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...

Great for shipping, but not necessary?

[Bananatree3]

This would be an excellent development for people like FedEx, UPS, big wharehouse companies, etc. The only thing I see is that it is a two edged sword. First, it wouldn't be totally necessary in companies, as you could just have a database app. for this. Secondly, would you want your competitor to have your RFID database of products? I wouldn't think so.

Re:Great for shipping, but not necessary?

[llefler]

In warehousing it's useful for keeping track of inventory movement. Databases are only as good as the people that use them, and people occasionally make mistakes. So while your database might tell you that you have 10,000 of product X, someone might have accidently overshipped, so you really only have 9,975. With RFID you can do a quick cycle count. Another problem in warehouses is when an employee records that s/he put the product in bin A, but actually put it in bin D. When you can have thousands of rack locations it can be next to impossible to find mistakes like that without doing a physical inventory. A time consuming process. From my experience in retail many, many years ago, I can see some benefit for finding 'lost' product there too. Retail stores have gremlins that move product randomly around the store. Because that Black & Decker cordless drill is supposed to be in lingerie.

I doubt that very many product handling facilities care about tracking product once it leaves their domain. So you really have to wonder who interest it is to keep RFID active once it leaves a retailer.

Yes, but...

[should_be_linear]

will it finally solve missing socks phenomenon?

RadioActive

[Valdrax]

Good name, 'cause from what I'm getting, it sounds like something that I don't want to touch with a ten foot pole.

Could someone explain exactly what they mean by, "[C]ompanies will be able to search for an RFID tag without requiring connected links between each point of the tag's travels." That sounds ludicrously ominous to me. Are we talking about tracking items with RFID tags, and are talking about being able to track them once they've left the store?

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.

508 and product tool tips

[J Barnes]

Seems to me that the the two most obvious uses for this would be for blind people and for in-store product information.

If your vision-impared, it would be an amazing thing to carry around a talking box that can read signs and maps to you.

For product "tool tips", you could walk around your local best buy with a small device that could scan CD's and DVD's and hot-link to IMDB reviews or short trailors and song samples.

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 ;^)

I agree

[cluening]

RFID is already on its way to becoming the next Internet - a name that is applied to anything technical that people don't understand. Just like web==internet in many people's minds, RFID is slowly becoming whatever people want it to be. For example, we have the "RFID-powered mouse" that appeared here a week or two ago, the "RFID is the Internet" story here, and the guy I overheard in downtown Chicago in March trying to impress his girlfriend saying "Yeah, I saw a thing on the Internet where people hooked the light switches in a building up to RFID tags and could turn the lights on and off, and were able to play Tetris on the side of the building."

The world is becoming a scary place full of people who know just enough words to be dangerous.