Tune into RFID

Use of RFID within the data centre to track IT assets is growing, according to this article on IT Business Edge, which says the Financial Services Tech Consortium has been developing standards for IT asset tracking.

Perhaps inevitably, compliance is the driver, in the shape of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Vendor members of FSTC include Microsoft, IBM and eBay, with banking members including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Fidelity Investments.

You can read more about FSTC's investigation into using RFID by following this link to a piece in RFID Journal

GS1 EPCglobal, which has been an active and committed stakeholder throughout the process, says that consumers and businesses will both benefit from the recommendation's practical guidance for leveraging the benefits of deploying RFID within the European Union, while protecting the privacy of consumers. Hence, this text is the result of contributions from different stakeholders and in a sense, all stakeholders are winners.  GS1 EPCglobal considers that efforts should now be placed on how to efficiently implement the provisions of this Recommendation, and it will work with its community of users towards that end.

Gadget-loving blog ShinyShiny brought to my attention a little RFID Amusement.

The French-language cultural magazine Amusement has published a print issue with an RFID chip attached, which, when read by a suitable RFID-reader, provides access to additional content.

There's a very basic video overview of Amusement's RFID chip in use over at Shiny's site (focusing almost as much on Nabaztags as on Amusement) or you can visit the magazine's own site for more information (although this is probably best for the French-speakers among you).

Earlier in the year, I wrote here about the European Commission's ongoing discussions about how it should treat RFID. It then held a public consultation, with the likelihood that some form of legislation - or guidelines - over privacy would follow around six months later. i.e around now

I hear that these discussions are reaching a head and that some form of announcement may not be too far away. That would coincide with a recent meeting in France over the 'Internet of Things' reported recently on EurActiv

France wants to introduce new privacy rights for consumers, and as current holder of the rotating EU Presidency, it is in the box seat to introduce those rights. Watch this space!

So no-one's afraid now of mentioning the R word. It's no longer a question of talking ourselves into one. We're here - although some of the banking news today is a little more encouraging (so far!)

Already I've seen posts that discuss the benefits of open source and collaboration technologies in a recession. I wonder what the prospects are for RFID projects? Does less discretionary budget mean RFID-based projects cannot get off the ground? Or does the need for business to be more efficient point the way towards cost-effective initiatives that offer an opportunity for organisations to consider RFID (even on a pilot scale), that they haven't got around to doing anything about before? There are opportunities for organisations to learn more about RFID by visiting centres of excellence such as the RFID Test Centre in Cheshire.

Ultimately, does RFID necessarily have to be a big-ticket item? Or are there ways of making it work industry by industry, even in challenging times?

There's been a lot of talk about the injunction brought to prevent a discussion at Defcon about hacking in to RFID card-based transport systems, which has implications for a number of cities around the world.

According to a rather less than complimentary piece about RFID in Fierce CIO, there is an RFID vulnerability assessment report which talks about the problems with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) systems.

You can view the article here and the vulnerability assessment here

The latest edition of Packaging News has an interesting discussion on the merits of RFID against the use of bar codes. For now, it concludes that, for primary packaging at least, bar codes remain the technology of choice, and it may be that way for some time to come. Organisations who are investing in technology for "primary pack coding" continue to choose bar code systems over RFID.

Savvy watchers have always concluded that it is simply not a case of bar codes v RFID, because the two will co-exist for some time yet. While the article doesn't tell us much more "about why RFID  is not completely there" (in the retail world) - it does have significant traction in other sectors - the piece does give a useful summary of the thought processes affecting the packaging industry.

Ultimately, I wonder whether the choice of bar codes or RFID will ultimately also be impacted by the green argument, with a desire for more environmentally-friendly packaging - or simply less "wrap-around" altogether. This is an area, I'm sure, that the packaging industry, together with retailers, is already addressing in its future planning, especially with the Courtauld Commitment in mind. The Courtauld Commitment has an ultimate target of decreasing the amount of packaging waste by 2010.

I came across an article this week which discusses moves that the German government is making towards aiding collaboration processes for businesses utilising RFID.

The work, by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, is tackling the problems companies face when sharing the information they collect via RFID. The project, known as Ko-RFID, began nearly two years ago, and runs until September next year.

You can read details of the project on RFID Journal here

The project is part of the German Government's Next Generation Media Programme

Although much of the discussion on RFID within the EU seems to have been around privacy issues, there are some interesting initiatives underway. One of these is the SMART project, which is currently making progress on building a complete RFID application platform.

The potential applications could transform retailing, the EU suggests. For example, if one product is selling well at store A, but selling badly at store B, RFID-powered inventory systems could initiate the transfer of the product from one store to another.

The Sixth Framework Programme-funded SMART project will go into phase one of its testing from October where it will be running two test scenarios in two pilot phases for RFID retail applications. The first phase of the pilots will test the back-office functions, while the second will put more emphasis on consumer aspects.

The first test involves stock tracking and activity monitoring for promoted goods, such as bath foam. The supplier is able to monitor shelf and backroom inventory for the promoted product, sales location, consumer preferences for gifts and so on, making adjustments to promotion activities while the event is still running.

The second test involves an automatic discounting system for products - specifically, meat - that is nearing its expiry date.

Once the results are back from the initial pilot phase, SMART will integrate the indicated improvements in the system and then run a second pilot test in the first half of 2009.

Here are a couple of links for more information:

http://www.smart-rfid.eu/

Smart Fact Sheet