New Way To Attach RFID Tags

The new FAT (Foam Attached Tags) tags are designed to attach to metal surfaces and reduce typical interference. The actual RFID portion uses passive UHF tags. [via The RFID Weblog]

VeriChip's RFID Tags Clonable?

According to HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth), VeriChip Corp's implantable RFID chips are clonable. Apparently, one hacker allowed a chip to be implanted in her arm to demonstrate the claim. [via RFID Blog] VeriChip is the company that has been pushing for RFID implants in immigrants, visitors and illegals in the US.

Sturdy RFID Tags For Inclement Weather Conditions

A new RFID tag has been designed specifically for extreme outdoor conditions. The tag can withstand high temperatures and is also considered food-grade. [via RFID Lowdown]

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Canadian Food Retailers Test RFID

A number of food retailers and suppliers in Canada have started RFID trials on a selection of products. The pilot project is being led by the fledgling Canadian RFID Centre and lasts until the end of the year. [via RFID Journal]

Matmaker Tries RFID

CMS, a maker of high-density polyethylene mats, used in industrial situations in extreme temperatures, is embedding passive RFID tags in some of its products. These tags would allow them to track each mat's manufacturing record and associate it with rental and purchase orders. Their outgoing setup consists having to verify as many as 430 tags in an outbound shipment. They've had 100% read rates in just a few seconds. [via RFID Journal]

Dim Future for Passive RFID Tags?

Chris Kapsambelis, founder of Barcode Data Systems, wrote recently about why the future for passive RFID tags is dim. Chris also says that RFID pilots show that the "smart shelf" is too expensive. Item-level tagging still requires a fair bit of testing. As for pallet-level testing, pallet read rates are high, but the case-level rates fluctuate between 50-80%. [via The RFID Weblog]

Variations of existing RFID technologies, as well as alternatives, are being tested. The net result is that many retailers have either postponed their RFID trials, or changed their approach. Overall, the rollout of some projects has been delayed.

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Here are some RFID-related news summaries:

Gentag has announced a patent for passive RFID tags that can monitor temperatures at a fraction of the price of active tags. [via Extreme RFID]

It appears that the RFID-enabled ePassport will be used in the US a lot sooner than recently expected. Possibly as early as August 2006. [via Engadget]

Citibank has released an RFID-enabled credit card. It is in fact a Mastercard RFID card. [via Portalino] Mastercard has been trialling RFID credit cards in countries like Korea. In this case, the it's more of a device than a card, and attaches to a keychain like a keyfob.

Hewlett-Packard is experimenting with a type of computer on a label which can be stuck onto objects and can store video and audio. HP considers it as a possible alternative to RFID. [via ZDNet]

Philips is offering RFID technology ideally suited to library systems. The ICODE chip has security and privacy features. [via Technology News Daily]

Procter & Gamble is currently conducting large-scale tests one some of their products with RFID tags. Apparenly these test are large enough that they can help determine what works and what doesn't with RFID.


These RFID summaries give you a synopsis of goings-on in the radio frequency identification industry. Topic include RFID tags/ chips, readers, systems, data management, software, privacy, regulations, and more. Links have been provided to more detailed stories, if you want more details. On occasion, I've added a bit of commentary.

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The FDA is being rather reluctant to force RFID technology on pharmaceutical manufacturers. They do expect certain high-priced, frequently-stolen drugs to be tracked with RFID throughout the supply chain starting Dec 1, 2006. However, their original plan for widescale RFID use by the pharmaceutical industry beginning 2007 has been delayed.

Part of the reason for the change of heart is because RFID is not in as widespread use in the industry as the FDA had hoped. They've been expecting an electronic drug tracking/ pedigreeing solution since the late 1980s. When RFID came along, the FDA assumed the industry would embrace the technology. But due to a variety of technical problems - including the potential of chemically changing liquid drugs with some types of RFID tags - and lack of a single standard, RFID is still in test mode in some parts of the industry.

To help the industry along, the FDA had issued a draft version of their RFID Compliance Policy Guide back in Nov 2004, and has been issuing yearly updates of the Counterfeit Drug Task Force Report (CDTFR). The latest CDTFR update was published in early June 2006, which stated that specific high-priced drugs had to be tracked beginning Dec 1, 2006. Various pharmaceutical industry associations have actually backed this FDA stance on the use of RFID.

The FDA is hoping that widescale use of RFID will follow this Dec 1st requirement, but is not otherwise enforcing the use of RFID in the pharmaceutical industry.

Additional sources: [FDA - Combating Counterfeit Drugs, CPG draft (5 pg PDF), 2006 CPG update 160.900]

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News and info briefs for the RFID industry.

