From: Avatar Polymorph (avatarpolymorph@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Oct 08 2002 - 22:01:05 MDT
New tracking devices-----------------
Radio frequency identification (RFIDs).
RFID systems consist of smart tags and reader devices. The tags send out
radio frequency signals, which can be picked up in a short range by readers.
Unlike bar codes which can carry very limited information, smart tags can
store and broadcast object-specific information, giving each item its own
unique identify and history. This aspect of RFID systems is creating
applications which may today seem like science fiction, but will quickly
become reality.
Glover Ferguson, writing in Harvard Business Review (June 2002), provides
some examples:
* Star City Casino has sewn RFID chips into all of its 80,000 garments to
eliminate losses and laundry bill discrepancies.
* Seagate, which produces tens of thousands of media discs each day, uses
RFID to track each disc through the manufacturing process, with each
read-write tag including a production checklist customised to the disc type.
* Ford uses RFID tagging to track inventory and better manage the assembly
process at its Ontario plant. The key is the smart tag?s ability to capture
new data on the fly ? something a bar code cannot do.
* IBM ships smart-tagged motherboards on its laptop and desktop computers,
enabling customers to track the computers within their facilities and
automatically disable any that are illegally taken offsite.
* At the Yokohama Stroke and Brain Center in Japan, Alzheimers? sufferers
and patients impaired by head injuries carry RFID-encoded identity cards to
keep them from wandering into dangerous areas.
* Movie Gallery, a video and DVD rental chain, has used smart tags to cut
inventory-taking time from eight hours a day or two.
* Gap is sewing smart tags into individual garments to track clothing as it
is delivered into a store, shelved and sold.
Another example comes from the New York Times (July 7,2002): ?Millions of
motorists in the Northeast have discovered the convenience of E-ZPass, which
lets them move quickly through toll stations as electronic readers
automatically deduct their fees. The system has become so popular that the
consortium of states that operates the technology has increased its
projections for its use to 53 percent of vehicles, from 35 percent.? The
paper also talks about SpeedPass, which lets customers pay for gasoline and
convenience-store products at Exxon and Mobil service stations.
The article says that RFID?s convenience is now opening it up to new uses in
mobile commerce: ?RFID systems are much faster than other types of payment.
There is no fumbling through a wallet, no punching in personal
identification numbers, no signatures ? and, most certainly, no Web
browsing. All that is needed is a tiny device called a transponder that
might hang on a customer's key chain and is waved in front of an electronic
reader like a magic wand.?
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