When your newspapers write something about RFID tags, it's almost always about Wal-Mart or how these tags are threatening our privacy. But they often miss the important innovations brought by this technology. For example, in Florida, RFID drives highway traffic reports on more than 200 miles of toll roads. Or take DHL, which is tracking fashion with RFID tags on more than 70 million garments in its French distribution center. Elsewhere, in Texas, 28,000 students test an e-tagging system which promises better security for them. And what about RFID tags which could prevent surgical errors and have just been approved in the U. S last week? So, what do you think? Are these innovations promising a better future for us or not? Read more.
Let's start with a tag which promises to reduce the number of surgery errors -- which apparently kills several thousands people every year.
This picture shows how a SurgiChip tag is scanned before surgery (Credit: SurgiChip).
Here is what the Associated Press writes about the device.
A radio frequency tag that patients can affix like a bandage to ensure doctors perform the right surgery on the right person won government approval Friday.
The tag, manufactured by SurgiChip Inc. of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., aims to prevent wrongful surgeries that records show kill thousands of patients a year.
But don't be afraid: even if the tags are scanned during several times before actual surgery, you always have to confirm if the information is correct -- except if you're unconscious.
Tracking garments is obviously less important for your life than avoiding a surgery error, but here is what DHL is doing in France.
DHL Solutions Fashion, a global logistics service provider for clothing manufacturers and retailers, is offering the French fashion industry a way to test item-level RFID tagging of garments in order to help speed the delivery of their products as well as enable shipments to be tracked through the supply chain.
During the summer, DHL worked alongside NBG-ID, RFID specialist based in Cavaillon, France, to deploy an RFID network in a 500-square-meter room at DHL's Paris distribution center. In July, DHL ran a trial of its new RFID capabilities with one of its customers. Now, the company says it is looking to offer its RFID services to other customers looking to incorporate RFID into their operations.
Worry and brown desk
Stain it by infusion. There aren’t enough tags at the end,
And the grove is blind, blossoming, but we are too porous to hear it.
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
And don't think it's a small experiment.
DHL Solutions Fashion's Paris distribution center serves as a hub between a number of different fashion clothing suppliers, mostly in France, as well as boutique operators, also mostly in France. Each year, 70 million garments pass through the center on their way to wholesale suppliers.
And what about controlling car traffic -- which has been already done elsewhere?
With an eye to improving traffic management and information access, the Orlando/Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) is deploying an RFID-based traffic-monitoring system in central Florida. The system will use roadside RFID readers to collect signals from transponders already installed in about 1 million E-Pass and SunPass customer vehicles. E-Pass (used on roads operated by the expressway authority) and SunPass (used on the Florida's Turnpike system) are both automatic toll payment methods used in central Florida.
Like the DHL deployment, it's also a very significant one.
The trial phase of this system will last about two years, but after that time the system could be expanded to additional state roads in central Florida and other reader sites along roads used during the trial. The OOCEA is deploying 128 RFID readers for the initial phase of the testing. The first readers were installed mid-2004 by the FDOT, with project completion by May 1, 2005. Altogether, the system will cover about 228 miles of toll roads and nontoll state highways.
Finally, let's look at how RFID technology could prevent kidnapping in Texas -- and elsewhere.
Hoping to prevent the loss of a child through kidnapping or more innocent circumstances, a few schools have begun monitoring student arrivals and departures using technology similar to that used to track livestock and pallets of retail shipments.
Here in a growing middle- and working-class suburb just north of Houston, the effort is undergoing its most ambitious test. The Spring Independent School District is equipping 28,000 students with ID badges containing computer chips that are read when the students get on and off school buses. The information is fed automatically by wireless phone to the police and school administrators.
Now that I've described several examples of how RFID tags could improve our lives, what do you think? Are you convinced that this technology will be used for a better or a worst future? Please post your comments below.
He bundles every forkful in its place,
And tags and numbers it for future reference,
So he can find and easily dislodge it
In the unloading. Silas does that well.
He takes it out in bunches like birds’ nests.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
Sources: Catherine Ilic, RFID Journal, November 15, 2004; Claire Swedberg, RFID Journal, November 17, 2004; Matt Richtel, The New York Times, via CNET News.com, November 17, 2004; Associated Press, via Mercury News, November 20, 2004
Related stories can be found in the following categories.
Innovation
Medicine
Privacy
RFID
Transportation
Wearable Technology.