RFID - Fri. Sept. 16, 2004

Our class discussion motivated me to investigate the RFID a little further starting with IBM and Accenture, two companies that I have previously worked for that I thought would be all over this technology. Both sites had information posted about how they are involved with this technology in conjunction with various other companies. It seems a little curious that all of a sudden they are all over it, seeing as the technology has been around since the ‘40’s. I guess that, as Richard said in class, this is because the technology cost is beginning to drop which makes this technology now actually affordable to use in certain scenarios. I suspect it may also have a little to do with the post 9/11 environment that is allowing citizens to be a little more accepting of this kind of interactive tracking mechanism. What surprised me about the technology is the fact that the RFIDs are meant to be both read and written (or overwritten) to. This makes them quite different from the UPCs we currently see on products. Given the widespread advance of wireless technology these devices can be updated with location, something that Accenture is all over in terms of services they want to be able to offer in conjunction with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). According to their site, we should look forward to the day when we can look on-line and see precisely that our Priority Post package is on truck number 191, heading West at 100 kph and is estimated to arrive in Vancouver at 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19. Funny, it’s not anticipation I feel right now, more like a little bit of nervousness.