Marks & Spencer does Rfid right

Marks & Spencer is rolling out their Rfid system to an additional 78 stores by spring 2007. Apparently their their Rfid pilot tagging "complex-sizing" items, such as men's suits, has been so successful that they have been able to reduce their weekly inventory counts from 8 hours to 1 hour.

So let's do the math: for 1 store with to reduce shop floor payroll by 7 hrs in one 84 hr work week is a 8% cost savings - when are you going to get that type of efficiency elsewhere. If you assume that about 20 staff per store are affected across all 6 departments, thats 140 hrs saved a week, 560 hrs a month. The equipment is paying for itself.

And the most important thing here is that it is NOT A PRIVACY NIGHTMARE!

The Rfid goes in the hangtags, which are removed by the buyers. They are clearly labeled as Rfid tags and do not contain any user information. And they do what they are supposed to do, which is save time, save money, and make sure more sizes are on the floor for shoppers.

This is Rfid working and there is no Big Brother going on here. No scary monster in the tags. We need more applications like this. More examples that reveal the fearmongers for exactly what they are.

re: RFIDJournal: Marks & Spencer

Ripe for Rip-offs

Big universities do research. Big corporations do research. But with big technologies like rfid, increasingly it's the other way around. A casual browse through the white papers section of RFIDJournal.com will reveal that most of the submissions come from university researchers. And that their research often duplicates systems that have already been commercially implemented, usually with more finesse and insight than their academic counterparts.

It's problem that has its roots in the audience for this research. Commercial entities have customers, and ultimate shareholders, to answer to. University researches simply show and tell.

The Institute of Textiles & Clothing of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is no different. Their research findings into rfid smart dressing mirrors is surprisingly dated and appears to plagiarize Prada and Ted Baker.

An interviewer reports:

"In the future, when a customer brings an RFID (radio frequency identification) tagged jacket in front of a mirror, they will see a number of mix-and-match choices on models with that particular jacket projected on a screen next to the mirror," says Dr Calvin Wong of the Institute of Textiles & Clothing of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

This is not something too distant from now with the intelligent system newly developed by Dr Wong and other developers at the institute.


No it's not. In fact Prada did exactly this at their NYC epicenter store in 2003. Ideo and Iconoclast designed and installed that system. It was pretty neat - but in the end shoppers rejected it. It couldn't handle the barrage of items shoppers brought in and didn't want the store to record what sizes they tried on.

The article goes on to say:

Inside such a "smart" fitting room, in addition to the above-mentioned devices, an interactive touch-screen LCD, an intercom and an optional VIP card scanner are also required. The LCD allows the customer to easily find more information about the item, plus some matching pieces and accessories. If interested in any of them, he or she can call on a salesperson via the LCD or intercom without the trouble of getting changed again and leaving the fitting room.

London Ted Baker Endurance stores had implemented this system in 2004. In fact, they did better, and installed a video cam shoppers could use to see how their suits looked from behind.

So this begs the question, can PolyU, or any number of other universities, claim to have created new systems through their research when what they have created is no more than and flacid replica of other technology?

If so then give me a pen, cause I have to 'research' barcodes.

Clipped Tags help marketing, not privacy

Marnlen has licensed IBM's patented Clipped Tag technology for its hangtags products. These tags hang on garments and the clipped tag technology allows users to rip off a large part of the antenna to reduce the tag's read range.

This technology is billed as a privacy-friendly product for consumers, which is a bit of a hedge as it stops short of claiming to actually protect consumer privacy. This is the correct positioning as clipped tags are more of a marketing tool than a real privacy product.

Putting your purchases into a rfid-proof bag would better protect your privacy than ripping all the tags in your purchase. Retailers could supply rfid-proof paper or plastic bags, but that would raise costs and void their security systems.

Clipped tags are a simple, clever product that splits the tag antenna into two portions. The longer portion that enables long range reads can be ripped off, leaving only a short portion which is a sub-wavelength of 915MHz, which only allows the tag to transmit a few inches. But it can still be read, which is a key point. The reason retailers don't want to simply use the kill code on checkout is because they need to identify the tags in cases of returns.

Ripping the tab off the hangtag does not kill the tag. Consumers may get some satisfaction from feeling that they have taken an action to protect their privacy, but the majority of privacy concerns still remain. As the tags still work they can still be skimmed.

This is a good start to public education -- getting consumers to understand that they have to be an active participant if they want to protect their privacy. Shoppers that don't care won't have to do anything.

re: RFID Journal, Marnlen makes Privacy Friendly Tags for Retail Items

NYC's MTA goes Open Loop

Next month, NYU will be hosting a panel to discuss what they call "Contactless smart cards for transit fare payment: A paradigm shift."

The paradigm shift refers not to the use of transit smart cards, which is commonplace, but to the acceptance of smart credit cards from Citibank and Mastercard. In their press release they write:

MTA New York City Transit is exploring an option that permits payment of fare at the point of entry using a standard, bank-issued contactless smart card device. This is a paradigm shift from traditional approaches to fare collection in which transit agencies issue fare media and tickets that are integral to a stand-alone, custom-designed fare collection system. Panelists will review this paradigm shift and explore some of its implications.

