RFID Gazette

Designer RFID Chips For Luggage?

With several thousand pieces of luggage going lost at airports daily, RFID chips sound like an ideal way to reduce the chances of loss. RFID Ltd. is introducing a set of RFID-enabled designer luggage tags for high-end bags from Chanel, Dior, Gucci and others. The tags will vary in color and grain to match the bags they're used with.

The tags are in production now. However, RFID Ltd. has to convince airports to adopt the associated BagChip RFID system,which would include readers from Alien or Symbol. Hopefully, RFID Ltd and others will similarly serve the rest of us who are not part of the jet set crowd and don't buy designer bags.

Wal-Mart RFID Plans Change

Computer World has a series of recent articles focusing on Wal-Mart's RFID efforts. First and foremost, Wal-Mart has shifted their efforts towards stores rather than distribution hubs.

This shift is due to an acknowledgement that they've missed their own goal of installing RFID in at least 12 of its 137 distribution centers by last year. Second, despite the fact that many small Wal-Mart suppliers have had trouble finding an ROI (return on investment) in implementing RFID in their supply chain, Procter & Gamble has found Wal-Mart's RFID effort effective.

Now, it should be pointed out that not only was P&G one of the first 100 Wal-Mart suppliers to implement RFID, they're also a giant company themselves. Their ROI in RFID can be realized in volume transactions - something small suppliers just cannot accomplish.

While it'd be nice to think/ hope otherwise, the evidence so far, plus statements from some smaller suppliers, suggests that compliance with Wal-Mart's RFID initiative is hurting them. Nevertheless, Wal-Mart is still promoting RFID adoption.

Canadians Eager For RFID In Grocery Stores?

A survey in Canada suggests that we are eager to see RFID in grocery stores. I'm not one of them. In fact, I find it kind of surprising because Canadians are generally more conservative about technologies that potentially invade privacy. At least, they have been in the past, when RFID-enabled money cards (not credit, not debit) were trialled.

Well, things do change, including attitudes. And it's more than possible that this video from IBM is the reason for it. It's been running in Canada since at least 2005, possibly earlier.

The survey findings seem to contradict the general reaction of consumers towards RFID chips in everything they buy. (This is based on an educated guess, from the thousands of RFID articles I've scanned or read in the past year.)

If the opinions of the 1,056 shoppers surveyed are truly representative of 35+ million people, then there's hope for the acceptance of item-level RFID. On the other, given that 80% of those surveyed had never heard of RFID, I'm a bit doubtful that the general Canadian populace is eager for it in their grocery items. That said, if IBM and Marnlen's new clipped tags are used, there may be more consumer acceptance in Canada and the US.

RFID Roundup - Tues Feb 27, 2007

Big In Japan
McDonald's restaraunts in Japan will allow customers, later this year, to pay for purchases using NFC-enabled mobile phones. (Nokia is one company that has already rolled out NFC phones to be used for payments.)

Hyundai Adopts RFID
Hyundai-Kia Motors is implementing RFID in their Supply Chain to collect real-time distribution information. They are moving from applied bar code labels. They'll be using UPM Raflatac tags.

Dallas Newspaper To Use RFID
The Dallas Morning News will be the first newsaper to use the RFID-enabled Smart Cart system from Cannon Equipment. The system helps to track cart shipments.

What's RFID To You? Toy Or Serious Tool?

Gizmos For Geeks has a great synopsis of the perceptions of RFID: "Depending on who you ask, RFID technology is either the 'Mark of the Beast' or a global panacea destined to rescue the grocery stores and Wal-Marts of the world from shoplifting." Of course, that's true and RFID is much more than that.

RFID, like computing, is so many things to so many industries, with supply chain applications straddling those industries more than any other application. Payments via smartphone are poised to become the application that really takes RFID "to the masses".

However, RFID still lacks popular appeal. But the handy little kit that Gizmos for Geeks reviews may help. Unlike a lot of other RFID kits, this one is just under a $100, has a USB cable, a dozen types of RFID tags, and projects that the average geek or wanna-be can probably do. (As opposed to a trained RFID field person.) The RFID Experimentation Kit also includes a copy of the book RFID Toys by Amal Graafstra, who implanted himself with not one but two chips.

Contactless Credit Card Security Issues

Contactless credit cards that use RFID technology have been growing in numbers over the past two years. With their increased presence comes increased security risks, however. A New York Times article from October 23, 2006 pointed out some of the major security flaws in these contactless credit cards. So what can be done? Ask the Advisor has some answers in their recent article Can Contactless Credit Cards Be Hacked? 5 Tips to Stay Secure. It's worth a read.

VeriChip Implant Creepy?

Finally, someone with a lot more influence in the RFID industry than I said it: VeriChip implant unnecessary and a little creepy [Spychips]

Thanks to RFID Journal's Editor and Founder Mark Roberti for saying what had to be said. I've been pretty vocal about the questionable use of implanted RFID chips, a la VeriChip, and have repeatedly said that some wearable object with an RFID chip is just as good. Which is what Mark Roberti says as well.

On the other hand, Roberti also criticizes media for bad press regarding implants. I assume I am such a person. Or maybe not. Regardless, I see absolutely nothing wrong with making people aware of useless or offensive applications of RFID.

I could be misunderstanding, though Roberti didn't say he's against monitoring people with RFID, as Liz McIntyre points out at SpyChips. In fact, you have to read his article and decide for yourself. Nothing against him personally, but while he says it's creepy and isn't a big fan of implanting people, there could be some benefits of doing so.

