[Previous entry: "Low Gas Prices Illegal in 35 States"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Miss Fitz' Guide to Guns, Part III"]

04/01/2004 Archived Entry: "A little good news on the RFID front"

VENDORS AREN'T SURE IF RFIDs ARE WORTH IT.

Debra here, subbing for Claire today. While Oracle Corp (run by that champion of liberty, Larry Ellison) is rolling out technology to capture the tons of data it anticipates from RFID tags, vendors are wondering if the tags are even worth the time and cost.

Far from having the nickle-apiece price tag that pro-RFID groups have been positing, the tags actually cost between 40 and 50 cents each. In addition, new hardware and software for reading the tags and storing the resulting data is required...hardware and software that isn't cheap (you didn't think Ellison was pushing this out of the goodness of his heart, did you?) In addition, there's a decent percentage of error in the data being collected. In many cases, only 70-80% of the data is read off the tag -- even less when the item being read is made of metal, which blocks radio signals.

In all, it looks like the RFID advocates have a ways to go before they're able to convince businesses of the value in this technology, let alone consumers.

Posted by Debra @ 08:22 AM CST
Link