Microchips Everywhere: a Future Vision

[dgriffin]

Get ready. Soon they'll be able to tell what's in your wallet. In your trunk, your kitchen and in your bed. Maybe even what you're eating.

RFID chips (radio frequency identification miniature circuits) will be embedded in everything, maybe even you. Readers will pick up the signals in public areas, school hallways, restrooms. A little reader sitting on the dashboard of a car driving through your neighborhood will know if you bought Orville Reddenbacher Popcorn, maybe even when and how often. Sound overly futuristic?

Uh-uh. It's here!





Microchips Everywhere: a Future Vision


Here's a vision of the not-so-distant future:

_Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items _ and, by extension, consumers _ wherever they go, from a distance.

_A seamless, global network of electronic "sniffers" will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people and their tastes instantly so that customized ads, "live spam," may be beamed at them.

_In "Smart Homes," sensors built into walls, floors and appliances will inventory possessions, record eating habits, monitor medicine cabinets _ all the while, silently reporting data to marketers eager for a peek into the occupants' private lives.

Science fiction?

In truth, much of the radio frequency identification technology that enables objects and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly already exists _ and new and potentially intrusive uses of it are being patented, perfected and deployed.

Some of the world's largest corporations are vested in the success of RFID technology, which couples highly miniaturized computers with radio antennas to broadcast information about sales and buyers to company databases.

Already, microchips are turning up in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags. They're also in library books and "contactless" payment cards (such as American Express' "Blue" and ExxonMobil's "Speedpass.")

Companies say the RFID tags improve supply-chain efficiency, cut theft, and guarantee that brand-name products are authentic, not counterfeit. At a store, RFID doorways could scan your purchases automatically as you leave, eliminating tedious checkouts.

At home, convenience is a selling point: RFID-enabled refrigerators could warn about expired milk, generate weekly shopping lists, even send signals to your interactive TV, so that you see "personalized" commercials for foods you have a history of buying. Sniffers in your microwave might read a chip-equipped TV dinner and cook it without instruction.

"We've seen so many different uses of the technology," says Dan Mullen, president of AIM Global, a national association of data collection businesses, including RFID, "and we're probably still just scratching the surface in terms of places RFID can be used."


www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/27/microchips-everywhere-a-_n_83449.html


And you thought telemarketing was the scourge of the western world!

[concerned]

We had new washing machines installed. The chip sences how dirty the cloths are in order to give more time for the wash cycle, it also sences the amount of water left in the rinse extract cycle and increasing the time automatically. These are the newest energy saver high efficiency washers. The only thing now is tahe someone needs to teach the Bosnian and Russian inmates who can't read English how to use them. They already have broken down four times. I talked with our inmate representative to MHA he says it is very difficult for them. I asked then show them how to use them! He is doing that now.

[concerned]

I bet Dr. Ruth could suggest some interesting places for implanting those chips

[chris]

I don't consider it so much as Futuristic as it is Invasive. Just Big Brother out to spy on us whether we like it or not under the pretense of gathering information for merchandising data. It's like my Wegman's shoppers card that supposedly is for getting the Shopper's Club price and a better deal when in reality they use the information to record what you eat, buy and how many times and then sell it to other data banks and God only knows what other information they have gathered on you. They just installed cameras at lights here to catch you going through a red light. (probably just to spy on you more and more)

[dgriffin]

Yup, information is valuable. Especially buying habits. But more and more places are offering buying cards and discounts to use them that are hard to resist, I'm told. Add to that a small but growing trend to discourage cash sales. This not only yields buying data, but also eliminates the cost of dealing with cash, including theft, but also protection and management. (I'm not a real shopper, so for all I know, this trend may now be rampant.)

The makers of the RFID chip tout the ability of a shopper to simply walk out of a store and be billed on his way to his car. But at the end of the month when I see the bill, I won't remember whether I actually got the medium or large size of laundry detergent.

And there were people in the '70's demonstrating outside of grocery stores because with UPC codes the chains were removing prices from the shelves!

I got briefly involved in a project in Doral (outside Toronto) with a supermarket chain that was implementing the new checkout scanners. They wanted to tape the reactions on the faces of customers waiting in line with their groceries. The food chain was telling customers the scanners were installed to speed consumers through the lines. Their real purpose was to keep the throughput the same, but reduce the number of lines and the employees necessary to man them, thus saving payroll dollars. Once they were at that point, some MBA got to wondering how long people WOULD stand in line before getting frustrated. Perhaps, he reasoned, they could cut the number of lines even more and the checkout clerks along with them.
The last I heard from them, they were wondering if they could cut lines even more in certain ethnic neighborhoods where the people seldom complained.

Of course, today technology has merged with the retail trend to practically throw the customer in the pool and tell him to learn to swim. In my local Home Depot last week, I noticed one clerk managing 6 self-checkout scanning stations.