Since the beginning of this year, the MTA has begun installing smart card readers from OTI into NYC stations. Only a limited number of participants were selected to trial the pilot, so don't expect to be able to use your Blink just yet.

But judging from the fact that a number of panelists will be from the MTA NYC Transit, it appears that the trials have gone well and the MTA is poised to expand the rollout. In fact, this forum could well be part of their public education before a large scale public trial.

Though the technology inside a regular transit smart card and a contactless credit card is the same (ISO14443), the infrastructure supporting each is vastly different. That is what makes this project so significant. It's a big step to move from a closed-loop automatic fare collection system to an open loop, global credit card network.

The open loop credit card network offers a much wider scale of use for riders. If this idea takes off, riders could potentially use their credit cards to take public transport all over the state, country, or world.

Adopting contactless credit cards is a win-win situation for riders and the transit authorities. Rider have one less card to carry and not only enter the gates more quickly, but eliminate the time spent buying tickets.

For importantly, with a credit card there is no 'breakage' - where stored value is not used - because riders only pay for the rides they use. How many times have you bought a new card because you left your MetroCard at home.

Transit authorities normally benefit from 'breakage' because they do not refund money on lost cards, but they have to bear the operation costs of running the automatic fare collection systems and the clearinghouse functions with the money. With an open loop system such as the credit card network there is no such problem or risk. Let the professionals do the clearing.

Smart credit cards are ideal for this type of application. They were designed to facilitate quick, minipayments. There should be no concern about their safety in the transit system because human operators can't change the value deducted from the cards.

There will however be a concern about rider privacy. The amount of information that credit card companies have on their card carriers has already raised the hackles of privacy activists like Katherine Albrecht. Putting rider location information and transit patterns onto the open loop network could potentially be used to track the location of an individual much more closely than is possible with credit cards today.

This is an issue Citibank and Mastercard along with the MTA need to call out and address today, before a public rollout. It's not a deal breaker. For most people, the convenience is a worthwhile trade-off. Take for example our embrace of cellphones, which transmit much more accurate location data than RFID ever could.

Ultimately, the introduction of contactless credit cards as a form of payment for transport is a significant paradigm shift.

For more info on the trials read, Government Technology, The Subway with Ease
For info from Citi click, The NYC Subway Trial

RFID Tickets for Mass Transit

RFID Weblog wrote:

Recently the people at Hong Kong-based China Elite Technology sent me a copy of their white paper about "Smart Tokens" for ticketing in mass transit. Steven Wong, Product Development Director, writes:"In this white paper we share what we learned developing...

One of the things I found fascinating is on Page 9 of the white paper. It points out that in the future, advertisers may employ near field communications to enable interactive advertising on the tickets. Thus, a consumer's mobile phone could be used to pick up advertising and messages from the token. What that means is that even the tickets will be talking to us! We are not that far away from the scenarios envisioned in the movie, Minority Report.

Fascinating.

In the report there actually isn't much about NFC advertising, but it's an interesting idea. The report says:

Transit tickets serve a critical role in the relationship between the transit operator and its riders. Stored value smart cards generate immediate loyalty to modes of transportation that accept the card, and advertising on the tickets bring in revenue for the transit operator, as well as providing marketers with a highly targeted advertising media that travels with the rider.

Typically a LU ticket will have one side available for printing advertising, and the other side is reserved for the transit operator’s branding. Currently the advertising has be limited to printed images, however in the future near field communications (NFC) equipped devices such as mobile phones may enable marketers to explore even more interactive modes of advertising.

I've seen Minority Report twice and can't remember any reality which rfid would enable, but using the stored value tickets to carry NFC advertising could actually work. Every time the card is used it can be updated with a new coupon. Promotions would be timely and semi-targeted: everyone getting off at the Times Square station gets a Pret coffee coupon for that day. Redeemable by NFC phone.


re: RFID Weblog, RFID Tickets for Mass Transit

Active RFID tracks Jöbstl clothing to Charles Vögele stores

Jöbstl Warehousing & Fashion has successfully implemented a 2.4GHz active rfid system from Wherenet to track it's containers on their way to Charles Vögele stores. The architecture of the solution is nothing revolutionary, but seems to be working out very well for Jöbstl.

Basically, their ERP system will know where each container is at any given moment, give or take 2 minutes, and will pay particular attention when a container reaches a dock door. Wherenet designed the system using 3 readers in the warehouse and 25 dock door sensors, called exciters, to track about 35 containers a day.

This setup is simple but effective, and appears to do exactly what it was designed to do with no frills. It's the right approach to designing an rfid system, but also underlines the painful reality facing the industry: most projects don't have volume.

Wherenet, like Savi and RFCode, has mature, stable technology, and an impressive roster of success cases. But these companies have still recently sought venture capital to fund their growth and operations, suggesting that even they have not found the money in rfid yet.

RFID Journal writes:

"This was not a fast rollout, but it was a very positive one," says Florian Erber, director of sales and business development for WhereNet in Europe.

Clearly this was a major engagement for Wherenet and involved a significant investment of resources. It's also a success and the industry would benefit from more simple cases like this. But it's concerning that a retail chain with over 800 stores has been able to absorb only 3 readers, 25 exciters, and a few hundred tags for a project that took a long time to roll out.

Who's footing the bill?

re: RFID Journal, RFID pushes fashion forward