Posted on 05/21/2006 9:35:29 AM PDT by Nachum
The roots of radio-frequency identification technology stretch at least as far back as World War II, when transponders helped distinguish between Axis and Allied aircraft. Over the years the concept has been greatly miniaturized, landing RFID technology in such settings as animal tags, toll-collection devices, passports, keyless entry systems for cars and wireless credit cards.
But perhaps none of these projects will have as much impact for consumers as the adoption of RFID in the supply chains of huge retail stores.
Mega-retailers led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) have gotten their biggest suppliers to add RFID chips to pallets and cases shipped to stores. Now, rather than having people with bar-code scanners walk around to take inventory, RFID readers in warehouses can automatically tally items on the fly.
RFID is expected to yield substantial savings largely by reducing the frequency of the following scenario: A customer goes to a store for an item, only to find its shelf empty, even though replacement stock lurks somewhere in the back. It's one of the costliest problems in retail.
Simon Langford, Wal-Mart's director of logistics, distribution and replenishment systems, explains that a bar-code scanner can register that certain items have entered a store's back room. But not until one of the items gets scanned at checkout does the store typically get an update. In between, the item might be on a store shelf or still sitting among back-room clutter.
In the more than 500 stores where Wal-Mart has integrated RFID, radio tags give additional insight - they inform employees when supplies enter the storeroom, when they leave it for the sales floor and when their emptied cartons are taken to the trash.
A University of Arkansas study last year determined that these stores saw a 16 percent reduction in the times that products were missing from shelves. But Langford said that figure understated RFID's true power, because the study included popular items that sales staffers already were sure to replenish. When the research examined only items that Wal-Mart sold less than 15 times a day, the out-of-stock reduction was 30 percent.
Wal-Mart hopes to see even greater improvement soon by giving employees handheld RFID scanners that will direct them precisely to cartons of products they need to bring from the storeroom.
Eventually, individual products in Wal-Mart and other stores are expected to get their own RFID tags to give stores even clearer views of their inventory.
"That's really where the supply chain gets most messy," said Kevin Ashton, who helped drive RFID development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now heads marketing for ThingMagic LLC, a maker of RFID readers.
Some high-value items like TVs and pharmaceuticals already have their own tags. But most item-level tagging is a decade away.
First, tag prices must drop below their current 5-to-7 cent range. Work also still needs to be done to master wireless interference issues that can arise in RFID-dense environments. And developers have to assure the public and retailers that data on the tags are secure and not invasive.
"We're seeing the RFID industry get a little bit more mature every day," Ashton said. "We don't view the RFID market as some overnight sensation."
L0L yup!
How can this be cheaper than printing the expiration date on the jug/carton? At least I can read that.
No, the real opportunity for abuse is not in product RFID, it is in people RFID. Check out Verichip. Readers at key chokepoints, and Big bro has a good handle on watching you, any time you trip a flag.
As for what it takes to monitor what, no one in the 1960's would have thought we could ever monitor the amount of phone or internet! (what internet?) traffic that Echelon and Carnivore monitored in the last decade--ever.
The items in your fridge do not have to be centrally monitored. The fridge is factory programmed, updated online, and fed your nutritional requirement data by the central computers. BMI too high, your rations get cut. (Think good, nutritional, hospital style food).
After that, it just monitors your food consumption and only triggers an alert or order block if your consumption is excessive.
Weight sensors determine the amount of product consumed, the RFID tells what product it is.
Waste too much? the computer in the fridge cuts your allotment. Oops, you were on vacation? Sorry, we have no record of that. Spilled milk? dont cry, but do without.
What makes you think that your tax dollars won't be spent by the nanny state monitoring (automatically) your life, your purchasing habits, food consumption, etc.--and deciding what you can or cannot do as a result of that data?
AND ALL FOR YOUR OWN GOOD! (now doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?)
It does not take much of a twist of things to imagine the tools of convenience warped to the machinations of utter totalitarianism.
Step back 50 years and examine the wonders of technology, and while you will see tremendous benefite, there are plenty of abuses as well.
I got a bunch of those grocery cards, all under fictional names. I'm an undocumented shopper.
Okay, I've heard a lot of this monitored by the state stuff over the years. So, I'll just come out and say it: How does it benefit the gubmint to monitor the minute aspects of a normal person's life? It's hideously complex (not to mention boring) and there is simply no need.
