RFID: The Next Internet?

An anonymous reader writes "RFID Journal has an artricle about how an open source foundation is creating a new Internet based on RFID tags. 'The founders [RadioActive Foundation] liken the EPCglobal Network as a whole to the Internet, with RFID tags acting as URLs, and the tags' associated data being the Web site for that tag . The software the foundation develops, Michael Mealling adds, will act similarly to an Internet search engine. With Discovery Service software, for example, companies will be able to search for an RFID tag without requiring connected links between each point of the tag's travels.' Pretty neat concept, probably decades away."

Comments

2000 is calling

[Anonymous Coward]

they want their CueCat back.

It's So Easy To Use

[Elecore]

You won't even know you're using it!

Re:It's So Easy To Use

[devoss]

Wow, I can actually hear us all getting cancer.

OH NOES!!!

[Xaroth]

Now they'll be able to track where our INTERNETS are! From now on, I'm wrapping my internets in tinfoil.

Anyone got millions of miles of tinfoil I could borrow? Getting the first one wrapped is going to take a while.

Yes, but...

[should_be_linear]

will it finally solve missing socks phenomenon?

Re:Yes, but...

[HermanAB]

What missing socks problem? If I wear a pair of blue and black socks, I know that there is an identical pair in my wardrobe...

Woo!

[Poromenos1]

So I will be able to google for my keys? I always seem to misplace them...

At Last

[CleverNickedName]

You mean we'll be able to slashdot an actual RFID tag?

Cool.

What's Happening?

[tilleyrw]

The article contained no solid information!

How would this work? Would workers travel from computer to computer with RFID tags full of data?

I suggest someone give these people a bag of clues and a link to the documention on sending TCP/IP via carrier pigeons.

Re:Woo??

[pentalive]

Sure, you could google for your keys and it would tell you the last place it saw them...

"Your keys are at the safeway on Main street"

Marketing Hype

[StateOfTheUnion]

liken the EPCglobal Network as a whole to the Internet, with RFID tags acting as URLs, and the tags' associated data being the Web site for that tag

This sounds like a press release from the .com glory days . . . mindless banter that uses some fancy buzzwords (Internet, RFID, URLs, Website) in hopes that unsuspecting folks won't realize that this analogy is poor at best, blatantly wrong at worst.

I could use the same analogy for my house. The house is the internet, each power outlet is a URL and each appliance's use of electrical current is the associated data for that website. Now with a bunch of multimeters, I have an "internet."

Analogies in the hands on the misinformed are a very dangerous thing.

Re:The submitter got it wrong I think...

[geoffspear]

You're misunderstanding the purpose of the Internet. It was originally developed by DARPA as a way to track everything anyone does anywhere on the planet. Unfortunately, it turned out to be horribly inefficient for this purpose, and most people think it was actually designed to exchange information.

Now they're going to replace it with RFID tags, and they'll be able to track you a lot better. Hope this helps.

here you go

[Anonymous Coward]

http://vunct.com/~jasonalter/googlekeys.jpg

Re:508 and product tool tips

[eheldreth]

More information on a product may be a good thing but the first time a stinking paper clip pops up and suggest I buy something I'm heading for my bomb shelter. The end is nigh.

Forgetting something?

[VII]

Until they have porn, it's not an internet.