CNN Money has a short but interesting article on two companies that have developed high-end systems for niche markets that make use of RFID tags.
The first is for a horse-training system:
As Heidi Lemack-Beck rides her horse Jazzmine around the arena at Rhythm & Blues Stables in Allentown, N.J., six pairs of electronic eyes watch every move of these skilled competitors. Heidi quickens the pace of the 16-year-old mare from a trot to a canter, and the cameras swivel to track them – or rather to track the cracker-sized RFID tag stuck to the top of Heidi’s helmet.
The RFID-helmet and camera system were developed by Integrated Equine Technologies and sell for about 10,000 dollars. According to the article if you’re training you need to be able to watch your horse’s every move; this system is much more cost-effective than personal camera-person and more effective than mirrors. On their site they offer general tracking systems and an on-the-fly multi-view editing system (makes sense, if you have multiple cameras tracking the tag, it would be ideal to only have to later view one output).
The second is for medical equipment supplier RF Surgical. Initially the company is selling RFID-enabled sponges that alert surgeons if they are being sewn into patients (no kidding). In surgeries there are sponge counting procedures, but with this system the doctors can just wave a wand over the patient (great way to prevent needless lawsuits). As they describe on the site:
The RF Surgical Detection System consists of three components: a handheld scanning wand connected to a compact, self-calibrating console and a micro RF tag which is embedded in a variety of surgical gauze, sponges and towels available from Medline Industries. When the system is activated and the wand is passed over a patient, an audible and visual alert would signal the presence of any retained object(s) fitted with a tag.
RF Surgical will soon add RFID tags to other medical equipment.
It’s good to see RFID tags spreading to different industries in life and money saving ways. The trend of tagging physical objects will continue. None of these tags (or objects) are being tracked on the internet, but that will happen in time. Meta-data about the objects will be available for anyone with an RFID reader. They’ll need a way to be represented visually on the net. I’m betting they’ll be represented in a virtual representation of the world (probably of the RFID provider’s choosing), just like SAP represented one of their client’s buildings in Second Life.
SAP will be presenting on their Second Life work at Where 2.0; James Au will be answering the question “Why Won’t Second Life Go Away?” at ETech next week.