Passports 'n chips for the US

Early in 2006, the US Department of State will begin issuing passports with RFID chips that will contain the name, nationality, gender, date of birth and place of birth of the passport holder, as well as a digitised photograph, reports PC World.

The US government says the chip`s contents will match the data on the paper portion of the passport, improving passport security by making it more difficult for criminals to tamper with passports.

The decision to go ahead with RFID-enabled passport has been confirmed, despite concerns of privacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and less than 2% support from the public.

The State Department says the RFID chips will use encrypted digital signatures to prevent tampering and will not be able to broadcast personal information unless within a few centimetres of an RFID reader.

Sun Microsystems plans to combine radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies with its existing IT asset management platforms to track non-networked items such as hospital equipment.

Computer Weekly says development of the Sun RFID Industry Solution for Physical Asset Tracking is part of the organisation`s plans to make RFID a pervasive technology to track all assets and not just those connected to IT networks.

Sun has not yet confirmed any release date for its RFID-enabled asset tracking system.

The Schuitema supermarket group in the Netherlands is to begin using RFID tags in December to track trays of fresh produce shipped to one of its stores and a distribution centre (DC), reports the RFID Journal.

As part of an initial three-month RFID pilot, a fresh vegetable supplier will tag reusable trays shipped to the Schuitema`s DC. Those shipments will be tracked when they arrive and leave the DC, and when they arrive at the receiving dock of the RFID-enabled retail store.

Although Schuitema has performed some in-house tests using RFID in the past, this will be its first trial to track assets shipped by a supplier to one of the retailer`s DCs, and then on to a store.

The system will share RFID data between Schuitema and its supplier, demonstrating real-time data collection, processing and transfer. Schuitema`s goal for the trial is prove that EPC Gen 2 RFID technology is robust across its supply chain.