23 Jan RFID Asset Tracking, from Hollywood to Real Tracking Solutions

When I first heard the term RFID, I was meeting with an engineer who designed command and control equipment for the military. I loved the idea of tracking equipment and soft assets (read people) as they moved through the battlefield. My imagination took over and I could see countless uses for this wonder tag and wanted to know everything. He showed me a tag that absorbed energy from a reader that did not even need a battery! I got even more excited. He explained that once the silicon chip in the tag absorbed enough energy it would transmit an ID number back to the reader. The possibilities were endless! He showed me how it worked. I started asking questions about how far, how many, how much and the bubble started to collapse around me.

I have seen many examples of RFID Asset Tracking in movies and on Television. My favorite is James Bond, in Casino Royale, he is injected with a capsule that will allow him to be tracked anywhere in the world by his employers. The transmitting power of that device, which does exist today is about 2 inches. We use it to find lost pets, unfortunately not track them in real time, but when they are discovered, by a professional with the right tools and the knowledge of where to look, Fido can be returned to us. I often hear National radio hosts discuss how the government wants to put chips in each of us as a way to identify individuals. The fear of being tracked, like James Bond runs rampant among the uninformed.

RFID tags are migrating from our favorite Action Blu-Ray disc and into our daily lives. As technology of RFID tags continues to grow smarter in the age of ‘what will they think of next?’ What kinds of assets, data, information would be of interest for you and/or your business to track? The rapid collection of data is endless and using this data to provide real-time solutions is upon us. What tracking solutions do you seek?