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Hot Topics: RFID

In the future, we could be tracked because we'll be wearing, eating and carrying objects that are carefully designed to do so. RFID, which stands for Radio frequency identification, technology will make this possible. Currently RFID is used to track gaming chips, priceless paintings, garbage trucks, and more. Below are some articles to help understand the technology and new developments within the field.

Selected articles

Due to contractual arrangements, access to some articles may be restricted to the Stanford community, and subscribers of the "Library Databases" offered through the GSB Alumni's Lifelong Learning Program. Inclusion below does not imply University endorsement of the ideas expressed.

 

 

Report: Global RFID Market Hit $5 Billion in 2007
eWeek.com, January 18, 2008
Much of the growth was fueled by a massive $2 billion investment in China's national ID card program. view article

Top 10 RFID Developments of 2007, Part 1
RFID Update , December 18, 2007
 The RFID industry defied characterization in 2007. Previously hot segments of the industry cooled, but there was a revival in interest and investment in other established applications and technologies. There were several technological milestones and standards developments, including a few that will likely have a strong influence for years to come. view article

Top 10 RFID Developments of 2007, Part 2
RFID Update , December 19, 2007
view article

RFID Market to Reach $8bn in 2012
VNUnet.com, November 19, 2007
Worldwide radio frequency ID markets are expected to reach $8.4bn in 2012 from a base of $3.8bn in 2007, experts predict. ABI Research said that the 2007 figure represents 24 per cent growth over 2006, and that the growth curve to 2012 indicates a compound annual growth rate of 21 per cent. view article

RFID News: Baird Report Sees Growing Adoption for RFID
Supply Chain Digest, October 30, 2007
Investment company Robert W. Baird produces an excellent summary each month of developments in the RFID market. In its latest issue, Baird analysts Reik Read and Robbe Timme take a bullish stance on RFID activity, and predict solid growth for the next couple of years in terms of user adoption and vendor sales. view article

The Buck Starts With CEOs
RFID Journal, October 1, 2007
If RFID doesn't become a greater priority at the highest level, companies will never get the benefits that are possible. view article

Fear Over Forced RFID Tagging
Government Executive.com, September 5, 2007
At first blush, a law the California Senate passed seems a bit paranoid. Last week the California Senate passed by a 28-9 vote a bill to ban the implantation of a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag in anyone who objects to the practice, according to an article posted by InformationWeek. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, calls the forced implantation of RFID tags into humans as "the ultimate invasion of privacy." Wisconsin and, oddly, North Dakota (which isn't known for leading the nation in technology-related legislation) also have passed similar laws. view article

RFID News: Are We Entering a Period of Consumer “Identity Management?”
Supply Chain Digest, August 6, 2007
In a recent Scientific Technology Options Assessment (STOA) study of RFID’s impending impact on society, the privacy issue was tackled head on as researchers found that data collected using RFID technology in the future will need to be carefully managed if privacy is going to be maintained. view article

RFID Reader: Tracient Sets New Standard For Bluetooth Enabled RFID
RFID Solutions Online, July 7, 2007
Tracient Technologies has recently launched another trend setting RFID product. Tracient?s new "credit card" sized portable RFID reader, the Explore-R, is an ultra compact device featuring both Bluetooth and USB interfaces. The inclusion of both communication options provides an RFID reader that can be incorporated quickly and easily into business processes that require asset identification, asset tracking, inventory management or service level adherence. RFID technology is a fast growing option for businesses wanting cost effective, time efficient methods for recording the movement of products or assets. view article

RFID Industry Beginning to Find Right Frequency in Business World
San Diego Business Journal , June 4 , 2007
The Department of Defense and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. were two of the earliest institutions that called on their suppliers to put RFID tags on merchandise. Since then, Best Buy Co. Inc., Albertsons and Target Corp. have called on suppliers to label their shipments with RFID tags — at least at the pallet level. view article

Frost's Findings on the North American RFID Market
RFID Update, May 14, 2007
Frost & Sullivan last week released new research on the North American RFID market as part of its Automatic Identification & Security Growth Partnership Service. view article

3M Delivering First Countrywide RFID-based Electronic Vehicle Registration System
Industrial Embedded Systems, May 7, 2007
Bermuda has the world's highest density per square mile of motor traffic on its roads. Consequently, we needed a system to facilitate compliance and lessen the burden on law-abiding citizens and our civil servants.
view article

Researchers Use RFID to Fight SIDS
RFID Journal, April 17, 2007
A team at the University of Texas, Arlington, has designed and built a device that monitors the carbon dioxide a child exhales, and sends an alert via RFID seconds after the infant stops breathing. view article

InfoLogix Acquires RFID Patent Portfolio
Technology News Daily, April 12, 2007
With this acquisition, InfoLogix plans to develop capabilities to allow doctors, patients and pharmaceutical companies to track, trace and monitor drug information down to the individual pill level throughout the supply chain. view article

