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

Another CueCat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hasn't this sort of thing been tried before and failed miserably?

Re:Another CueCat?

[scoove]

Hasn't this sort of thing been tried before and failed miserably?

Yes, but according to CueCat's official website, we should hang on to our devices:

If you have a Cue Cat, save it. The patents and technology created by DigitalConvergence will again be available for business and consumer use.

As I'm certain they're not talking about the evil open source drivers that came along and ruined their attempts to spy on all those scans. Perhaps it has something to do with these Digital Convergence patents lying out there in wait:

• US 6,836.799: Method and apparatus for tracking user profile and habits on a global network
  
• US 6,643,692: Method for controlling a computer using an embedded unique code in the content of video tape media
  

Don't forget...

The dream was to connect items in the physical world to the Internet, automatically.
In January that dream hit a bump in the road and the servers were taken offline.
They will scan again...

The submitter got it wrong I think...

[kenh]

RFID can't "displace" or become "the next internet" anymore than barcodes can. RFID tags have no computation ability, no networking capabilities...

RFID tags, at the lowest level emit a pre-programmed number when activated by RF energy (the resonate, if you will).

There is a Dummies Guide on RFID - I expect it to be a big seller among the tin foil hat crowd ;^)

Re:RadioActive

[Otter]

Are we talking about tracking items with RFID tags, and are talking about being able to track them once they've left the store?

Unless you have a scanner in your home and connect it to their network, I don't see why it would.

Basically, this is a new level of inventory and shipment tracking. The company is overhyping it with their analogy to the internet, and it seems to be impressing people in the opposite direction from the intended.

EPCglobal Network just a set of usage conventions

[mhmealling]

For those trying to understand the EPCglobal Network from those media reports here's the easy primer:

The EPCglobal Network is just a set of usage conventions for existing Internet standards and infrastructure for accessing data about the Electronic Product Code (EPC). RFID tags that adhere to the EPCglobal standards for tag encoding contain EPCs. The standard bar code that's been in use for decades is a degenerative case of an EPC.

The usage conventions include a way of turning that EPC into a domain-name (in much the same way that the ENUM standard provides a way of turning a telephone number into a domain-name). From that point on its really just TCP/IP, HTTP, XML, Web Services, and standard security mechanisms we all know and work with every day.

Yes, there is a large amount of incorrect terminology in that article. Anyone that has talked to a reporter about technical stuff knows that there's no telling what you're going to get on the other end. Suffice it to say, this isn't QueCat, it isn't a "new Internet", and it isn't about reading RFID tags from a distance. The stuff the Foundation is building is useful even if RFID tags were never deployed since it also works with bar codes.