BEYOND THE BARCODE Beyond the Barcode

Introduction The radio tag, a technology that is capable of tracking objects in real-time The technology has been around for decades, but had never managed to penetrate the consumer market yet. Why? Just too expensive. There are hopes that when the price barrier is finally broken, communication between tag, and manufacturer databases could be achieved allowing for production on demand. With these radio tags, huge supply chains evolve into intelligent and self-maintaining entities. Beyond the Barcode

Penny Barrier The cost of production for such radio tags will not be cheap Once the barrier has been broken, bar codes will become the thing of the past Beyond the Barcode

Penny Barrier Bar Code drawbacks: Though it is cheap, bar code only identify the classes of products. Where else the radio tag can assign each individual item a unique identity Bar codes have to be scanned at certain orientations, where else radio tags only need to be within the range of the reader Beyond the Barcode

Penny Barrier Radio Tag drawbacks: As before mentioned to main reason why radio tags are not used commercially is because of its high cost Manufacturers want the cost to go below a dollar The high cost comes from the silicon chip, antenna and metal coil Beyond the Barcode

Penny Barrier After some research, a method known as capacitive coupling was used It works not by magnetic forces like previous tags, but uses electrostatic charges emitted by the reader. Carbon ink was used instead of the metal coil which was the cost driver of the previous design This allowed the price to drop below 50 cents Beyond the Barcode

Penny Barrier Motorola’s ‘capacitive coupling’ radio tag Beyond the Barcode

Range Issues Motorola released the first capacitive coupling radio tag Unfortunately, it’s low range didn’t make it practical, at 1cm. Higher cost tags had ranges up to 5m but price was a limiter Even so, some companies still go for the more expensive tags, to reduce profit lost due to stolen, lost, or spoiled goods. They can monitor their goods closely, with these tags Beyond the Barcode

Range Issues The radio tag helps to create more realistic picture of how products through the supply chain in the real world Beyond the Barcode

Online linking and EPC Researchers at MIT’s Auto-ID center are attempting to develop a system that will in future, enable manufacturers to monitor products as well as update product information when necessary. The system consists of three entities: - Electronic Product Code - Object Naming Service - Product Markup Language Beyond the Barcode

Online linking and EPC Electronic Product Code (EPC): Consists of: 8-bit header, 2 sets of 24 bits identifying manufacturer and product type, and a 40-bit serial number. These combined give trillions upon trillions of different possible identities to identify objects with. Beyond the Barcode

Online linking and EPC Object Naming Service: When the product containing EPC is read, the information goes to this service. The system then directs the information to the manufacturers server address. Beyond the Barcode

Online linking and EPC Product Markup Language: In the not so distant future, files written in this format will contain vital information about the product. Instructions can be put in and dynamic data files can keep track of physical changes to the product. Beyond the Barcode

Get personal The uses for this technology are endless. Users can take a mobile reader in a supermarket and retrieve particular information about the product. Household items like fridges could auto-notify the user what item in the fridge is running low etc. Beyond the Barcode

But, are we ready? Privacy becomes a main issue. Do we really want our buying habits to be so closely monitored? Accumulation of such data will give manufacturers a detailed record of our lifestyles. Beyond the Barcode

Conclusion No doubt, this is an interesting piece of technology, but we currently do not have the infrastructure to support it. Privacy may not be such a big problem after all, since EPC only monitors products, and not the people using them. Hopefully, with further refinement and development, this technology could be successfully implemented in the not so distant future. Beyond the Barcode

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