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September 14, 2006
33 Ways RFID Has Invaded Your Life
Imagine this... robbing a bank is no longer a lucrative option, because every dollar in the bank has an embedded RFID chip that can be tracked anywhere on the globe... or, the RFID chip embedded in your hand interacts with and leads you to the right smart shelves in the supermarket that have your size jeans and clothes (the chip in your hand records your weight and waist-size in real time)...
Sound like science fiction to you? Maybe not; RFID has already settled comfortably in our midst, and is creeping onward every day...
“…RFID has progressed to the point where a cooperative of
makers of parmesan have found a way to embed the technology in their wheels of
cheese to better track it throughout the long process of making their product.
The chips, embedded in the crusts of the wheels, work far better than the old
method of branding for tracking purposes.” Mmm...
Ever tried to get into a ski lift with your full gear on? “A number of ski resorts, particularly in the French Alps, have adopted RFID tags to provide skiers hands-free access to ski lifts.”
Isn’t it your worst nightmare when you turn around for a
second and turn back to see that baby is missing? With a “chip” on baby’s
shoulder, this should be a thing of the past. “Lauren Scott of California will
launch a line of kid's pajamas sewn with RFID tags. Readers placed in a house
will be able to scan the tags within a 30-foot radius and trigger an alarm if
boundaries are breached.”
4. RFID-access for your front door?
We all know how intimidatingly impressive those penthouse, building, or elevator RFID access cards seem. Extremetech offers you a step-by-step guide for installing a RFID-enabled access system at your front door. Cool, huh?
Read about Amal Graafstra, a Washington state native and
business owner who recently underwent the minor procedure of getting an RFID
implant in his left hand.
If, like Gillette, your company produces hard to track
items, that can easily be lost or stolen, it may be time to adopt RFID tracking
in your organization. “It estimates that around thirty-five percent of their
products between the factory and the store are lost. Knowing exactly where all
parts of a shipment are at all times would be a great benefit to this company.”
No, we’re not talking about eye problems here, but a miner’s most scary thought – an accident in the mines. Malmberget mine in Sweden has been using RFID from a safety perspective since 2003. Blogger Gautam says, “If a mishap happens the flight recorder flashes the number and last location of the miners. At the time of an accident it really becomes difficult to pin point the location of the miners trapped and this hampers the rescue operations. This system is certainly a boon for the mining industry which is always at a risk of accidents and a number of precious lives could be saved if timely action is taken. It wouldn't be wrong if I call RFID a life saving device after this.” Food for thought, huh?
A team of scientists at the Accenture labs in the South of
France is working on technology that will enable you to connect your wardrobe
to the internet. Why? “The wardrobe can keep a record of clothing choices as
well as allowing users to shop online for new items.” How? “It uses RFID (Radio
Frequency Identification) technology with tags on every individual item of
clothing so the wardrobe knows what is being taken out and put back in.” That’s
not all – you can download a record of the wardrobe's contents to a smartcard
that will help you buy clothes which will work better with what you already
have.
9. Where’s the sponge? Did I leave it in the patient again?
That’s actually not as uncommon in surgery as you might
think. “An earlier study revealed that one in every 10,000 patients who undergo
surgery has a foreign object, usually a sponge, left inside them by medical
personnel. These objects can cause post-surgical complications and even death.”
In such scenarios, RFID tags similar to those that cause store alarms to go off
when tagged items pass through may help surgeons keep track of sponges during
operations. Another life saving use of RFID, one might say!
10. Talking Prescriptions – Enabling the disabled
“… our very own Department for Veterans Affairs is currently
using these RFID tags on visually impaired Veteran’s prescriptions. The Talking
Prescriptions are available at various Veterans outpatient pharmacies.”
11. Parliamentary Voting in Sweden revolutionized by RFID
“Swedish Parliament has selected CG Identifications
Technologies HF Multi ISO reader fort its new voting system. The voting system
is based on the contactless access control cards which have been issued to all
MPs and RFID readers.”
If you’ve ever been scared that your future babies
(extracted sperm or ova) may get mixed up with someone else’s at the IVF
clinic, you are not alone in this fear. Here too, RFID offers hope – “… the use
of RFID tags is currently
being evaluated in the use of sperm and ova identification at IVF clinics.”
13. Railways and RFID in China
“Finnish smart card provider Confidex will supply around 125
million RFID-enabled single-use tickets to China's Guangshen Railway Co.
(GSH).”
