Could a microchip implant like the VeriChip cause cancer? A French Bulldog named Léon was the catalyst for new questions about the safety of RFID implants.
One year ago, Léon’s owner contacted me with startling news. She believed that her dog’s cancerous tumor and his untimely death might have been caused by a microchip implant.
This was not just idle talk by a grieving dog owner grasping at straws to figure out why she had been robbed of her constant companion. This was a gutsy lady who refused to allow the vet to simply cremate the evidence.
This lady prefers to be known only by her first name of “Jeanne,” so the Associated Press couldn’t credit her properly as the original source for some of the explosive information in its article “Chip Implants Linked to Animal Tumors,” but I have the leeway in this forum to share the behind-the-scenes story.
Jeanne spent a small fortune trying to cure her ailing French bulldog, Léon, after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. When medical interventions failed and Léon passed away, she decided to hunt for the reason the fatal tumor in his body was attached to the glass-encapsulated microchip that had been injected into his neck for identification purposes.
Jeanne located a team of researchers in Italy who agreed to test tissue samples
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Could we be constantly tracked through our clothes, shoes or even our cash in the future?
I’m not talking about having a microchip surgically implanted beneath your skin, which is what Applied Digital Systems of Palm Beach, Fla., would like to do. Nor am I talking about John Poindexter’s creepy Total Information Awareness spy-veillance system, which I wrote about last week.
Instead, in the future, we could be tracked because we’ll be wearing, eating and carrying objects that are carefully designed to do so.
The generic name for this technology is RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification. RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.
You should become familiar with RFID technology because you’ll be hearing much more about it soon. Retailers adore the concept, and CNET News.com’s own Alorie Gilbert wrote last week about how Wal-Mart and the U.K.-based grocery chain Tesco are starting to install “smart shelves” with networked RFID readers. In what will become the largest test of the technology, consumer goods giant Gillette recently said it would purchase 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology of Morgan Hill, Calif.
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-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
The onward march of technology has seen gadgets getting smaller, more powerful, and of course, wireless. Portability, mobility, and ease-of-use are the keywords that seem to be driving innovation these days. And yet despite all the wireless technology we have never been able to cut the final technological cord so to speak, power. So it comes as no surprise that researchers have come up with wireless methods to charge devices like notebook computers, mobile phones, and even RFID tags – one of them being flexible plastics technology.
Japan, as usual, has a head start on the technology, and scientists at the University of Tokyo have built a prototype of a wireless charging device that powers gadgets that come into contact with it. Using a technology they call flexible electronics.
But Germany and the United Kingdom are not far behind - the Cambridge-based Plastic Logic is setting up a factory in Silicon Saxony in Dresden, Germany, to manufacture flexible display technology components. Other analysts are examining top online universities for information relating to new technologies as well. But with the rapid increase in value of flexible plastics there is increasing concern that organizations who do not employ individuals with criminal justice degrees, will largely be unable to protect their investments. Production of flexible active-matrix display modules for electronic reader products is due to start in 2008. Silicon Networks reports:
Simon Jones, vice president of product development for Plastic Logic, sees two main applications for flexible plastics technologies - RFID tags and flexible displays. He claimed that displays are one of the key initiatives for the technology, as current displays are power-hungry and so eat into the battery life of mobile devices, and use heavy materials, limiting portability.
Finances pure and simple are apparently the reason the US airline industry has not implemented RFID baggage tagging. That and the fact that such tags end up being disposable and are currently expensive enough to cut into already small profits. But weighed against the fact that US airlines lose track of about 10,000 bags each day and typically compensate passengers, baggage tagging costs begin to look more attractive. The prediction is that as more airlines start to implement radio frequency technology for baggage tagging, the cost of tags and readers will drop, which in turn will likely encourage more US airlines to follow suit.
One possibility for raising funds to pay for the RFD technology is a head tax, but in the US, it's mostly the airlines and not the airports that usually handle baggage. So such a tax is less likely. That leaves higher ticket prices, which may not fly, so to speak, with passengers because of the competitive market. But it is expected that baggage tagging use will increase, with related revenues to the RFID industry to double by 2011. Other issues to be worked out, other than tag costs: the infrastructure and the tags themselves. One reader of this site commented that "a more feasible solution would be... multi-use tags..." and to "charge $10 and offer greater insurance against lost baggage."
[sources: PR Minds]
-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
The nature conservationists are at it again. And they’re harnessing the power of RFID to help them preserve and study the vagaries of the zoological kingdom. First it was wasps, now it’s fish – the Columbia River Basin Project is tagging migrating salmon and steelhead in the river to understand their lifecycle and study how the environment, fishing, hatcheries and power plants affect their survival. The river is the site of several hydropower systems and dams.
Scientists from the Department of Energy use fishing nets to catch the fish, inject them with the chip, and then release them back into the stream across Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The RFID tag is then scanned using wireless handheld readers and the data sent to the PTAGIS (Passive integrated transponder Tag Information System) based in Portland, Oregon. The agency is responsible for managing and maintaining the data on the fish populations.
