HITACHI SHOWS OFF POWDER-SIZED ID CHIP
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Feb. 23, 2007
TOKYO -- Tiny computer chips used for tracking food, tickets and other items are getting even smaller. Hitachi Ltd., a Japanese electronics maker, recently showed off radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips that are just 0.002 inches by 0.002 inches and look like bits of powder. They're thin enough to be embedded in a piece of paper, company spokesman Masayuki Takeuchi said Thursday.
RFID tags store data, but they need to be brought near special reading devices that beam energy to the chips, which then send information back to the readers.
The technology is already widely used to track and identify items, such as monitoring the distribution of food products or guarding against forgery of concert tickets.
Shown to the public for the first time earlier this month, the new chip is an improvement on its predecessor from Hitachi - the Mu-chip, which at 0.4 millimeters by 0.4 millimeters, looks about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
The latest chip, which still has no name, is 60 times smaller than the Mu-chip but can handle the same amount of information, which gets stored as a 38-digit number, according to Hitachi.
One catch is that the new chip needs an external antenna, unlike the Mu-chip.
The smallest antennas are about 0.16 inches - giants next to the powder-size chip.
There are no plans yet to start commercial production of the new chip, Takeuchi said.
Invisible tracking brings to mind science-fiction-inspired uses, or even abuses, such as unknowingly getting sprinkled with smart-tag powder for Big Brother-like monitoring.
"We are not imagining such uses," Takeuchi said, adding that the latest chip is so new - and so miniature - Hitachi is still studying its possible uses.
YOUNG SHOPPERS WANT TO PAY WITH CHIP IN SKIN
Last updated at 14:13pm on 11th October 2006
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Some customers are willing to have microchip implants as a means of paying in stores, a report out today says.
Teenagers are more open to the idea of having a high-tech shopping experience, the Tomorrow's Shopping World report suggests.
Around 8 per cent of 13 to 19-year-olds were open to the idea of microchip implants while 16 per cent wanted trolleys to be fitted with SatNav systems.
This compared to just 5 per cent and 12 per cent respectively for adults asked the same questions. Two thirds of teenagers and 62 per cent of adults questioned for grocery think tank IGD's report wanted self-scanning systems at shop check-outs.
Some 7 per cent of people in both age groups were willing to use biometric iris or retina recognition payment systems.
On a more low-tech note, 61 per cent of adults and 57 per cent of teenagers wanted staff to pack their bags in shops.
And a "cashless society" is not expected to have materialised within the next decade.
The report says 39 per cent of teenage respondents and 30 per cent of adults said they would still be using cash in 10 year's time.
It adds: "The current and future progress of technology services in store is counter-balanced by the need for shopping with some form of 'human contact'."
One third of adults and 40 per cent of teenagers wanted lots of staff involvement with the shopping experience.
The report, sponsored by technology services company EDS, followed an IGD poll of 500 teenagers and a similar number of adults about their predicted grocery shopping habits for the next decade.
