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The Next Tech Revolution
L-Wave writes "Here is an interesting article on cincinnati.com about the next revolution in technology. "The Internet revolution was about people connecting with people. The next revolution will be about things connecting with things." The story mentions having "tags" on every possible items from glasses to grocery, and each one identifying itself on a network...very cool stuff." We've run some earlier stories about the Auto-ID Center and RFID tags. This is an important topic - it will be a huge social issue once people realize that consumer goods will come with tags that allow them to be tracked individually.
The best passive tags (those that don't require their own power source) are expensive, (~$4 ea) and have a maximum range of about 15ft if you jack up the power on the antenna.
With an array of antennas (the usual configuration for warehouses, etc) on the more common tags (~$.50 in six figure quantitites), the nominal range is about seven feet (with two antennas, (one on each side) you can build a path wide enough to drive a forklift thru and scan everything on the pallet.
Here's the kicker, for you anarchist types: I havent found a tag yet (and we deal with about six different types of tag technology) that will still read when wrapped in aluminum foil.
And, for the record, we aren't talking about the anti-theft tags commonly used at retail shops- these are the tags that actually have enough memory (8b-8K) to do something useful. (Although it would probably work for them too, haven't tried it ;p)
For us carnivores, "Sucking the marrow out of life" isn't a transcendentalist philosophy but a practical instruction.
I don't doubt this. Relevent tech jobs in that frickin' town are sparse. It's a town of salesfolk and chemical engineers, most of which work for GE and P&G. You're either a good bullshitter or you're trying to make a better diaper.