|
Events
Exhibitions,
Conferences & Events
RFID Is A Double Edged Sword
21 April 2004
Most of the controversy surrounding the deployment of RFID is centred on the technology's impact on personal privacy. However, according to a paper published this week by Wireless Healthcare, RFID also represents a threat to retailers deploying the technology in customer facing applications. The Cambridge based consultancy has identified a number of healthcare related services, such as dietary guidance and food allergy alerts, that could use RFID tags. These services, which would employ mobile devices fitted with RFID scanners to provide information relating products on sale in stores, could be run over conventional mobile networks.
Wireless Healthcare believes that while the retailer may not want third parties overlaying alternative databases over its business, RFID technology will open up a store's operation to a range of on-line organisations. Some of the services provided by these organisations might be relatively benign but others, such as ethical shopping services and Kelkoo type price comparators, could disrupt the retailer's business model.
The paper suggests that while, today, consumer groups are voicing concerns over the deployment of RFID, attitudes will change if shoppers discover they can use RFID to access useful product data - especially if this access
is via relatively low cost mobile devices.
The paper concludes that retailers will be faced with three choices:-
They could abandon deployment of RFID technology in customer facing applications and deactivate tags when products are placed in their stores.
They could use blocking tags, such as those recently demonstrated by RSA, to prevent third parties accessing RFID data. However, this could prove controversial if those third parties were providing dietary information
and allergy alert services.
Stores could build their own information services by migrating existing, barcode scanning based, automated shopping applications to a RFID platform. Once in place, these services could be enhanced by adding healthcare related features and giving the customer access to these features via a conventional mobile handset or wireless PDA.
Wireless Healthcare is a UK based consultancy specialising in mobile healthcare and ehealth.
• Download White Paper
"RFID - A Double Edged Sword"
Quick Diary Dates
|
360°IT
22nd - 23rd September 2010, Earls Court | | IP EXPO
20 – 21 October 2010, Earls Court, London | | | | Retail Asia Expo
June 14-16, 2011, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong |
|
|
|
|
|
• Download White Paper
"RFID - A Double Edged Sword"
Related Articles
|
- RFID Technology In Retail
Imagine a technology that could slice the time it takes a retailer to measure inventory, one that could
provide accurate information about a single item as it moves from manufacturing through a store and
then on to post-sales support.
- Advances in passive UHF RFID technology
Trolley Scan announced in Johannesburg that they have crossed another major technical hurdle in the development of long range, efficent, low cost, passive RFID systems.
- UK leads Europe in RFID development, says leading standards body
The UK leads Europe in developing radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies in the supply chain, but a universal standard is needed to help drive adoption and competitiveness even further, according to e.centre, the leading supply chain efficiency association.
- 68% of the food and grocery industry believe RFID will deliver better benefits for the industry
In an exclusive new industry survey, food and grocery think tank IGD has asked how retailers are planning to use it and what it means for suppliers.
- RFID and the Mainstream Supply Chain – Seven Steps to RFID Sanity
This paper outlines the keys to investigating RFID in your supply chain applications, differentiators of RFID tags, steps to test tags in your unique applications and ways to derive maximum benefits from this powerful technology.
- RFID – raising the standard
RFID – where are we at, where are we headed, and what are the benefits and opportunities to be had for resellers? IT Reseller spoke to some of the leading names from the analyst, trade association and standards community.
|
|
|
|
