Radio Frequency Identification Technology for Logistics, Tagging and EPC

Combating the 'five finger discount': the value of RFID as an electronic surveillance tool

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The “five finger discount” has become an all-too accepted part of the American lexicon. In recent years, we’ve seen celebrities, politicians, sports stars caught in the act of shoplifting items of little real value, but with embarrassing and grainy store surveillance footage showing-up on the cable networks and YouTube - often with career-devastating consequences.

All too often however, shoplifting is an all too pedestrian crime, being the outward manifestation of a person’s deeper demons. In fact, the vast majority of “traditional” shoplifting is carried out either by those with psychological problems (typically kleptomania issues, as well as depression and low self-esteem) and/or those with need for money (drug, alcohol, and gambling addiction being a prime motivator).

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Curious what the worldwide RFID community found most interesting in 2009? One of the best indicators can be found in a review of the top stories from RFIDNews. Human implants, RF-enabled soft drink dispensers, and logistics applications from the farm to the mall garnered top attention in the past year. The editorial team at AVISIAN Publishing is already back at it, digging up the latest and greatest with regard to RFID implementations, products, and issues. Stay tuned in 2010.

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Hitachi has announced a partnership with Avion Solutions, a technical services company, on the development of a new biometric solution. The system is designed for use in law enforcement in North America and utilizes finger vein scanning, which authenticates via a near-infrared light mapping out the unique pattern of veins in an individual’s finger.

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A facial recognition system developed by California-based biometric technology developer Airborne Biometrics Group (ABG) is seeing use in a number of industries including government, casinos, transportation and corporations, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal article.

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Sisvel U.S. and the RFID Consortium have rolled out an ultra-high frequency RFID patent licensing program to promote rapid adoption of UHF technology.

By creating a single license that includes all patents essential to the EPC global and ISO/IEC standards, UHF RFID developers and manufacturers can now economically license essential patents in a single transaction.

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Singapore’s CITY Tours has introduced a new contactless smart card that allows tourists to tap into various city attractions, according to asiaone.com.

In addition to speeding up lines, the card also gives visitors up to a 45% discount at popular attractions such as Underwater World and the Singapore Zoo.

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Ceelox has announced that it has finished development of a prototype application that would use Ceelox’s fingerprint biometrics to enable biometric authentication in online environments such as corporate intranets, cloud computing networks and commercial applications like online banking and other personal account-based access.

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