14. RFID to offer insulin quantity recommendations to diabetics
“Cambridge Consultants along with Philips Semiconductors have come up with a prototype medical device consisting of a glucometer and an insulin pump and both of them are linked via NFC or Near Field Communication.” After the patient has checked checks his glucose level with a glucometer, the device would then recommend a bolus dose of insulin in case the blood glucose levels are higher than normal.
While RFID cattle tracking may not be new, TekVet’s cattle
tracking system offers additional features such as health monitoring – like
alerts when the animal is running a temperature. “The system makes use of
active 418 MHz RFID tags, sensors that observe the internal temperature of the
animal. The transceivers to transmit the animal’s temperature and also the
tag’s unique serial number to an internet server hosted by IBM. The unique
serial number of the tag is then linked with the animal and its health record.”
16. Drugs and RFID
Pharmacies, unlike the food market, need to take stock of their items in a very extensive and accurate manner. RFID Pharmaceutical labeling is turning out to be a cost efficient and speedy way to do this. “This type of tagging can save lives, reduce theft and unlawful acts, provide more responsive customer care, and provide the drug companies with faster lanes for recall integrity.” The potential for RFID labeling in the pharma industry seems to be staggering. “While in 2006, the USA will most likely only tag approximately 35 million drug labels and foreign markets even less; only four years later, projections are made that reveal the entire US Pharmaceutical market, as well as Europe, and East Asia will have RFID coding on all drugs.”
17. RFID Chips in Poker Chips… Does that mean I can’t cheat anymore?
It’s true – RFID chips in poker chips will save the casinos money from counterfeit chips and also make sure that the big winners are not cheating the system. That’s not all - “They will also be able to track a gamblers habits and further use that information against the gambler if they wanted to.” Wynn casino on the Las Vegas strip is already using these chips. “The Wynn can then use this information to find the best way to wring more money out of these patrons.”
18. Can the finance companies and banks be far behind?
Major financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase,
Citibank, and MBNA have been developing RFID technology to add to their credit
cards. These cards enable customers to pay for goods and services in a
form of contactless payments. “Cardholders simply have to swipe the card
past a reader and the system automatically charges them.”
The downside? “Just like when Wi-Fi was new you had people driving around the neighborhood looking for free internet access I am sure you will have criminals with portable RFID readers that will be looking to pick your pocket. Only time will tell, I am sure that we will be hearing about new crime waves towards this card.”
The Verichip, created by Applied Digital, is about the size of a grain of rice. It’s function? To hold your medical records. And where will it be placed? Under your skin. Ouch! Not the best place to store your medical records, you might think? Well, ask the ambulance paramedics – they might think otherwise. In the curcial minutes when the paramedics attend to emergency cases, this Verichip may make the difference between life and death for the patient in question.
20. Maybe the RFID tag is sitting in your shopping bag right now!
Circuit City is using RFID tags, and you may be carrying
them home with your shopping. “Now my question is are these RFID tags still
tracking in my house? I know that it isn't possible now but with RFID getting
smarter every day you never know.”
21. Your RFID Passport
There was widespread panic about RFID chips being used for passports. Are the privacy concerns real, or are they just generated from the fear of the unknown?
Wired magazine reports, “RFID passports will now include a
thin radio shield in their covers, protecting the chips when the passports are
closed.” And if this measure isn’t enough to put our worries to rest, “… the
State Department added a second, and more-important, feature: access control.
The data on the chip will be encrypted, and the key is printed on the passport.
A customs officer swipes the passport through an optical reader to get the key,
and then the RFID reader uses the key to communicate with the RFID chip.”
22. School students: Safety measure interpreted as invasion of privacy
Are Americans more skeptical than the rest of the world? This article entitled, “RFID TAGGING: Livestock and Humans” seems to indicate just that: In a small town in California, parents were outraged when the school decided to make their pupils wear RFID badges for safety purposes. What was the reaction in Japan? “Although this technology is new to the US school system, it isn’t in other countries. In fact, similar devices have been tested at several schools in Japan; ironically, in this instance, the parent’s were involved and most agreed with the principle behind the RFID tagging device; agreeing with school officials that these devices could prevent kidnappings and were in all a well-mean effort. And in fact, no parents objected to the RFID tagging of their children, but instead embraced the concept.” Gets you thinking about how we interpret everything from the worst possible angle, doesn’t it?
