The NYT reports that Wal-Mart is experiencing delays in the adoption of RFID tags to track its goods. Naturally, the RFID companies are most eager to deploy their technology to prescription drugs. They don't pretend that the end consumer gets any benefit, however; the tags are mainly used to speed up the supply chain and prevent "counterfeiting and tampering".
Seems the infrastructure has some problems: the tags are too expensive, for one thing. For another, the effort to scan and classify the entire universe is getting hung up on that troublesome issue of interiority:
Everyone, meanwhile, faces challenges like figuring out how far electronic readers can be positioned from the tags without missing crucial data and how to overcome the tendency of liquids and metals to block the signal. While today's readers can easily identify a pallet of Coca-Cola in cans, for example, and cartons on the outside edge of a pallet, they have trouble picking out cartons in the middle of the pallet.
In the photo used to illustrate this story, a Matrics executive holds up her company's RFID tags, which look like little stylized swastikas. Telling.
Posted by Chris at March 29, 2004 06:44 AMThere's nothing inherently sinister about RFID technology, any more than there is about bar code technology. It all depends on the application. Bar codes on foreheads? Terrifying! But bar codes on shipping pallets -- who cares? That's why I find the furor over Wal-Mart's desire to use RFID so amusing, because they are only using it to track pallets. Even when it gets to the level of RFID tags on cereal boxes, I'm not too worried... almost every retail product already has a bar code that lets retailers track its movements. You don't see anybody protesting that.
Posted by: Dylan Tweney at March 29, 2004 01:18 PM"stylized swastikas"? Nice. :-)
Reading this, it's pretty clear that they're either using the wrong technology or that they're trying to push it too far too quickly. Time will tell.
Posted by: Jeremy Zawodny at March 29, 2004 05:07 PM