It’s hard to predict where RFID is headed, in the context of an ‘always on’ culture that has to also get used to being always alert.
RFID is a fascinating area to watch, because it brings up issues of privacy and commerce –specifically whether the clothes we wear or what we buy at a grocery store could be monitored, and the implications of embedding the technology in currency notes and passports. But here’s a different angle:
Dan Gilmore writes about the University of Tokyo’s Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory where researchers see a future where RFID tags work with everything around us:
“Someone eyes a radish in a supermarket, and by scanning the vegetable with a handheld device -- perhaps one of tomorrow's smart phones -- the customer can learn whether the radish was grown organically and how long ago it was picked.”
He then cites a Microsoft researcher, working on a project named ‘Aura’ that turns a hand-held computer into a scanner –it scans bar codes off a product, wirelessly connects to the Net and then scans databases, including search engines, to provide information about the product.
“The results can be illuminating. For example, Smith shows a supermarket scan of a box of cereal. The top item in Google reveals that the maker had at one point recalled the product because a significant ingredient wasn't on the label.”
These will be the next generation of communicators and readers. Wireless and ubiquitous, and so small that it would be hard to not carry one.
I am not sure I could handle so much information on a daily basis, but it might change everything from packaging information, how a company markets a product, to checkout counters.
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