23. Walmart
And then there’s walmart – one of the earliest proponents of
the RFID technology. “Wal-Mart is now requiring their 100 largest suppliers to
use RFID tags at the pallet level. Meaning that those tags are currently in use
to identify and track groups of products as they arrive at the Wal-Mart
warehouse up until shelving at the giant retailer.”
The recent world cup had everyone talking about how RFID was used to identify ticked holders. Post 9/11, crowd control has become even more important than before – and RFID technology was used to monitor the crowds during the world cup. “For World Cup games, paper tickets with embedded tags are scanned in a contactless manner at venue gates, and those with valid tickets pass through to the stadium. Ticket holders that don't have smart-card technology aboard their tickets are not allowed into the games.”
25. Smoothie King uses new RFID-enabled spending cards
The humble fruit juice transformed itself into the glamorous
smoothie; and now “Smoothie King” is making it even more kewl by adapting new
RFID-enabled spending cards. “The spending cards are actually key chain fobs.
Increasingly, consumers are paying for their smoothies with these RFID key
fobs.”
26. Where barcodes fear to tread: Unfazed by flour dust, RFID encounters the gingerbread man
Read this interesting RFID-weblog post entitled, “RFID, the
Perfect Baking Ingredient,” which discusses how RFID worked where barcodes
failed. Lebkuchen Schmidt, a German company into gingerbreads, almond cookies,
stolen and other bakery products, has been using RFID for the mixing process,
since the last eight years. “Around twenty transponders were attached to the
sides of stainless steel mixing kettles. The transponders have been sealed
inside white plastic casings in order to keep them safe from dust and moisture.
Not only did the company achieve precise mixing with RFID but also got
invaluable information about its overall production cycle.”
27. Good old Inventory Tracking
And when we’re talking about RFID, we can’t miss inventory tracking, can we? “Mitsubishi Electric Asia is implementing an RFID enabled system to track its inventory in real time. This system would help replace the inefficient and laborious manual operation.”
28. Interface between RFID and the Camera
“Optag is a project that is funded by the European Union.
The purpose of the project is to facilitate airlines to keep tarck of
passengers and help them to reach the departure gates on time thereby reducing
the risk of take off slots.” The interface between the camera and the RFID tag
can also be used to locate specific children or people in large crowded places.
29. The Smarter Shelf in the Supermarket
Can a shelf collect information about how many people stopped in front of a sales item, how many people did not stop in front of a sales item, how many times / how long a sales item was picked up by a customer, how much time was spent by a consumer before coming to a decision whether or not to buy it? “DNP, Tana-X, and SEARS codeveloped a smart shelf that can monitor detailed consumer behaviors.” This information is stored on a PC and analyzed by dedicated software.
In Japan, The Japanese government plans to put RFID chips in all
driver's licenses by 2008. “In Saitama, Ibaragi, Hyogo, and Shimane
prefectures, RFID driver's licenses will be introduced as early as January 4,
2007.”
31. VoIP and RFID
I curse every time I need to change back into my clothes simply because I need to step out of the changing room to ask the store assistant for a different outfit to try on. And then I repeat the annoying cycle of again changing again and again… Grr!! And now picture this happy, placid scene… “In a dressing room in the huge Japanese department chain Mitsukoshi, half-dressed customers scan RFID-tagged jeans and then use an IP telephone to check inventory and call for more clothes to be brought in.” Now that’s what I call technology designed to make life easier!
32. Enhancing the safety of electric and gas products
How often do non-authorized repairmen work on our electronics and gadgets? In 2005, a college student died of inhaling carbon monoxide allegedly caused by illegal modification of his water heater by repairmen. In order to prevent such tragedies, “Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) is considering RFID as a key technology for enhancing safety of electric and gas products.” How? “METI is considering ways to enhance safety of electric and gas products by attaching them RFID tags that records rapair histories.”
“McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is among the leaders in the transportation industry currently using RFID technology to become more efficient. In 2005, the airport decided to unveil a system of using bag identification tags embedded with an RFID chip, replacing the old bar code. With this change the airport hoped, among other things, to reduce the time it takes to handle baggage while at the same time increasing the accuracy and therefore cut down on lost bags.” (RFID Uses)
Life saver, or privacy invader. Presents a potential for being exploited by criminals, or presents a potential to make life less complicated. Can lead to kidnapping, or can save you from kidnapping… Whatever way you look at it, RFID is here to stay!
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Comments
The growth of this technology, while some of the things it offers are great, makes me wonder whether all technological advancement is a good thing.
