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Wal-Mart’s ambitious project to affix radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to merchandise has been the poster boy for RFID for so long that anyone could be forgiven for thinking RFID is simply an inventory control technology – and that setbacks in the Wal-Mart project indicate it isn’t catching on.
In fact, while some Wal-Mart suppliers have missed deadlines for tagging their goods, the project isn’t going too badly, says Mark Tauschek, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont. But even if Wal-Mart’s and every other inventory control project had crashed and burned, RFID would still be pretty big.
Its uses range from access control to payment cards to tracking goods through assembly lines to tracking inspection and testing of equipment.
Some of those uses are established but growing as costs fall and users see now possibilities. Others are just emerging.
Payment cards are an increasingly popular use of RFID. MasterCard Canada, for instance, has combined contact and contactless technology in its new chip cards, layering RFID technology on top of the EMV standard credit card issuers are phasing in for chip and personal identification number payments.
Its PayPass cards are accepted for charges under $50 at merchants like Tim Horton’s and Loblaws, and MasterCard recently signed a deal with Coca-Cola Bottling Co. that will see some 5,000 vending machines accepting them by 2010.
Paying by bringing a card within four centimeters of a reader is convenient and makes card payments for small transactions practical, says William Giles, vice-president of acceptance at MasterCard Canada. “It opens up a new category of transactions and huge convenience for cardholders.”
Also, says Giles, contactless payments reduce wear and tear on cards, eliminate puzzling over which way the card goes into an electronic reader, and in some cases consumers needn’t even take their cards out of their wallets.
One established use of RFID is in access control. Wallet-sized plastic cards or key fobs with embedded chips can unlock doors without being inserted in a card reader. These cards have become popular in workplaces and other locations where access control is required. As RFID costs decline, says Tauschek, access control cards are taking on new roles.
A fitness club, for instance, might have started by giving members chip cards that open its outside doors. Today, those cards are starting to operate vending machines, recording time spent on different exercise machines and even calling up workout plans on computer screens so members don’t have to carry the information around with them.
The health-care sector is increasingly interested in RFID for tracking equipment, staff and patients. Tagging scarce and valuable equipment not only discourages theft but makes equipment easier to find when needed. As anyone who has ever tried to locate a wheelchair in a busy hospital knows, that’s not trivial.
“RFID is a technology that we feel strongly has a role to play in the health care space,” says Victor Garcia, chief technologist at Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd. in Mississauga, Ont.
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