By Mary O'Hara Smith, IEN Staff
August 8, 2008 -- Need to update your knowledge of RFID applications, but just not in the mood for a boring class? Try RFID Roulette instead – the online game that tests your knowledge of new applications!
Complete with wheel-spinning sound effects, the game is the brainchild of RFID Revolution, an RFID education and market strategy consulting firm. Among other things, the company co-founded and administers the RFID Excellence in Business Awards, which will be presented at RFID World 2008, Sept. 8-10, in Las Vegas.
The company also offers RFID Essentials, an interactive online course that can be taken in its 8-hour entirety or via the most relevant individual course modules. Topics covered include training in RFID technology and standards; applications; how to measure business value; how to implement; privacy considerations and security techniques, and more.
So where are we today with RFID, anyway? After the Wal-Mart edict requiring January 2005 implementation by its suppliers, how has RFID changed our world? I know it knocks a few minutes off our travel time every time we use EZPass at the Holland Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge – sometimes quite a few minutes, once all those nonsubscribers clear out of the EZPass lane.
But the RFID Today blog says it’s as if Wal-Mart threw a technology party and nobody came. Apparently out of its top 100 suppliers about 70 didn’t meet the January 2005 deadline, and in fact, most of its 60,000 suppliers aren’t using it, primarily because of costs. It’s all about the money, says blogger Frank Hayes, and apparently money is Wal-Mart’s solution: “Sam’s Club will soon start charging suppliers $2 or more for each pallet that doesn’t have an RFID tag.”
Nevertheless, RFID World 2008 lists a full program covering pharmaceutical, enterprise IT asset tracking, manufacturing, consumer experience, transportation, and hospital and healthcare industry tracks. And a quick search through our own ien.com content reveals numerous applications, from an automated distribution center to the entertainment industry; RFID even rated its own section in IEN's 75th Anniversary Predictions. There are pallets specially molded to accommodate tags, impact- and water-resistant tags, turret truck/order pickers with RFID technology...
Check out the links below for more, while I get back to RFID Roulette. Test yourself: which applications are real and which are fake?
- A device in a Vegas casino that tracks the amount and type of liquor its employees pour
- A Smart Refrigerator that reads tags of the contents and displays inventory on the door
- A toilet paper outage system that alerts operations personnel when a roll needs replacing via a tag placed near the end of the roll
- RFID-enabled personnel badges that serve as single-unit locating and messaging devices.
More on RFID
RFID Tag resists heavy impact, can be submersed in water
Pallet has molded slot for RFID tags
Turret Truck/Order Picker utilizes RFID technology
Handheld RFID Computer supports MiFare tags
Next Generation of RFID Fixed Readers
RFID Adhesive stores information for security & tracking
RFID Encoder/Applicator tags up to 100 cases/min