Digital Angel, according to a $10 million contract, has provided the passive transponders, hand-held readers, custom-made antennas and the graphical user interface for the project. Zeke Mejia, the company's CTO, claims a 99.5 percent data capture rate.
-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
Are RFID tags robust enough to survive the extreme conditions in outer space? That’s what NASA is attempting to find out when Endeavour takes off to the International Space Station in July later this year. The space shuttle will carry a variety of paper and plastic Gen 2 passive tags from Intermec; they will be attached in a case to the outside of the station for a year during which they will be subject to harsh heat and cold, ultraviolet radiation, and vacuum conditions as it orbits Earth.
If the tags pass the litmus test, they will then be tested on a pre-Moon launch rocket test that is scheduled in another 27 months. According to Fred Schramm, administrator for the internal research and development program at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the agency is hoping to use RFID:
[via Network World]
to monitor and manage inventory on spacecrafts, and to track internal and external environmental conditions both on the mission to the moon and future manned flights to Mars.
Readers placed in strategic positions would allow data to be transmitted either to a local network on the spacecraft or directly back to Earth. NASA is counting on RFID to efficiently manage the complex vehicles and systems used in space exploration, said Schramm.
-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
Time and again, nature has had to pay the price for the progress of mankind. The environment has been gradually degraded under the guise of technological advancement. Now it’s time for technology to repay its debt to the earth and contribute its mite to the conservation of natural resources.
RFID is stepping in to do its part – the technology is being used to prevent the destruction of natural coral reefs when anchors are dropped by the numerous yachts cruising the seas. The MarPark system allows boaters to moor their crafts using a rope, a rubber ring, and a smartbuoy. They sign up for the service online and receive the SeaPass ring through the mail.
On arrival at their port of favor, all they have to do is hook the ring to within 4 inches of the reader in the buoy, which in turn is activated only when the sensor picks up the inclination of the moored boat. The buoys are environment-friendly;
[via Wired]
They tether to octagonal modules of reinforced concrete that allow the sea floor to "breathe," minimizing environmental impact.
The ring also provides value added services for the cruisers – on docking, it relays information to an onshore service center that allows them access to water taxis and supplies.
Developed by Italgest Mare with technical know-how from Siemens Italia, the system is supported by the environmental group Legambiente and is currently on trial at a few protected locations in Liguria and Sardinia in Italy. If all goes according to plan, MarPark will park itself at around 20 areas by the year 2009, including Costa Smeralda, Otranto (Puglia) and the Greek island of Corfu.
-- Staff Writer
RFID smart label converter Worldlabel.com
has developed a label converting system called the Infinity V1 RFID Tag and Inlay embedding system for smart label converting, which can embed both HF and UHF inlays into custom label sizes outside of standard size label dimensions. The embedding system also includes a novel bad tag rejection function allowing only readable tags to be embedded into the labels. 
Worldlabel says its label converting system will benefit end users looking for custom-size smart labels for applications in supply chain, consumer packaging, pharmaceuticals packaging and baggage tracking tags and many other applications. The new generation RFID Tag/Inlay embedding machine was jointly developed and built with TÜV SÜD PSB Group. Worldlabel says the machine will be produced in Singapore, with a current lead time of approximately 12 weeks. The Infinity can either be modulated with current label converting lines or used stand-alone. Operators can key in the label dimensions needed using a touch pad.
For more information: Infinity RFID embedding
-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
With RFID being used for a wide range of applications, it follows that a demand exists for rugged, robust tags that withstand extreme conditions. Texas Instruments (TI) has stepped in serve this need with its Overmolded (OM) transponder line of RFID tags, which are:
[via Thomasnet News]
…designed to withstand extreme environments where temperature, high pressure and harsh chemicals inhibit the performance of line-of-sight automatic identification technologies such as bar codes and other less robust RFID tags.
The tags come with two memory options – 2K and 256 bits, they’re small and extremely durable and provide competitive read rates. Perfect for industrial laundry purposes – a fact that has been tried and tested with success in Norway, at the St. Olavs University Hospital in Trondheim.
-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
Microsoft’s Technology Centers in Austin, Reston, Chicago, Boston, Silicon Valley and New York have been embedded with RFID hardware from Intermec Inc., which designs and develops products that facilitate the tracking and management of supply chain assets. CV60 vehicle-mounted computers, IV7 vehicle-mounted RFID readers and IA33E RFID antennas will help Microsoft’s client enterprises and ISV (independent software vendors) to use these state-of-the-art facilities to design, develop, test and implement its .NET Enterprise Servers, .NET Framework and XML Web services, before they deploy them in their own IT environments.
[via Business Wire]
Microsoft selected Intermec for its RFID technology and thought leadership, its commitment to the Microsoft platform, and Intermec RFID hardware interoperability with the Microsoft BizTalk RFID platform.
