"and I would have gotten away with it too...if it weren't for those meddling kids!"
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."
"and I would have gotten away with it too...if it weren't for those meddling kids!"
Is it top of the head shaped, and made of foil?
That's my invention, your evil thought stealing chips have stolen it from me while I was in the shower.
Now to invent a tinfoil showercap!!!!
Thats readsonable
I think the dude does.
I take it your answer means "no." A consumer should not be allowed to remove or disable an RFID chip. That's all I'm asking for, and you two seem to be resistant to a simple request. Why?
L0L
Honestly I was thinking of getting in on the hysteria.
Ive noted that all people of all backgrounds and education seem to have a fear of RFID
Why, thank you! So far you seem to be the only one other than I, who thinks it is a reasonable request.
The passive devices do transmit. They are powered up by the beam of the reader. The simple ones transmit by backscatter. With the std reader they can be read from several meters.
Excerpts:
>>>FBI officers raided a House of Representatives office building on Saturday night, and NBC television said it had searched the offices of Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson.<<<<
>>>According to court records filed in the plea deal, Jefferson helped secure a deal with a Nigerian company called Netlink Digital Television and in return demanded payments to a company maintained in the name of his wife and children.<<<
http://www.dubainetlink.com << NETLINK
From DUBAInetlink
>>>e-mail : sheryl.serrao@netlinkblrm.com<<<< Netlink
Excerpt:
VeriChip Corporation's RFID Technology Prevents Infant Abduction at North Carolina Hospital
DELRAY BEACH, Fla.-- July 18, 2005-- VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of Applied Digital , a leading provider of security and identification technology, announced today that its "Hugs" RFID infant protection ...
copyright© Wirelessdevnet.com, Mon, 18 Jul 2005
Public Relations Contact:
Sheryl Serrao
level 23, emirates towers.
p.o. box 504909, dubai - uae.
tel : +971-4-330-4433
fax : +971-4-330-1456
e-mail : sheryl.serrao@netlinkblrm.com
ugh.......creamed corn.
Because it's not a "chip" in the way you normally think of "chips." It's passive, so it only works if you bounce the right radio frequency off the thing. Ya know those anti-shoplifting deals in drug stores where you pass between two gates? That's a form of RFID. Those little stickers with the metal maze thing is RFID that disrupts the radio signal and triggers and alarm.
Telling consumers where the chip is defeats the purpose of their use as an anti-shop lifting device. What's more, in the future (or present) you may not be able to remove them because they'll be "printed" on the product.
Any hope for an rfid arrow shaft so that shot deer don't go unfound?
>>>I have been looking for stock opportunities in this field.
Try http://www.optibrand.com
ugh.......creamed corn.
Are you showing disdain for creamed corn in general or just that cream corned possessed by satan?
It is not a question of "allowed to." Can you imagine the BILLIONS of dollars that would be wasted (and passed along in increased prices) if every package had to have such meaningless instructions? It would add millions to such simple things as changing the location of the chip to suite shipping or manufacturing needs.
It is silly and wasteful. Like printing "to remove the UPC code, take a black marker and fill in the white lines. The UPC Code can be dound on the back lower corner of the package."
Why make manufacturers do that? RFID is completely benign. You want to remove the RFID when you get it, no problem, Find it (it will be pretty visible in most cases) and remove it. Wjy you would waste your time doing this, God on;y knows. But hey, have at it. Once you purchase a product it is yours (but make sure you don't remove it from a product you are returning.
I don't want to subsidize anyone's tinfoil imaginings.
I take it your answer is still an emphatic "NO." A consumer may not remove or disable the chip once an item is purchased by the consumer. Why?
I agree with mo -- creamed corn looks and smells like canned vomit.
Be very afraid because YOU are the only person on the planet that matters, and they are after YOU!
But cerially every dvd from a retailer has a tag! They are used to prevent theft/shrink/embezzelment!
The time to panic is when you see the gubbamint settin up those big readers at the entrance/exit ,on either side of your house!
Till then "Lighten up Francis"!
Ok, your answer is still NO. You should have said so in the first place.
One of the confusing things about the RFID Sales is they are being sold MLM style. You will find many, many companies, large and paper fronts, distributing the chips. Share a Sale was one of the marketing coordinators for them.
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