RFID�s first major application, though, is for tracking shipments and inventory. A writer
for Wired magazine took a close look at the German �Future Store�
supermarket we first reported in February
this year. Understanding how RFID is being planned for use in retail suggests
possible applications in healthcare. For example: A patient or visitor could be
given a small PDA (which could now be produced cheaply enough to be disposable)
containing an RFID on arrival. Her ID is entered via card swipe. Via the RFID,
the hospital system would know where she needs to go and guide her via some
combination of written, spoken, or map directions. It would also know where she
is and could alerts the appropriate staff to her impending arrival. The benefits
of being able to reliably and instantly inventory and track the location of
hospital supplies and equipment may be the �killer app� for hospitals, however,
as it seems to be for retailers.

The downside of all this is that more jobs will be lost.

As an example of how quickly technologies that make sense can be adopted, the
US military has adopted the water filter
bags we reported on in October
2003. We can only hope that humanitarian aid agencies in the Sudan and
elsewhere � where the need is surely greater than in the army — will react as
quickly.

While one new technology turns bad water good, another � used in disposable
diapers — holds a solution of
another kind to the world�s water problems.

It astonishes us that the people�s elected representatives seem unable to see
the significance of technology that can sift through massive amounts of
unstructured data and draw conclusions about what people have done, are doing,
and are going to do. The technology
is growing like a tsunami, and it is available only to government spy agencies
and the wealthiest corporations.

Reuters reports that Mexico’s attorney general and several of his staff have
had microchips inserted under the skin of their arms to give them access to a
new crime database and also enable them to be traced if they should be abducted
� a real possibility in a country that saw some 15,000 kidnappings between 1992
and 2002, second only to Colombia.

Reference: Unknown (2004). “Mexican
Officials Get Chipped.” Reuters via Wired News, July 13.

See also related articles in the December
2003 and June 2004
issues.

RFID: How It Works For Retail

�Depending who you ask,� writes Josh McHugh in Wired, �RFID tags
constitute 1. the best thing to happen to manufacturing since the cog. 2. the
biggest threat to personal privacy since the crowbar. 3. the near-exact
fulfillment of the Book of Revelation’s description of the mark of the beast,�
and he goes on to present compelling arguments for each of these perspectives –
including number three.

He describes his experience shopping at Metro�s �Future Store� supermarket in
Germany, designed as the retail equivalent of a clinical study of RFID tags
attached to products from Gillette, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, and other major
manufacturers and grocery suppliers. The tags �track each cream cheese
container, razor blade, and bottle of shampoo. They know precisely which package
occupies what bit of shelf space and how long it takes the Future Store’s staff
to replace a purchased item.� Metro too, of course — as well as Wal-Mart,
Target, and indeed all major retailers � hope they will reveal, and enable them
then to eliminate, �all the little kinks along the supply chain� that largely
account for the razor-thin margins in their industry.

RFID readers at the entrance to Future Store�s loading dock automatically
inventory tagged shipments, eliminating the first kink — sloppy or crooked
human checks. Sensors in the store ceiling track each shopper�s location and
send information about nearby specials to a console on the shopping cart. 35,000
remote-controlled LCD price labels automatically adjust their prices as demand
and inventory rise and fall. The system even logs the picking up and putting
back of products � that is, it provides data on customers� behavior.

For fresh fruits and vegetables, �A produce kiosk equipped with a digicam and
identification software prints price stickers . . . based on size, color, and
shape. In the wines aisle, �a sommelier kiosk regards a bottle of wine, tells me
the appellation, suggests accompanying dishes, and compares vintages.� And when
all products in the store are tagged (currently, they are not) the shopper will
be able to bypass the cashier because a scanner will read the tags in the cart
and debit the shopper�s bank account.

Experts predict that the cost of RFID tags will need to fall to 5 cents
before they make a compelling-enough case to manufacturers and retailers. And
that seems imminent: British firm QinetiQ has developed a metal printing
technique that speeds the production and lowers the cost of the miniscule
antennas for RFID tags. Metal printing is half the cost of conventional etching
using acid, copper, and sometimes chromium; and is �far more environmentally
friendly,� writes Jo Twist for the BBC News. (The method could also be used to
print antennas into the casing of cell phones and wallpaper to block radio
frequencies.)

