Posted on 01/21/2006 7:54:46 PM PST by nickcarraway
Auto makers and retail giants are in the driver's seat of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), an industry expected to experience "explosive growth" over the next five years, according to analysts.
Used to track everything from Pepsi to people, 33 billion radio tags will be produced by 2010. Only 1.5 billion of the tracking devices were made last year.
Supply chain management, tracking items from the warehouse to store shelves, will become the largest segment of RFID, according to In-Stat, an Arizona-based research firm.
"This segment will account for the largest number of tags and labels from 2005 through 2010," said analyst Allen Nogee in a statement. Retail giant Wal-Mart is the leader in this area, requiring its top suppliers to use RFID, according to the analyst.
Pharmaceutical companies, plagued by counterfeit drugs, may be the next market to adopt the ID tags, according to Nogee.
While RFID could enjoy a 30-fold growth rate over the next half-decade, unsettled issues could trip any rapid rise. The spread of RFID depends on the cost of the tracking devices to drop. Additional worries are privacy concerns and delays caused by court challenges.
"RFID tags now cost about 20 cents per tag," Nogee told internetnews.com. The "magic number" RFID companies want to reach is five cents. While some advances in manufacturing radio tags are lowering costs, higher volume is key. "Buying a billion is cheaper than a million," said Nogee.
Privacy concerns surround RFID tags. Although Gillette had ordered a billion tags for shavers, and sneaker makers were planning to use radio tags to prevent black market sales, "you won't find any consumer products with RFID," said Nogee. "A lot of privacy backlash" awaits retailers considering RFID."
Privacy issues force RFID proponents to take a different path. "RFID is going in the back door," according to the analyst. Could privacy worries derail any explosive growth predicted for RFID? "Absolutely," said Nogee.
Rather than the store shelf, RFID is used in the back room, and instead of people, radio ID tags now track things. "If Wal-Mart wants to tag their cartons, I don't think you'll see many privacy advocates bothered by that," Nogee said.
Although the retail giant handles 8 percent of all cartons worldwide, others must become involved to keep RFID growing.
Animals are being "chipped" to help owners locate their pets. Passports will contain RFID tags for travelers. The University of Arizona is considering using radio tags to stem the tide of stolen bicycles. Keys may be another use for RFID.
"The majority of automobile keys contain RFID chips to make sure the bad guys don't steal your car," according to the analyst. "I use an RFID key to get into my house. My wife can just hold her purse up to the reader and she's in. No more fumbling for keys."
This is one solution to the ID problem, and it would be a little hard for someone to try to "scam" it, if it was made "law of the land".
http://www.adsx.com/ This company is in Delray Beach,FL.
This link below is a little less "sugar coated". Pass over the biblical portion at the top if it "offends" any of you, and please read the whole link, if you can, to see the many interesting uses ALREADY in effect for their "product".
Applied Digital Solutions was already lauded and praised for their work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, by using their product to ID many of the deceased victims who were having to be "stored" until they were "claimed by relatives.
http://www.tldm.org/News4/MarkoftheBeast.htm
I have a feeling it's coming.....sooner than most would think. It would sure clean up this "illegal immigration" and fake voter fraud stuff....
Don't discount opposition in the refinement and developement of products. This is a chance for the consumer to have a say before being stuck with something that the manufacturer wished even he had set up differently.
I was once offered to invest in a company manufacturing the equipment that ultra filters and cleans automatic transmissions. Good idea and in use today. The part I didn't like was they were lobbying a state legislature to make the servicing mandatory.
Don't discount opposition in the refinement and developement of products. This is a chance for the consumer to have a say before being stuck with something that the manufacturer wished even he had set up differently.
I was once offered to invest in a company manufacturing the equipment that ultra filters and cleans automatic transmissions. Good idea and in use today. The part I didn't like was they were lobbying a state legislature to make the servicing mandatory.
Thanks. At least RFIL has earnings and a p/e under 20.
I noticed RFID tags were placed on my luggage when I transited through Hong Kong. Can't cost too much.
