Intel makes RFID play in Europe

IDG News Service - Intel Corp. is working with European retailers to advance the use of a next-generation bar-code standard that will enable radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, the company announced today.
Carrefour Group, Tesco PLC and Metro Group have formed the EPC Product Retail Users Group of Europe along with Intel. Intel's role in the working group is to provide retailers advice about how to implement technologies such as scanners and handheld devices that work with electronic product code (EPC) and RFID technologies, said Jon Stine, global industry manager of retail consumer packaged goods at Intel.
Intel has previously indicated a lack of interest in manufacturing RFID chips, which are small, inexpensive chips that send out radio signals allowing merchandise to be tracked on store shelves and in warehouses. But the company plans to share details of upcoming processors that can be used in inventory tracking devices in order to help retailers implement inventory tracking systems, Stine said.
The EPC is a 96-bit numbering system that assigns a unique tracking number to every item that leaves a factory. Those numbers are embedded into RFID chips that are placed onto products.
Backers of the technology say it will help companies greatly improve their supply chain management efforts, but privacy advocates are skeptical that retailers will disable the RFID chips once a product leaves the store and say that retailers could track a product's movements outside the supply chain.
Intel is working with several companies in the U.S. regarding RFID implementation strategies but hasn't yet organized a group surrounding the technology, Stine said.
Metro operates a next-generation supermarket in Rheinberg, Germany, that already uses RFID technology.