The whole paranoia thing hinges on the premise that gubmint seeks control of its citizens.
See, more insipid rhetoric and sarcasm. I still don;t have a single fact from you to explain your fear of RFID. THAT makes you appear irrational on this topic, although I trust you are not an irrational person, just under-informed on this topic.
RFID is not a Soylent Green Palm Illuminator. ;-)
Are you aware that the AM/FM radio and NTSC TV signals that enter your house cause most all your electronics to emit/transmit very low power signal that can be detected? If they can be detected they can be measured. And so on. Just like microwaves or polarized light beamed onto a glass window can 'hear' the voices inside. Tin foil doesn't help that.
Lose the paranoia. Join the folks who understand the reality of RFID. Free yourself from fear of the unknown. ;-)
Now, if you choose to, for whatever reason, to want to shield your dwelling, then truly come to understand a Faraday cage, Tempest specs, and 'white noise'. There are ways to prevent all RF atmospheric emissions. But, don;t let any phonelines in, cable TV lines, etc.
I'm pushing your buttons, I know that. Just bear in mind that RFID is a LOUSY way to spy on folks when far better technologies exist. Like point of sale data, phone records, credit card data, credit reports, router logs, even private investigators who can LEGALLY look through your refuse put out on the curb! on and on and on.
There is always that possibility. Thats why my screenname is mylife. I dont need no stinking nanystate.
However I aint skeered
I like it! adapt and overcome
Yeah, it's not like Walmart ever cuts their retail prices.(/sarcasm)
the cool thing in RFID Is that an entire room can be inventoried in no time.
Pull the trigger and walk throu the warehouse.
No need to individually scan items for inventory
Im gonna get a Kroger card under the psuedenym Oliver Boliver Butt L0L Maybe a Minyards under Marvin O'gravel Ballonface L0L Time to go...Im just getting silly now
There is alway room for customer service.
Ive said 1000 times that if you put a real bakery or butcher or whatever beside the walmart youd capture 10% or better of the customers who werent satisfied with what walmart was selling, And walmart would bring those customers to you.
Id be one of em. Id buy the packaged goods at walmart and the good stuff next door
The same public health/expense excuse can be made to monitor just about every aspect of your private life, if the intent is there. 'Public health costs' have become the Interstate Commerce Clause of the war on privacy and private property--carte blanche.
Once the laws and monitoring systems are in place, the associated laws become a device for generating revenue through fines for violations. Violations are reported by computers, what a regulatory wet dream! Kind of like having a camera on a stoplight or an automatic camera rigged to a radar gun hidden in the weeds. It does not exist as a deterrent--a police car would do more, it exists to produce revenue.
Having automatic systems to record your violations, purchased by you at your expense makes the whole idea even more cost-effective. Stiff fines, forced labor ("commmunity service"), etc. all can be levied on the violator, and even more drastic measures on the black marketeer, whose very existence would justify large labor segments of government jobs. Call it something catchy like the "War on Fat"...
I'd be more concerned about private enterprises using the data. Figure before you go to buy health insurance the company runs a scan of shopping habits -- purchased from grocery stores, credit card companies etc. -- to see if you're eating healthy and not taking risks.
But don't forget Hillarycare.
It remains an agenda item on the Left, and a tremendous means of control if abused or if they threatened to withhold treatment.
I have checked the BMI charts and later, the formula, and even at the least I have weighed as an adult, would have been "overweight". The charts made no allowance for musculature--at that time I could pick up 300+ lbs and walk away with it.
Control nutrition, you control the raw, physical ability to resist anything. Starvation is a weapon of mass destruction, too.
Entire segments of the population could be cowed into submission this way.
the illumnati were tracking me via bar codes, but i ripped them all out of my skin and teeth.
now, as i hide here in the amazon jungle, no one can locate me!
Glad to hear yer FREE!
but, when you follow the instructions to disable the passive chip, you will automatically ACTIVATE the hidden active chip.
I'm always trying to find the best product to protect me. Since you are a tin foil expert, what do you recommend?
they'll put them in the food, too. then they'll be able to track you wherever you try to hide!
next time you buy potato chips, you may be getting some rfid chips as well.
i now only eat wild grasses and clothe myself in animals that i have skinned myself!
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