From my viewpoint, all power to anyone who wants to willingly have an RFID chip implanted in themselves, but I'll continue to maintain that no one has any right to force an implant on anyone for any reason.

VeriChip's recent poor IPO performance would suggest that not many people think there's much of a market for living human implants. (VeriChips were used to identify the dead during disaster recovery in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina.)

25 Top Influencers in the RFID Industry

Since our last report on the RFID Tribe's RFID map of the world (via The RFID Weblog), the number of points that illustrate RFID Tribe's organizations have increased from 233 to 271, or a growth of over 16 percent within the past two months. While this map shows organizational location, it doesn't put a face on the major influencers within this industry. What follows here is the list of RFID Gazette's top 25 influencers in the industry, grouped by Individuals, Organizations, and Countries.

RFID Chips Go Edible

Hitachi recently came up with tiny "powder" RFID chips. Well tiny's fine, but what if you want to eat your chips? You're in luck. Kodak just filed a patent for edible RFID chips. They're designed for monitoring a patient's gastric tract and are covered in a harmless gelatin, which eventually dissolves.

What's more important than that they can be ingested is that these prove that RFID chips embedded deep in the body can be read by a scanner. But Kodak is also saying that pills could be manufactured with these chips inside them, so that doctors or nurses can confirm a patient took them.

While this might seem a bit scary, they might possibly be used for early-stage Alzheimer patients that are still living by themselves. Because of their use, however, these chips would (hopefully) not be used for food supply chain management. My question, though, is what is Kodak, a maker of photography products, doing coming up with such a chip?

RFID Chips Go Tiny

The spygame just got interesting. In a move that seems straight out the James Bond playbook, Hitachi has released tiny RFID chips in powder form. They're 0.05mm x 0.05mm square - smaller than the thickness of an average human hair. RFID meets nanotechnology - or at least not too far from it.

These tiny chips even have enough room for 128 bit ROM memory - which can store a 38-digit number. Of course, by themselves, there's not much they can do. But couple with other near-nano devices, surveillance could take on a new twist. Or they might be used with the so called hybrid cybugs (robot bugs - insects with implanted technology) that the Pentagon is supposedly developing.

Now, if they combine these powder chips with sensors and sensor networks or bionic hornets, they could have some really powerful applications.

RFID and Wal-Mart: Going Over Like A Lead Balloon?

I doubt even a "little" thing such as supplier revolt will divert the steamroller known as Wal-Mart from pushing their RFID program forward. While suppliers probably aren't at the revolt stage yet, it does appear that they're not thrilled but afraid to criticize. And they have yet to find an ROI (return on investment), mainly because Wal-Mart declared last year that suppliers had to not only comply but had to find their own ROI. Wal-Mart wouldn't help.

That's a huge mistake, as far as I'm concerned. Instead of acting like a dictatorial government and holding threats of financial ruin over every supplier's head, they could have taking their integration sessions a bit further and nudged suppliers along with advice. Sure they're in business to make money. So charge for it then and stop being doofuses. I can't see Wal-Mart bartering, but you never know. For financially -strapped suppliers, Wal-Mart could consider product in exchange for some help finding ways to make RFID work for individual suppliers.

Ultimately, helping their suppliers find the ROI is a much wiser course of action that would help RFID take a better toehold in the supply chain. Not doing so suggests that Wal-Mart doesn't really care about anything but their bottom line - which is already the perception people in small towns have, where the retail giant has displaced mom and pop stores.

Implant Thyself, VeriChip

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 On CSI:NY TV Show

Singer Nelly Furtado appeared on last night's CSI:NY franchise as an amazingly successful shoplifter at high-priced New York boutiques. Towards the very end of the episode, one of the CSIs found a device in a purse they confiscated from Furtado's character. And guess what? It was a "credit card scanner" which, according to two other CSI characters is "based on RFID", "works remotely" and "from three feet".

I'm guessing that the writing team read that New York Times article about the inherent security flaws in RFID-based credit cards, which I've discussed a few times. No doubt the episode was shot months ago. Since the NY Times article, credit card companies have skirted around the issues or outright denied them, but have said that their cards (meaning the new generation) are secure and have new security features.

Still, that's not going to stop speculation from TV shows and movies. RFID tech was also mentioned in Law + Order: SVU a few months back.

State Opposition To RFID-Based National Driver's License Spreads

Privacy advocates are no doubt beaming as the opposition to a US National Driver's License spreads to at least seven states, sparked by Maine's initial opposition. Issuance of the RFID-based licenses is part of the Real I.D. Act of 2005, which was backed by the House of Representatives, and is to be implemented in 2008.

While Maine is being credited for triggering the new revolt against the National Driver's License, New Hampshire objected back in April of 2006. State legislators voted against it, despite N.H. being a Republican-run state. Maine's legislature voted against it last month, followed by Georgia and several western states expected to pass laws soon.

Talk is of as many as fourteen states objecting in the form of legislation against Real ID. However, I'm wondering if this would have happened had Democrats not gained their victory in Washington recently. If a Democrat takes the Oval Office in 2008, will the whole project be scrapped? Under it's strict guidelines, citizens of states that don't use it may not be able to travel or even open bank accounts. It's general stance seemingly goes against American tradition, which is to let each decide on certain matters.