RFID firm retaliates

A pro-RFID industry company, RFID Ltd, is paying Google an undisclosed sum to publish several papers intended to refute allegations detailed in a recently released book called "Spychips," which, according to Information Week paints a less than friendly view of how RFID technology is affecting consumer privacy.

"Spychips" tries to explain RFID technology and discuss strategies by businesses and government to embed the technology in everything from postage stamps to shoes to people, and spy on Americans without knowledge or consent.

RFID Ltd, which describes itself on its Web site as a system integrator and RFID consulting business, says it is willing to invest "as much as it takes" to publish several papers on RFID technology.

The breadth of data required by the new EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) has led many companies to consider RFID tagging as the best means of documenting the entire life cycle of products.

However, for this to be successful, waste treatment facilities must also adopt the technology and standardise on a particular tag type and tag frequency, observes Process and Control Today.

The process of recycling of electrical and electronic waste is a challenging one for the application of RFID technology because of the metal contained in the products and the containers in which they are collected, making the choice of the correct RFID technology extremely important.

Another point for debate is what to do with the RFID tag itself after it has provided all the data required by the waste treatment facility. One successful project already completed as part of the WEEE directive concerns fridge recycling dealing with nearly 2.4 million domestic fridges and freezers entering the waste-stream a year.

Commuters travelling between New Jersey and New York could soon be using RFID technology to board trains, reports Information Week.

Although the Port Authority (PA) of New York and New Jersey voted to approve the project four years ago, the first readers are to be installed at 13 stations by early 2006.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has also budgeted for installing readers and issuing RFID cards to riders, but its board has not yet voted to take the step.

Train and bus commuters in other cities, including Washington and Chicago, are already using RFID cards.

As consumer goods companies and other businesses feel the pressure to advance their RFID efforts from pilot to large-scale production mode, IBM and BEA Systems are among vendors standing by with new products to meet that need, reports News Factor.

IBM recently unveiled consulting-based services designed to help midsize companies get RFlD projects off the ground in as few as two or three weeks at a cost of $20 000 up front and $750 a month. The foundation is WebSphere RFID Premises Server, which IBM hosts and manages from its RFID operations centre in Atlanta.

BEA Systems recently announced it had agreed to buy ConnecTerra to strengthen its line-up of RFID middleware. ConnecTerra makes infrastructure software designed to handle RFID device management, data filtering and security so users can link RFID data to their applications. BEA plans to use ConnecTerra`s software with its own infrastructure products to help companies design and build new RFID-enabled business processes.

Despite a successful trial using RFID in its supply chain, Danish snack company, Kims says it will wait until its logistics supplier and retailers begin using RFID in its operations before using the technology.

RFID Journal says Kims conducted a six-month trial of RFID in 2003, in which pallets were tagged so they could be tracked between Kims` manufacturing plant and a distribution centre operated by a third-party logistics provider.

The company notes that the RFID system improved both visibility and its ongoing operations, but with its logistics provider unwilling to invest in the technology, the company decided not to extend its RFID trial.