RFID Technology: Where We Are and Where We Might Be

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RFID Technology: Where We Are and Where We Might Be

10/18/2004

By Terry Calhoun

Recently, on a short hop between Augusta and Atlanta, Georgia, I sat in the aisle seat of a two-seat row on a very small prop plane and decided not to use up the energy it usually takes to overcome privacy considerations. So I did not, as I usually do, introduce myself and engage my fellow passenger in discussion. Boy, was that a mistake.

After we landed in Augusta and could turn on our cell phones, I overheard him on his phone talking to a friend about a meeting at the University of Massachusetts. My ears perked up and I asked him why he was going to UMass. He replied that he was part of a corporate research team that was going there to work collaboratively on identification tagging of those ubiquitous cargo containers that bring all our consumer goods in and through the United States. Let me give you advice counter to what your mother may have said. Never hesitate to speak with a stranger. I really would have liked to talk with him more and feel like I lost a great opportunity.

For one thing, I would have liked an idea of how far along his work was. The vague impression I got from a very short conversation as we filed out of the plane was that it was in early stages of research. I've seen estimates that an RFID tagging system to identify and locate all such cargo containers coming into and out of the US could have cost less than $1B to develop and implement-and could have been done by now.

RFID is fast becoming a fact of life. Many libraries are already using them to control inventory. One company estimates that there will be at least 20 billion RFID tags and labels in commerce by 2008. I would say that estimate is low because it anticipates manufacture and vendor demand only, not consumer demand (see below). "Middleware" to network tags, labels, and readers across manufacturers and hardware and software platforms are a hot topic of research right now. If you remember when the first president Bush committed the faux pas of being publicly surprised by bar codes and scanners, then it tells you something about how fast this area is moving-in the election of 2016, the very youngest voters may not even remember bar codes.

What is an RFID tag? I like this brief explanation from this comprehensive online glossary of terms:

RFID tag: A microchip attached to an antenna that is packaged in a way that it can be applied to an object. The tag picks up signals from and sends signals to a reader. The tag contains a unique serial number, but may have other information, such as a customers' account number. Tags come in many forms, such [as a smart label] that can have a barcode printed on it, or the tag can simply be mounted inside a carton or embedded in plastic. RFID tags can be active, passive, or semi-passive.

We tend to think of them as specifically tracking and identification devices for consumer goods, but of course they will be doing far more than that. Everyone knows that at the pallet level Wal-Mart is requiring its goods vendors to implement RFID tagging almost immediately. That and many other RFID initiatives have protectors of privacy rightfully concerned.