RFID: Coming Soon to an Application Near You

by Mary Lou Roberts

Unless they hold places as direct links in the Wal-Mart or Department of Defense (DOD) supply chains, most iSeries shops have been sitting back and observing emerging RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Systems) technology with little more than passing curiosity. After all, if there's no behemoth retailer mandating that you put RFID tags on your products by some fast-approaching date, what's the worry?

Heads up. RFID may soon be coming to an application near you. RFID tags--tiny microchips that contain data and "listen" for a radio signal that causes them to transmit a response--are piquing the imaginations of people in lots of lines of business, some of which are inventive, to say the least.

The first and most pervasive application, of course, is retail. That's the one that's been on the front pages since Wal-Mart (now joined by a number of other companies and the DOD) mandated that all of its suppliers will apply RFID tags at the pallet level. Everything coming into their stores will be read into a database that will track inventory and movement.

But that's old hat now. Let's consider the following other uses to which RFID is being applied:

• Companies are attaching RFID tags to a variety of corporate assets, including computers, cell phones, PDAs, printers, and more. Companies like Stratum Global offer software that is designed to tag the assets or equipment, and then provide current location information, auditing and triggers for service and repair requirements.
• Hospitals are using RFID tags in patient wristbands to make data more available at the bedside, freeing healthcare workers from additional data entry tasks, and presumably ensuring the validity and consistency of the information being collected.
• Healthcare facilities also plan to use RFID for document tracking as well as tracking physical assets through their own supply chains, keeping more accurate watch on their inventories of all sorts of items, from bandages to needles, wheelchairs, bedpans, and more.
• The financial industry, as well, is gearing up with RFID applications. According to Kip Jones, chief technologies for nuBridges, banks are using the tiny tags for cash tracking and for tracking bulk money movement. (Anyone thinking of robbing a Brinks truck had best beware. That bag may contain an RFID tag--and you won't be hard to find.)
• Jones says that there's even talk of embedding RFID tags into currency (though at a nickel a tag, that application is not very practical right now). RFID-tagged bills, however, would make counting much easier and would certainly help to eliminate counterfeiting.

These applications sound pretty innocuous. After all, we've been led gently into the electronic tracking world in ways that most of us don't even think much about. I microchip my dogs, for example. If they are lost, a worker at most veterinary offices and animal shelters can simply wave a wand over their backs and, presto--there's the information they need to call me and return my dogs. When I scan in my "super saver" card at the grocery store, the register will automatically spit out coupons at checkout, based on stored information about current and past purchases. It remembers what I buy, and tells me to buy more. My next new car will most likely have OnStar, the tracking device embedded in the car that can find me and alert the authorities if I'm in an accident or lost. And that same car will certainly have the sticker on the windshield that allows me to get into the EZ-Pass lane and pass through the tollbooth without stopping. That reader knows who I am, and will automatically deduct the charge from my account.

Are all these electronic trackings helpful? Certainly. But electronic tracking applications have raised serious concerns as well. As Jones points out, "Many people have not fully grasped the implications. The issues of privacy and security haven't been thought through."

Following a lead taken by several schools in Japan, Brittan Elementary School, a grade school in Sutter, California was thinking about the security and safety of the children when it ordered its students to wear RFID identification badges to track their movement. The Associated Press reports that, "Each student is required to wear identification cards around their necks with their picture, name and grade and a wireless transmitter that beams their ID number to a teacher's handheld computer when the child passes under an antenna posted above a classroom door." The school also had plans to have a chip reader installed in locker room bathrooms to reduce vandalism. Given the number of reports of missing children, some parents may believe that RFID tags (even microchips inserted under the skin?) might be a good idea. But others see such moves as a serious invasion of privacy. Is the real point to watch the kids, or to watch out for them? Well, it's both. The school principal argues that, "the devices . . . merely confirm that each child is in his or her classroom."

Another dubious and aborted application of RFID came from the U.S. State Department, which had planned to include an RFID chip containing personal data in passports. Civil liberties groups, fearful of unauthorized access to the data, put an end to the plan--for now. But, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the State Department is now planning to move forward with a new strategy to "impose new security techniques, require encryption for data transfers, and ensure that passports contain a metallic layer" that would prevent unauthorized reading of the data.

Those seemingly innocuous retail applications have their detractors as well. Yes, Wal-Mart and others can save money and cut costs for consumers by embedding RFID tags in the products we buy. But would the technology also allow someone to track all my purchases and report on how many Twinkies I consume each week or the size and style of my underwear, or what books I read and videos I watch? Privacy groups are getting active in proposing laws that will disable tags at the checkout counter and set standards for how and when they will be used.

In fact, California State Senator Joe Simitian has introduced legislation that would prohibit the inclusion of RFID's that can be read remotely without the person's knowledge in state identity documents such as driver's licenses and student identification cards. Going further, just two weeks ago the California State Senate passed a bill to place some serious limitations on the use of RFID in stores and libraries, prohibiting the tracking of people while they are shopping (what products do you pick up, look at, and then put back without purchasing?) or after they leave the store. But the bill still has to get past the Assembly's Business and Professions Committee--and that won't be a slam-dunk.

The implementation of RFID technology may well progress faster than the dialog and establishment of laws to protect privacy. Just as the law has struggled (and failed) to keep up with advances in computer technology and the Internet, it's no more likely to keep pace with electronic tracking.

Most likely, then, regardless of your industry, you will probably be looking at an RFID application in the not-too-distant future.

Certainly the retailers will expand their applications. As Steve Rosen, vice president of marketing for EXTOL, explains, "RFID will have a wide-ranging impact from self-checkout at supermarkets. The reader will scan your cart and print the bill. Then it will self-stock the shelves and automatically reorder." Of course, Rosen cautions, the retailer will probably also have a truck that can drive down your street, point a reader at your house, and determine what products you have on your shelves.

What should you do to get ready?

From a pure IT perspective, one of the big challenges will be preparing for the onslaught of billions of new transactions that have to be stored, read, and analyzed. Rosen notes that, "The transaction volume that will follow an RFID deployment will require a place to store them and integration and business processes to make content-based decisions about what/when to act on an RFID read."

"This is why RFID initially--over the next few years at least--will remain an internal initiative for most companies in general and mid-market companies in particular," suggests Rosen.. "However, you can't ignore RFID. It is a valid supply chain mandate, and it is coming."

What's an iSeries shop to do, particularly a small one? Rosen advises preparing an infrastructure that will enable you to accommodate the next big thing. "This means business agility and a business integration backbone that enables you to invest once in business integration and add application-like functionality as needed for EDI, UCCnet, and RFID.

Mary Lou Roberts, a 35-year veteran of the information systems industry, is a new contributor to IT Jungle. In addition to her work as a reporter in the iSeries space, she has spent her career as a marketing and communications professional working exclusively with information technology publications and companies. She can be reached at WriterNewf@aol.com.