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Delta Air Invests $25 Million in RFID for Luggage
securitas writes "The New York Times' Barnaby Feder reports on Delta Air Lines' plans to invest $25 million in RFID luggage tracking hardware and software over the next two years. This sounds very similar to the Jacksonville Airport RFID plan. McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and Hong Kong International Airport have also announced plans to use RFID technology in their operations. More at the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Boston Globe."
Oh, so now they can tell me WHICH city my luggage went to, instead of just telling me its not there (I can SEE that, asshole!)
(No, I didn't RTFA, because then this joke might not work...)
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
Now they can track my luggage all the way to Guam during my flight to Seattle...
From 0 to drunk in $20
So now when they lose my luggage, they'll actually be able to see that they sent it to Idaho when I was going to Vegas!
The full text of this article from The Economist follows. The original content is subscriber-only; it is reproduced here in the hope and expectation that you will find it useful.
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Technology, shopping and beyond
The future is still smart
Jun 24th 2004 | LONDON AND NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition
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Contrary to some recent reports, the roll-out of revolutionary smart-tag technology is still going to plan
SO THOROUGHLY have the lessons of the internet bubble been learned that the launch of any new technology is now invariably accompanied by much talk from industry observers about dangerous hype and inevitable disappointment. A case in point is radio frequency identification (RFID), a new, super-cheap version of which may, its backers hope, be destined to transform everything from shopping to warfare. As soon as RFID's boosters alerted the world to their innovations, reports of dire setbacks began to circulate. Yet if anything, the surprise is how well the roll-out of the new technology is meeting early expectations.
RFID systems are made up of readers and "smart tags"--tiny microchips each with an attached antenna. The tags can be stuck on everything from milk cartons to hospital patients. When prompted by a reader, the tag broadcasts the information on its chip. Unlike the traditional bar-code, which smart tags aim to replace, RFID chips give every tagged object a unique identification. (A bar-code describes only a class of objects, such as cans of Coke.) Companies hope to use RFID to track the trillions of objects that circulate the world every year in planes, lorries and ships, through ports and warehouses, on to shop shelves, through tills and into homes and offices. Accurate tracking should eventually save hundreds of billions of dollars a year as it improves distribution, reduces theft, cuts labour costs and shrinks inventory. Governments also want to use RFID to reduce drug counterfeiting and improve military logistics, among other things.
Smarter than the average bar-code
Firms have put smart tags on some goods for quite a while. But due to their cost tags have until recently mostly been stuck on expensive or oft-stolen items, such as designer clothes and compact discs.
In 2002, the Auto-ID centre, a partnership between academic researchers and business based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, came up with a standard for a new, stripped-down RFID chip that stores just 96 bits of information--enough to give every object in the world a unique number. With tag readers plugged into a computer network, this number can be used to look up detailed information about the object, such as its origin, age and expiry date. At the same time, the Auto-ID centre also challenged manufacturers to produce a five-cent tag. Several start-ups, including Alien Technology and Matrics, said they could do so. Suddenly, there was huge interest and talk of a potential mass market.
Last June, Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, said it would require its 100 top suppliers to put tags on pallets and cases of products for shipment to a cluster of its supercentres in northern Texas. (Those press-ganged suppliers were later joined by 37 "volunteers".) Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, also decided to introduce the technology. This year Metro, a German retailer, and Target and Albertsons, two other American ones, announced tag mandates for their suppliers. On June 17th, Wal-Mart said it would extend its RFID roll-out to its top 300 suppliers and to more shops.
The American government is becoming a big user of the new tags, too. Last October, the Pentagon said it would require its suppliers to put tags on cases and pallets shipped to its warehouses. It expects suppliers to have the technology working by January. The Food and Dr