Posted by: Rich | Sep 14, 2006 9:10:00 PM
Once again, you guys at RFIDLD have impressed me with your exceptional writing. Gr8 article, guys. Really, I'm serious.
Posted by: Richard Festival | Sep 15, 2006 6:58:20 AM
Really, you have exposed all most all the fields where RFID can be utilized. Good Research work.
I just add one more point in it: RFID chips prevents Discs Piracy
RFID Chips to Prevent Discs Piracy
Posted by: Bhagaban | Sep 16, 2006 4:16:04 AM
As usual, there is always one section of society that abuses any good thing, and twists and turns it around till everyone else is scared. These spoilt-sports prevent the rest of humanity from peacefully enjoying the fruits of technological advancement. For instance, when we're scared of burglary, we effectively imprison ourselves in our own houses. And it's a similar case with RFID. Sad, but true.
Posted by: Kuls | Sep 17, 2006 8:03:09 AM
That was too informative an article..As rightly pointed out, retailers like walmart and circuit city have started using this technology not only to track the stock of the goods but also to quicken the shoppping process and attract more customers. No doubt..with this into the current market..I wonder as to whether there's anything which technology cant invade?
Posted by: priyavenkat | Sep 18, 2006 3:27:59 AM
Very informative article, It just goes to show you how many uses there are for RFID out there.
Posted by: Vinny | Sep 24, 2006 8:07:28 AM
Seems like the best thing about this technology is the million uses it has. It scares me to think of it as a new way of life. I enjoy my privacy but that is a thing of the past in this age. Privacy is not my main concern anyway. Privacy is a relatively new western concept; one I could probably give up. Wait, I don't like where this is going. All these great benefits from RFID, maybe thats what concerns me most-all the hype. I think that governments will eventually use it track or "secure" the public. (Always be sceptical of your government. It's the only way to remain free.) Once the government uses it on people, game over. Oh wait they already do. RFID is the wave of the future and what? You don't like it? Well, we have a camp for you to!
Here's the deal. If we can track the population, that adds a little needed accountability to our morally starved world. But, when you surrender yourself to be tagged to another power like the government, you limit your authority to act. When you limit your options in life like that, you really hinder your freedom to decide for yourself because your available options have dwindled.
But, that's not what I've heard so far about RFID. All I've heard is how many really important uses it has. Isn't that the way the world is? Our maker gives us a world of possibilities and choices and we choose to give up one end of our responsibility to a chip and the other to a government. Tethered with technology to our corrupt society. RFID seems great for industry, but bad for freedom. But' how can we seperate our livelyhood from who we are and the decisions we make? Freedom requires responsibility. Putting chips on groceries is fine I guess if it helps the market eliminate waist. That show of technology is a testiment to our natural inventiveness. What bothers me the most is the unaccountability in our societies and the thought of us giving up another aspect of our freedom for convenience sake.
Posted by: Aaron | Sep 27, 2006 12:06:14 PM
that really sounds like science fiction
http://www.gaorfid.com
Posted by: GAO Tek Inc. | Nov 20, 2006 7:52:56 AM
I think that everyone should watch the movie America - Freedom to Fascism found on yahoo.com
If you do not care about income taxes you can skip tthe first 1 hour and 35 minutes. It takes around 10 seconds to start up. You can slide it to that point in the movie.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4312730277175242198&q=
Then let's all discuss this. I do not want unknown people with data as to where I am every minute. How will this data all be crunched? If one has a candy bar or alcoholic drink, big mac attack - isn't that private business? We have seen how countless companies have lost soc sec numbers and the victoms of fraud suffer for years. Who is really going to control all of this data? My wild guess is big brother and the banks.
Posted by: tonto | Dec 8, 2006 5:19:44 PM
Here's an article that brings up some disturbing information regarding human implantation of RFID chips: http://www.fdrs.org/human_implantation_of_rfid.html
Posted by: DS | Dec 12, 2006 3:20:08 PM
People need to wake up and smell the cofee 'cause this ain't the "dawning of the age of Aquarius" !
Call me a privacy fundamentalist but this RFID thing goes BEYOND bar codes.....
I'm looking for info sites as to where I'm going to be buying my clothes from here on in.
Maybe I'll just ahead and start them myself as long as the material isn't tagged that I would buy from Joanne's Fabrics.
Does anyone think bolts of fabric for retail sale would imbedded with this pesky stuff?
Posted by: NoreasterVT | Apr 30, 2007 12:21:21 PM
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