At Wayne Memorial, RFID Pays for Itself
RFID Journal, April 3, 2007
Wayne Memorial Hospital has saved more than $300,000 in expenses, thanks to a new RFID system it uses to track about 1,000 medical devices throughout the hospital. view article

RFID boom: Not where you think it is
Converting Magazine, April 2007
As the more than 500 delegates attending RFID Smart Labels USA 2007 in February learned, the main emphasis of RFID use and supply is not in pallet- and case-tagging. Contrary to the buzz around mandates from retail giants and the US Department of Defense for UHFtagged items, the real opportunity lies elsewhere. view article

Wal-Mart Rethinks RFID
Information Week, March 26, 2007
Since its first RFIDpilot three years ago, Wal-Mart has learned a valuable lesson: RFID's ability to improve the supply chain is limited by business partners' willingness to participate. The giant retailer is now focusing its radio frequency identification technology efforts primarily on in-store applications, while moving much more slowly with its distribution centers.
view article

NEC succeeds in embedding RFID in bottle cap
Food Navigator USA, March 22, 2007
Two Japanese companies have succeeded in developing a plastic bottle cap embedded with an radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.According to reports, the development would allow beverage manufacturers to continue to use their existing manufacturing equipment even if they shift to the new cap.
view article

Despite Doubters, Passive RFID Smart Label Markets Seen Rewarding Patience Supply & Demand Chain, March 21, 2007
Despite continued doubts about whether passive radio frequency identification (RFID) will have a payoff for the retail supply chain, ultimately these technologies will reward patient companies willing to make the necessary investments, and some sectors already are reaping benefits from rollouts, according to a new report from ABI Research.
view article

Europe welcomes RFID with new guidelines Outsourcing-Pharma.com, March 20, 2007
After a year of consultation, the European Commission has finally proposed guidelines for the implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the EU.
view article

RFID: The Big Picture AIM, March 2, 2007
RFID Connections spoke with Michael J. Liard, Research Director, RFID & Contactless, ABI Research about a recent talk he presented for AIM's RFID Webinar.
View article

Financial Press Considers RFID's Potential RFID Update, February 15, 2007
RFID received attention from the mainstream financial press today in the form of three articles, one in the Wall Street Journal, the other two on investor site The Motley Fool. Highlights of the articles are recapped here.
View article

RFID Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2007-2017 IDTechEx, February 14, 2007
At the start of 2007, the cumulative number of RFID tags sold over the last 60 years is 3.752 billion. 27% of that number were sold in 2006 and 19% in 2005, showing how sales have showed a very robust increase. However, the sale of 1.02 billion RFID tags in 2006 (35% of those being RFID cards) has been disappointing to those expecting higher volume sales of versions in the form of labels.
View article

MINI USA rolls out RFID-activated billboards Engadget, January 13, 2007
If there was ever a slick way to get folks to willingly carry around an RFID tag, MINI USA has it all wrapped up.MINI has begun a pilot advertising campaign in Chicago, New York, Miami, and San Francisco, which gives select Cooper owners the chance to get an RFID keyfob in the mail. Users can select a custom message to be encoded on their RFID chip, and when they cruise near an overhanging MINI billboard, their particular message lights up for the world (or at least nearby motorists) to see.
View article

Predictions for 2007 RFID Journal, January 8, 2007
The coming year will see RFID continue to spread to new applications and could mark the start of broad adoption of RFID in the supply chain.
View article

RFID Tags and Trends for 2007 Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility, January 4, 2007
RFID Connections interviewed Phil Lazo, VP and General Manager of Symbol Technologies' RFID Global Products group, to get his insights on RFID and tagging trends for 2006 and 2007.
View transcript and podcast

RFID: A Tale of Four Continents Dr. Dobbs Portal, January 3, 2007
RFID is being adopted worldwide but with great differences of emphasis as revealed by the IDTechEx Knowledgebase of over 2450 case studies in 92 countries. This articles covers four continents and provides interesting comparison tables.
View article

5 Disruptive Technologies to Watch in 2007 Information Week, January 1, 2007
2007 will be the year when a host of hot technologies which have been percolating around the mainstream rise high on the radar screens of CIOs and IT managers. We'll look at five of the more significant, including RFID, advanced graphics, and virtualization.
View article

RFID in 2006: A Story of Extremes Supply and Demand Chain News, December 2006
As we enter 2007, many radio frequency identification (RFID) suppliers are licking their wounds, while for others, RFID business is booming. "RFID Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2007-2017" by IDTechEx to be released in January, Raghu Das, CEO, summarizes some of the findings.
View article

De Facto Global Standard for Active RFID is Emerging RFID Update, December 7, 2006
The ISO standard for active RFID, ISO 18000-7, has been gaining traction in recent months, and industry analysts think it will likely become the de facto global standard for tracking shipping containers as they are transported around the world.
View article

Top 10: The Best, Worst and Craziest Uses of RFID Silicon.com, November 30, 2006
They've put a chip where? From school children to pub tables see where RFID chips have been applied.
View article

