Radio frequency identification technology could change the way you do business
The minuscule tags have found their way into casino chips that track betting habits. They are embedded in World Cup soccer tickets to keep the tournament safe from hooligans. Most recently, they have all but erased the expression "lost file" from the vocabulary of some Ontario bureaucrats.
While radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has recently captured the spotlight for applications in the retail industry - such as the inventory-tracking tests being run by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. - it is already changing business practices far beyond supply chains. .
An RFID tag is a small chip with a built-in antenna that can be attached to just about anything. It doesn't need a power source - when a radio signal from an RFID reader hits it, the tag sends back a reply that includes the chip's ID information. From manufacturing to security to entertainment, innovative business owners and managers are using this technology to track the movement of objects in real time. It holds the promise of drastically slashing operating costs, increasing productivity and creating marketing opportunities - and it has some experts talking about a revolution in the way companies operate.
"We call it the Internet of things," said Art Smith, chief executive officer of EPCglobal Canada, a Toronto-based electronics standards organization that hopes to see all RFID systems integrated into a massive worldwide network one day. "This technology allows you to re-engineer how you do business." 
Two years ago, for example, every one of the 6,000 paper files in the offices of the Ontario Motor Vehicles Claims Fund joined Mr. Smith's list of "things." Each folder now carries an RFID chip that makes the file traceable.
Follow up:
The days of employees scurrying around the office in search of an elusive file are but a fading memory, manager John Avgeris said. "We probably saved the work of half a person for one year." That translates into savings of $25,000 a year, every year, for an initial investment of $50,000. With the cost of an RFID chip now making forays into 10-cent territory, down from 40 cents two years ago, experts say tags could soon be cheap enough to spread to virtually any type of item.
In one of the more unusual RFID applications, at least eight U.S. casinos have installed a system that can track the movement of a betting chip from the moment it lands in the hands of a gambler until the moment it returns to the cash.
"They track every single bet he [the player] makes," said Tim Richards, vice-president of Progressive Gaming Inc., the company that manufactures the chips. "We could determine if [players] are potentially cheating, if they're paid when they shouldn't be paid . . . what strategy they use, if any."
Much like one of Mr. Avgeris's folders, an RFID casino token communicates with a reader concealed inside each gambling table. In turn, the reader is connected to a central system that keeps tabs on the movements and bets of each player.
This also plays into the casino's marketing strategy. A poor player might be offered a steak dinner to make him forget his losses and keep him at the betting table, Mr. Richards said. The strategy is credited for yearly revenue increases of as much as 7 per cent in one casino, he added. "There's a tremendous demand for the technology."
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) uses a similar system to distinguish friendly soccer fans from hooligans in the ruckus of the world's biggest sports event. Each of the 3.2 million World Cup tickets carries an RFID tag with information about its buyer. The tags are read upon entry into the stadium, and the names are run through a database to screen known trouble makers.
Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. is set to implement a system that will track the whereabouts of 800 parts-filled trucks at its plant in Oakville, Ont. Tags the size of a key fob embedded into every truck will give operators a look at what the vehicle carries and its position in a 464,000-square-metre wireless grid.
"What we're taking this to is live data, real-time performance . . . and getting those trailers on-site and off-site as efficiently as possible," said Alex Kumfert, Ford's material flow launch manager.
But while these recent developments conjure images of an "Internet of things" in some minds, others warn of Orwellian implications. Last month, Canada's privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddard, issued a report cautioning against the "potentially intrusive nature of RFID technology."
Mark Hall, the editor of the U.S.-based publication Computerworld, echoed Ms. Stoddard's concerns.
"I think there are potential significant privacy problems, particularly when you marry different databases," he said. "When the effort to invade somebody's privacy is not so hard, that's when privacy is at risk."
Source: Global and Mall
