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."
I used to.
Now I believe the government will continue to expand and become more invasive at our expense at any opportunity--unless the people raise unmitigated Hell--for the collective good, of course.
I believe most people cannot be bothered to raise Hell, they are too caught up in trivia, too preoccupied with day to day survival, or just not going to get involved.
There are those who will embrace any new technology without regard to the possible abuses, and laud it to the masses.
There are those who will profit from the technology and will sell their mother to dogfood processors for a profit.
There are also those who will not see the problem with the free ride in the '40 and 8's' until they get to the camp.
I have great faith in the relative immutability of human nature.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. If it is in the 'arsenal' someone is going to take it for a test drive, sooner or later.
Americans regularly rebel against authority. There are natural checks and balances built into our national character.
Good idea. Here's one for you I took last year. I moved, so don't have any flowers here yet. But plenty of birdies, so here's one for you I took a couple of weeks ago.
FRegards..... Dave
Yes, but what about every other country in the world where RFID technology will be used, tied in to the surveillance cameras in London for example?
Because there is nothing to them. There is nothing on the tag connecting you to it at all. The point about barcodes is apt. If someone has a barcode scanner they can find out what the product is. Big deal.
You want to disable it put your hand over the thing. Most passive tags have problems with that. Why drive up the cost when there is nothing to gain.
You shouldn't spread falsehoods about this technology, someone might think you're an industry shill.
The difference between an RFID tag and a barcode is that the barcode only tells you what type of product you have, and its manufacturer, the RFID tag individually identifies that specific item with a unique serial number and can be read from up to 100 feet away.
Actually, tinfoil would work very well, assuming a ground and surface coverage.
(It would be a faraday cage.)
"Also, please explain HOW this passive RFID chips work."
You need senors (really two poles/panels) and they work in very close range 8-10 feet.
The only people who need to be worried are the checkout people at SAMS. They're history. Roll your cart through two sensor panels, pay via ATM, and you're done.
I didn't like bar codes until I owned about 50 7-Elevens.
Our No. 1 theft is employee-assisted theft --- i.e. ring up beer for $.99. Hard to catch because you have to synch cameras with register tape.
Bar codes nipped that greatly, as it was much easier to see on tape if something wasn't scanned.
Put it in the microwave.
Seriously.
Not exactly what a store/warehouse wants. Hundreds of RFID tags, from "meters" around, responding to a poll going off at the same time, does not add value to the tracking process.
All the ones we used had to be read at less than 1 yard ~ meter. We used them on fork trucks to pick stock out of racks and the last thing we wanted was 40+ pallets responding.
Just make sure you don't pull off the tag on your mattress.
I have read that it is true for some products. If you can do so without damaging it, put it in a microwave for a short period of time.
Just don't catch your Dockers on fire.
So your stock must be 1 level deep. Once you stack something behind and under it is no longer visible. How do you propose using optical scanning in a normal setup? It just isn't practical.
And I'll take them off before putting them in the microwave.
it's possible that all those great documentaries from the 50's and 60's (like Godzilla and The Blob) woke people up to the incredible dangers of modern technology!
(how come i never got to go to any koool parties like that??!!)
More than likely the proliferation of technology in everyday life, the unknown elements of atomic energy, etc. etc.
It never ceases to amaze me just how many "conservatives" believe that government is your friend.
Yet....
Of course Hillary hasn't been elected.
Maybe you'll change your tune when that happens.
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