-ccm
I only have privacy concerns if they were misused in some way, like implanted into people. There are many great uses for RFID, like supply chain. People also don't realize, these are only good about up to 12 feet. It's not like GPS, were you could be located anywhere you are. You'd have to be within roughly 12 feet of a reader.
Build your own RFID zapper from a disposable film camera.
(I get security warnings when loading the page, but it seems to be OK)
https://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/wiki/RFID-Zapper(EN)
Yep...all babies will be chipped upon birth. The chip will be the Mark. That means that all babies chipped upon birth will burn in Hell forever. In that case, my opinion is that the parents of those babies should burn in 10,000 Lakes of Fire.
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories has squeezed a computer onto a sticker.
Memory Spot, a technology devised by the research division of HP, is a self-contained storage device with a radio and processor that sticks to photos, documents or cards. About the same size as a shirt button but thinner, a Memory Spot can be stuck onto the corner of a family photo: Wave a reader over it, and the spot will serve a video or audio recording of the subject of the picture to a nearby computer or cell phone....
"We have built a device that allows us to bridge the physical and digital world," Taub said. "We have made hundreds of these chips. The question now is the business question: 'How much will they cost? Where will they be used?'"...
A Memory Spot on a document can hold exhibits or earlier versions. In addition, data on the devices can be erased and rewritten several times. That means hospital wristbands with a Memory Spot could contain complete patient records, as they can be updated.
The tags won't come out--if they do get released commercially--for a couple of years, and they might cost between 10 to 50 cents each, Taub said. But consumers should get a good amount of memory for the money, he asserted. Prototype chips now hold between 256 kilobits and 4 megabits of flash memory, and these chips were made on the relatively old 180-nanometer manufacturing process.
"There is no reason you can't go smaller (in size) and see higher capacities," Taub said.
Radio static
Memory Spots fit into an ongoing effort in the tech industry to fix a problem with RFID, or radio frequency identification, tags. In short, RFID tags cost a lot for what they do, which generally is spit out a number that can then be used to find information in a database. To get widespread adoption of such radio-based sensors, the sensors themselves are going to have to get cheaper, more intelligent or both, advocates say....
With Memory Spot, HP is attacking both the functionality problem and the cost issues. The experimental chips transfer data at 10 megabits a second, a rate comparable with that of Wi-Fi. The amount of memory is also large enough to hold a significant amount of data, or at least more than a serial number. Unlike RFID chips, the Memory Spot chips, which include NAND flash memory can be erased and rewritten.
Thus, the chips will function like mini-computers rather than like passive tags.
"The basic conception of Memory Spot is similar to RFID tags, but we have data rates that are orders of magnitude higher, and higher capacity," Taub said.
Additionally, the chips should be cheaper to produce. Why? All of the components--the antennae, the processor, the capacitor and memory--are integrated into a single piece of silicon. The chip itself is about the size of a mark from a felt pen--the packaging turns it into a button-sized item.
In comparison, the antenna on RFID tags is attached rather than built-in, which adds costs. RFID antennas are also relatively large.
Taub, though, added that privacy is not as big of an issue. Because of the radio frequency the Memory Spots operate at, the reader has to be about a millimeter away to work.
How the technology will go to market remains to be seen. HP could either manufacture and sell Memory Spots itself, or it could license the technology to others. HP's Memory Spot puts video, audio into photos CNET News.com
See memory spot pictures here:
You know, the folks that make scent neutralizer must be making a fortune selling their wares to the folks in pinstripes. Although, one cannot quite erase the distinctive brownish color to those charts, one one considers where they're pulled from.
It's all in the application. A law will allow everything to be scanned, except those items such as illegal immigration where certain parties benefit.
Nah, only "assault weapon" parts and human organs are prohibited on eBay. RFID jammers, Holy Mother grilled cheese sandwiches and penis pumps are quite permissible.
"Build your own RFID zapper from a disposable film camera. "
I saw the research paper on that a few months ago and bookmarked it. I haven't got around to building one yet.
Excuse my ignorance but what does "ink jet or other forms of digital printing" have to do with RFID?
The mechanisms with which you can manufacture RFID at cheaper costs. We are not there yet but with time it will happen to the point that RFID tags will cost a few cents per unit to manufacture.
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