But the elimination of inventory errors alone makes a strong case: �A
retailer with, say, $250 billion in sales and 103 distribution centers (OK,
Wal-Mart) would, based on industry-average operating margins, see $407 million
in savings by having its suppliers attach RFID tags to all their pallets. By
requiring an RFID tag on every item, Wal-Mart would save $7.6 billion, mostly in
labor costs – think of all the employees with barcode scanners who staff the
loading bays, warehouse aisles, and checkout counters.�

For more on these benefits (and on the �mark of the beast� theory), click on
the reference link and read McHugh�s full account. Then think about what RFID
could do for all the little kinks in inventorying and tracking supplies in a
hospital. You will be surprised.

Reference: McHugh, Josh (2004). “Attention,
Shoppers: You Can Now Speed Straight Through Checkout Lines! Radio-frequency
chips are retail nirvana. They’re the end of privacy. They’re the mark of the
beast. Inside the tag-and-track supermarket of the future.” Wired, Issue
12.07, July.

Reference: Twist, Jo (2004). “‘Magic ink’
that makes metal grow.” BBC News, July 5.

RFID to Cut Jobs

The Yankee Group predicts that a massive adoption of RFID tags in supply
chain operations in the US will result in the displacement — out of the
workforce or to �more value-added� positions — of four million US employees by
2007. The company said RFID could �dramatically improve supply chain management
by reducing manual operations associated with data collection, providing
real-time supply chain visibility, and enabling real-time changes in the field,�
writes Robert Jacques for VNUnet.

Reference: Jaques, Robert (2004). “RFID to affect four million jobs:
Analyst predicts dramatic changes in store for US workers as RFID investments
increase.” VNUnet, July 2.

Adoption of Innovations: Water Bags

The US Army Soldier Systems Center’s Combat Feeding Directorate has developed
a dried food ration that troops can hydrate by adding “the filthiest of muddy
swamp water or even peeing on it,” writes Graham Duncan-Row in New
Scientist. The aim is to reduce the weight of a day’s rations from 3.5
kilograms to about 0.4 kilograms.

The ration comes in a pouch we first reported in July 2003 (“Drinking
the Undrinkable“) that filters out 99.9 per cent of bacteria and most toxic
chemicals from the water used to rehydrate it. Urea is not among them, however,
and rehydrating food this way in the long term would cause kidney damage, but
the body can handle it for a short period.

Reference: Graham-Rowe, Duncan (2004). “Army rations
rehydrated by urine.” New Scientist, July 21.

Solution to World Water Problem, or
Ecodisaster-in-Waiting?

The super-absorbent polymer hydrogels used in disposable diapers can be
adapted to help retain moisture in soil. Sales of hydrogels have increased about
10 percent annually in recent years, writes Otto Pohl in the New York
Times, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is using
a hydrogel in an erosion and desertification control project in Iran. Given that
water is a major cause of conflicts in the region, hydrogels have geopolitical
potential. “It took 30 years before mineral fertilizers were accepted,” said a
hydrogel manufacturer. “This breakthrough will be even bigger.”

The hydrogel adapted for use in soil quickly absorb hundreds of times their
weight in water, then slowly release it. It cuts the water needed for irrigation
in half, reduces the amount of fertilizer, and controls erosion. It is nontoxic,
but one of its components is not. Competing alternative water-absorbing products
are based on silicates, volcanic ash, and organic gels, and an Austrian company
is experimenting on installing electric grids below the soil’s surface to draw
groundwater upward while leaving the salts behind.

Reference: Pohl, Otto (2004). “Now, Diaper
Technology Takes On a Desert.” New York Times, July 20.

Yet Another LifeLog

Software called TimeWall, based on work done at the Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center, graphically tracks and links people, places, relationships, and
events over time. �Like a super search engine,� writes Kristi Heim for the
Mercury News, �the technology behind TimeWall filters vast amounts
of unstructured information from a variety of sources — such as e-mail or
Internet reports — in two dozen languages. It also uses natural language
processing to find phone numbers, names and other data to identify
relationships, patterns and trends.�

�Rather than an intelligence analyst reading all this stuff to decide what is
interesting, the software pulls it out automatically and puts it on the wall,”
its developer told her. The user enters a list of subjects to track. �The
program then searches through information in real time and sorts data into
various bands, arranged chronologically. You can then move along the bands to go
backward or forward in time to see how relationships or events change. The
software can be used to dissect events leading up to an attack, for example, or
to plan for a complicated mission. So far, TimeWall‘s main client is
InQTel, a private venture group funded by the CIA. Other customers include the
U.S. Department of Defense and the Defense Intelligence Agency.�

Reference: Heim, Kristi (2004). “Software
program helps track terrorists.” Mercury News, July 21.