isolated, their mandate to introduce their suppliers to RFID and EPC should increase the value of its use to both them and the suppliers, especially beause Wal-Mart plans to share such data. However, at present, RFID in retail, Faber suggests, is not large enough yet to enjoy the positive side of the network effect, "[d]ue to the incomplete infrastructure of EPC RFID tools." Layoffs in companies such as Checkpoint Systems would bear that out.

RFID Roundup - Sun Nov 5/06

RFID In Europe: Mood For EPC + Gen2 UHF Tech Improving
New UHF readers that work with new ETSI radio frequency regulations means that European companies are now more interested in EPCglobal's EPC (Electronic Product Code) RFID standard. Since the Gen 2 UHF protocol was introduced, ETSI has relaxed their regulations a bit to provide a wider frequency spectrum, amongst other things. And as a few companies rollout projects, those create interest in other companies. [via RFID Journal]

Another RFID Company Lays Off Staff
A Spychips article suggests that no one is "buying" Checkpoint Systems' plan to put RFID chips in clothing and shoes, and as a result of low systems sales, they are laying off people. They are still planning to sell their products including library inventory-management systems. Late last year, Checkpoint's BCS (Bar Code Systems) businesses were acquired by SATO.

Military + Aerospace RFID Use Growing
ABI Research has a new report on the military and aerospace use of RFID, a market that is expected to reach US$2B by 2011. Part of this market will be due to RF tech use in maintenance and repair applications. [ABI Research via EE Times]

RTLS Firm Gets Funding

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.

Good or Bad: Small-Transaction Contactless Payment

[Commentary] When small-ticket vendors start accepting contactless payment, it makes me wonder what it does to the cost of living. I have a hard time believing that USA Technologies' decision to install OTI (On Track Innovations) contactless card readers on 10,000 of their vending machines is a good thing for the average consumer. I'm of the same opinion for the drive to capture the sub-$25.00-per-transaction market of small merchants and convenience stores - places where profit margins are already tiny, and the market is competitive. [I.e., I'm not picking on USA Technologies in particular.]

This technology obviously isn't free, and the likelihood that it costs more than regular vending machines is high. That means the product being sold is going to have to increase in price at some point. So how is that a good thing for customers? And let's not forget that criminals already target various isolated places by installing fake debit or credit card readers. What happens when they do the same for contactless payment cards. Researchers have already shown that some of the current generation of contactless (credit) cards (and e-passports) are susceptible to security flaws.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

RFID For Fighting Brush Fires

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]

RFID + Govt: Please Tell Us What We Want To Hear

Stop me if this sounds familiar. According to Wired, the US DHS (Dept of Homeland Security) requested a study on RFID privacy issues from an outside privacy and security committee. When the committee concluded that chips not be used in any documents that served as identification, especially if the chips could be read from a distance, the study got stuck in draft mode. It wasn't what the DHS and other government agencies wanted to hear, but they could at least pretend due diligence. (Though a DHS spokesman indicates that the draft report is on their website.)

And as you probably already know, e-Passports and other border-crossing documents and id cards that use radio frequency technology are already being issued. This is despite evidence from security experts from the USA and Europe showing that e-Passport data can be skimmed from a distance with unauthorized readers and potentially used for malicious purposes - sometimes after the data has been cloned onto another chip.

The US State Dept plans to issue ID cards for American citizens visiting Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda that can be read at 20 feet. That gives an area of Pi x 20 x 20 =~ 120 square feet within which an authorized reader can skim data.

All these sub-initiatives, such as PASS and WHTI, are all related to the REAL-ID act. If the government is going to press on with their initiatives, in the face of evidence of security flaws and privacy risks, then you should do what I've recommended before: invest in the appropriate RFID companies. Instead of complaining about it and then doing nothing, if you're concerned, go out and get voting shares of a few select companies. RF tech use is only going to increase, and that includes government use, good or bad.