| RFID (radio frequency identification) technology is universal. It can be used in more than just one area — retail sales, but also in casinos (helping to track chips), libraries and many other places that would seem to have nothing to do with trade. However, the introduction of this technology causes an ambiguous attitude among the masses. Along with positive responses due to the simplification of accounting for the movement of various goods and items, one can hear complaints about interference in the privacy of citizens. But progress can only be slowed down, but not stopped, and FRID technology finds its application in a variety of areas of human activity.
Delta Airlines uses RFID chips to track the movement of passengers' baggage.
Radio frequency identification tags are beginning to penetrate more and more deeply into all areas of human life, not limited to supermarket shelves and warehouses, for which they were originally intended. An example of this is the use of RFID chips by the American air carrier Delta Airlines to track the movement of passengers' luggage. As the airline hopes, radio frequency identification tags will finally help to put an end to the problem of lost luggage, which will allow the airline to save up to $100 million. Delta spent about $25 million on installing the entire radio frequency identification system in the United States. Some American airlines and airports have also introduced the use of radio frequency identification tags to track the movement of luggage.
Radio frequency identification tags help track garbage dumps.
Japanese company Kureha Environmental Engineering has tested the use of radio frequency tags to track waste generated by large medical institutions. The work also involved Japanese branches of IBM. The main goal of this development is to prevent unauthorized dumping of waste from medical institutions. Now various cardboard or plastic packaging is supplied with radio frequency tags, and receiving antennas are installed at IBM's center for the development of radio frequency identification methods in Tokyo.
Sun 'brings' RFID technology to pharmacies
RFID tags are designed to protect pharmaceuticals from counterfeiting. Sun Microsystem has created a special ultra-miniature version of RFID tags designed specifically to solve the problem of counterfeiting of medical drugs. Developed jointly with SupplyScape, the technology is offered to companies in the pharmaceutical trade chain. «RFID technology makes counterfeiting drugs extremely difficult or unprofitable,» the company representatives said.
RFID chips protect children.
Ever since RFID tags were mass-produced and widely used in retail, there has been much debate about whether they are legal to track a person’s movements. For example, a school in Osaka, Japan, decided that the moral downsides of using RFID technology were outweighed by the benefits it offered. So one of the city’s elementary schools tags all children with RFID chips – for their own good, as teachers believe. The signals from the tags are read by scanners installed at the school gates and on its grounds. This allows teachers to track the movements of each child. The RFID chips themselves are attached to the children’s backpacks, name tags, or clothing. This is not the first time that RFID tags have been used to track the location of children: back in 2004, something similar was proposed by the management of the Danish amusement park called Legoland. Bracelets with embedded RFID chips are placed on each child at the entrance to the park, and parents can be sure that they will not get lost or leave the park without their knowledge. Park employees can easily determine the location of each child on its territory and send parents an SMS message with instructions on where to look for them. However, not everyone believes in the good intentions of the park management: in addition to the desire to save the nerves of children and parents, purely pragmatic goals are also pursued here. Legoland managers will now know exactly where each visitor is, how much time they spend in each place and which of the construction sets are the most popular. An interesting idea. The same method can be used to track the interests of shoppers in supermarkets, installing RFID chips in baskets and strollers for purchased goods.
RFID tags come to football
New technology using radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags is sometimes used in a variety of places. German TV channel WDR reported on the original idea of three inventors who proposed using tags on a football field. Equipped with individual beacons, football players and a tagged ball can easily recreate a «map of actions» on the football field, allowing their location to be tracked with extreme precision in real time. A prototype of such a system has already been created.
Elite watches are tagged with RFID chips.
The fashionable technology of radio frequency identification has found another application. Radio tags are now used not only to control the movement of goods in warehouses, but also to prevent counterfeiting of expensive wristwatches. RFID chips are built into luxury watches thanks to the joint efforts of Winwatch and Toshiba. In this way, as the developers hope, such famous brands as Rolex will be able to reduce the losses caused to them by the sale of counterfeit watches — and this is thousands of dollars monthly. Winwatch has patented the technology of embedding tiny radio tags in crystal glass or attaching them to the glass cover so that the chips do not interfere with the operation of mechanical parts. The fact that the radio tag is attached specifically to the front cover is also important: in this way, the metal parts of the watch, or its bracelet, do not interfere with the reading of the chip by a special scanner. In addition, this allows radio tags to be attached to finished watches, and not during their production.
The RFID market will grow.
Back in 2004, 37% of companies surveyed by Forrester Research were planning to increase spending on radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Of these, 31% — the largest share — were retailers and consumer goods manufacturers. At that time, 70% of the surveyed companies had already deployed or tested such systems. A group of analysts predicted that the purchase of RFID tags by retail chains in the United States would grow from $91.5 million in 2004 to almost $1.3 billion in 2008. Their forecast turned out to be pessimistic. Already in 2006, the RFID market, including the systems themselves and their maintenance, grew to $2.7 billion, and by 2016 the market is predicted to be $26.2 billion. But there is every reason to believe that this forecast will also be exceeded. RFID technologies are finding more and more new applications in everyday life, industry, trade and other areas of human activity. |