RFID News:

• The entertainment industry is considering the benefits of RFID for SCM (Supply Chain Management) in regards to tracking the distribution of goods such as CD and DVDs. At present, the industry feels that RFID is too costly a solution, especially at the item level. Resellers of entertainment media, such as Best Buy, are exploring the use of RFID in consumer loyalty cards. [via RFID Journal]
  
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• The fastest growing area within life sciences for the adoption of RFID is in biospecimen tracking. In various research institutes, biospecimen samples can often arrive from anywhere in the world. [via RFID Update]
  
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• The Korea Association of RFID/USN says that the South Korea RFID market will exceed US$500 mln this year. The forecast for 2010 is over US$1.2 bln. [EE Times]
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• Sirit Inc. was recently awarded an RFID transponder contract worth nearly $6 mln from the BATA in California, to be used for electronic toll collections. This contract is an extension of an existing project, due to increased toll lanes. [via DMN Newswire]
  
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• New Zeland's Defence Force is considering using RFID technology to track their assets, especially "consumable items". [via Stuff NZ] Similar plans have been considered by other countries to track components to make a variety of weapons.
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• The United States currently has the largest active market for contactless payment devices. The "service station retail sector" shows the most potential for opportunity in terms of total payments collected. [via TMCNet] Other reports indicate that India will become the largest market for contactless payment via mobile phones. Estimates are a potential market of 100 million within the next few years.
  
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• US Senators John Cornyn (R, Texas) and Byron Dorgan (D, N. Dakota) recently initiated a Caucus to discuss RFID. This includes "benefits, policy challenges and innovation solutions of RFID." [via RFID Journal]
  

These RFID summaries give you a synopsis of goings-on in the radio frequency identification industry. Topic include RFID tags/ chips, readers, systems, data management, software, privacy, regulations, and more. Links have been provided to more detailed stories, if you want more details. On occasion, I've added a bit of commentary.

Read more...

News and info briefs for the RFID industry.

RFID News:

• Want to build your own low-cost, extended range RFID skimmer? [via Help Net Security] Instructions include pictures, diagrams, and technical details.
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• The Privacy Commissioner for the province of Ontario, Canada, recently released the Ontario RFID Privacy Guidelines. [via Baseline Mag] I haven't read it yet, but I'm hoping that the Commissioner has not proposed any deviation from the current various RFID standards.
  
• This is part of the problem with RFID today - there isn't a single standard around the world, nor are there a common set of usage guidelines. However, several computer software + hardware corporations in the US are working on a joint RFID usage guidelines document, which includes suggestions to retailers on how to notify the public that RFID is in use.
  
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• The US FDA recently issued a report on the use of RFID in the pharmaceutical industry. [via RFID Journal] While FDA is not insisting that RFID be used to pedigree pharmaceutical, they do favour it. RFID has been the expected solution of choice in the industry, but until Gen 2 UHF RFID tags were available, there were a lot of technical issues that HF tags suffered from, including potentially changing chemical structures in containers.
  
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• Identec Solutions completed the purchase of Baumer Ident GmBH. Identec produces RFID systems for industrial use. Baumer makes automatic identification systems. Some of the funding for Identec came from RFID Invest AG, a company that actively invests in RFID tech manufacturers. [RFID Update daily newsletter]
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• Broadcom has come up with a processor chip that combines biometrics and RFID technology. A fingerprint scan must match before data from the integrated RFID tag is accessible. Privaris is one of the first companies to use the processor in a consumer offering. Their RFID-enabled biometric key fob can be programmed to access physical areas, devices such as laptops, and for contactless payment. [RFID Update daily newsletter; RFID Gazette.]
  

Definitions + Acronyms:

• AG: Atkiengesellschaft, a German term used by some companies in their name.
• FDA: US Food and Drug Administration.
• HF: High Frequency.
• RFID: Radio Frequency Identification.
• UHF: Ultra High Frequency.
  

These RFID summaries give you a synopsis of goings-on in the radio
frequency identification industry. Topic include RFID tags/ chips, readers, systems, data management, software, privacy, regulations, and more. Links have been provided to more detailed stories, if you want more details. On occasion, I've added a bit of commentary.

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If you are not familiar with RFID, the acronym stands for Radio Frequency IDentification technology, and is used in a growing number of industries for inventory control, asset management, supply chain management, touchless/ contactless electronic payments, secure identification and more.

I'll be providing weekly summaries of goings on in the RFID industry. This includes news, reviews, articles. Topics include RFID tags/ chips, readers, security, light tags, RFID solutions, and more.

Please note that these are summaries. I write more complete articles about RFID at several other websites. (Links to come.)

Most new content will appear on weekends. However, there may occasionally be new postings during the week.

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