Hot Countries for RFID ID TechEx, November 22, 2006.
Where are the RFID success stories and in which market sectors? Here Teresa Henry highlights the leading adopter nations, the big spenders and surprise niches for RFID implementation.
View article

With China RFID Thriving in the Next Five Years, UHF RFID Application Meets Unprecedented Opportunity PCB007, November 15, 2006.
According to the latest report issued by IDC: China Vertical RFID Solution 2006-2010 Forecast and Analysis, the radio frequency identification (RFID) vertical application market was estimated at RMB 1.477 billion in China in 2005. Freda Tong, senior market analyst of Vertical Market Research at IDC China, points out that China's RFID application market has entered the elementary application stage from the introduction phase.
View article

RFID Strategy - RFID And The 'Network Effect' Industry Week, October 31, 2006.
The "network effect" is a term used by technologists to describe the way some devices grow more useful as more people use them. Wal-Mart has created their own network of RFID technology to achieve their own goals of reducing retail out-of-stock occurrences.
View article

The CEO's Guide to RFID. Business Week, October 9, 2006.
Rachel King speaks with Michael Liard from ABI Research about the application of RFID applications and how they impact the average person and where the technology is headed in the supply chain area.
Listen to podcast

Revenues From RFID-Based Airline Baggage Handling Will More than Double by 2011. Wireless Developer Network, October 5, 2006.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has the potential to streamline and improve airline baggage handling, especially in this time of heightened security measures.
View article

RFID Passports Arrive for Americans. ZDNet News, August 14, 2006
A first wave of U.S. passports implanted with radio tags will soon begin making their way into the hands of American travelers despite lingering privacy and security concerns.
View article

Forced Human RFID-Chipping Now a Crime in Wisconsin. Manufacturing.net, June 1 2006
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has signed a new law that would make forced human RFID-chipping a crime.
View article

FDA To Pressure Drug Companies On RFID. InformationWeek, May 15 2006
The drug industry isn't moving very fast to use radio-frequency identification technology to combat drug counterfeiting. And the Food and Drug Administration is about to apply some pressure.
View article

Staying Ahead of the RFID Wave. Electronics Design Chain, Mar. 10 2006
When Wal-Mart's CIO announced, in June 2003, that she was going to require its top 100 suppliers to track shipments to them by using RFID technology-instead of bar codes-by January 1, 2005, it sent a shock wave through the retailing and logistics industries.
View article

Forecast 2006: RFID: Cost and complexity continue to block enterprise use. ComputerWorld, Jan. 2 2006
The IT trade press and industry analysts alike have been hailing radio frequency identification as the second coming of bar codes. But for users, most of whom have implemented only small, low-impact pilots, RFID is a long way from becoming a key part of the enterprise.
View article

RFID Round Up: Examining Recent Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Milestones. Line 56, Nov. 4 2005
October was a busy month for radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Here are some of the key developments, in case you missed any of them.
View article

Privacy and RFID: Are the Tags Spy Chips? InformationWeek, Nov. 3, 2005
Consumer privacy groups have grown in strength this year almost as fast as radio frequency identification technology deployments at businesses and governments.
View article

RFID Signals Growing Stronger. CRN, June 24, 2005
To date, real-world implementations of RFID have been relegated to services such as automatic toll-processing or other vertical applications. But advances in the technology and reductions in cost have made it practical for a host of other applications, ranging from employee-tracking to supply chain control.
View article

RFID: the Next Big Little Thing Researchchannel.com/University of Washington, Apr. 28, 2005
A 57 minute presentation by Chris Diorio, professor, University of Washington. "his talk will cover the fundamentals of RFID technology, the reasons for its impending adoption, the many benefits and looming issues, how it may impact the way we live and work, and the exciting research and business opportunities that await us.
View presentation

RFID market to reach $7.26Bn in 2008. IDTechEx,Apr. 10, 2005
A new market research report covering RFID from 2005 to 2015, researched by IDTechEx, reveals some surprising new disruptions. The bottom line is that this year's global market for RFID including tags, systems and services is $1.94 billion but it will be driven by demand and new laws to $24.50 billion in 2015.
View article

When the Chips are Down: RFID Helps the Hotel Business Fight Back. Deloitte, Jan. 2005
RFID technology helps the hotel business fight back. In today's economic climate recovery is tough for the hospitality and leisure industry. Help could be at hand, in the form of tiny low-cost 'smart' or 'passive' tags.
View report

Radio Frequency Identification: Little Devices Making Big Waves. Progressive Policy Institute, October 6, 2004
The emerging technology of radio frequency identification (RFID) promises to create a vast network of things -- wirelessly linking together everything from animals in migration for scientific research, to building movements in earthquakes, to the vast array of products that businesses make, retailers sell, and consumers buy.
View article

Radio Frequency Identification RFID... Coming of Age. ITAA, June 2004
This report written by the Information Technology Association of America gives an overview and some background on the RFID market in the United States.
View report [ PDF 109KB]

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