Radio frequency identification, "transmits the identity (in the form of a unique serial number) of an object or person wirelessly, using radio waves." Most often used for tracking (i.e. dogs) and security, it can also have applications for waste management and document archiving. Those in favour of the technology feel it will "increasingly have a significant impact on the efficiency of business processes and ultimately, the consumer experience".

In a bid to convince the audience at a recent Wireless Wednesday that RFID tags are "poised to become as far-reaching a wireless technology as the cell phone", three key speakers presented their views.

Carlo Posing, Managing Director of RMS.lu (Retail Management Systems), in Ettelbrück, gave an overview of his company's activities (Symbol Barcode readers, RF systems, etc.). He also spoke of future RFID possibilities such as a microwave pizza with a chip inside that tells you when the pizza is done (but, what happens to the chip when you eat the pizza?), and an intelligent refrigerator (great - appliances that whine when they require maintenance).

Gilles Wagener, Attaché de Direction at DEXIA/BIL unveiled the bank's current project, in conjunction with RMS.lu, of switching over to an RFID system of document archiving. This is a huge project that involves archiving roughly 415,000 documents a month. Wagener showed how the tag system eliminates 4 or 5 steps from the current workflow of traditional archiving.

Although initial investment is high, he felt the improved system would start paying for itself within a year. At first glance, this doesn't appear to be a striking improvement - scanning systems put everything on computer within days eliminating the need to retrieve the actual document. Granted, the RFID system can tag a lot of information accurately (multiple documents-one tag). But one cannot help but think, with the stricter regulations being applied to documentation in terms of banking, accounting etc. the real money might just lie in archiving, rather than finance!

Koen Pellegrims of Telindus, presented a case study of DIFTAR (Differential Tarification) for waste management in Holland. This experimental system is being used to tag and identify 80,000 wheelie bins. Each person's garbage is weighed and billed accordingly, and the tagging system identifies a black list of bad payers. The object was to reduce the amount of waste, but it isn't difficult to imagine a "garbage mafia" arising: neighbours trying to dump their pricey garbage in someone else's bin, garbage secretly chucked elsewhere, anger directed at garbage men who won't take stinky garbage away. The system does demonstrate that RFID tags have advantages: they can withstand a harsh environment, are difficult to forge, lower in price and longer lasting.

RFID holds a lot of potential for tasks such as archiving the huge amounts of documentation that are piling up all over the globe, but isn't it a bit disconcerting that soon there will be virtually nothing that can't be tracked and identified' You can run, but you can't hide.