E-tags the way to go: ACMA

RADIO frequency identification is a technology that will perhaps affect our lives almost as much as the internet does.

We already use RFID technology to pay motorway tolls, prevent shop theft and increasingly in inventory monitoring and control. But it is also one where the applications are limited only by our imagination.

In 10 or 20 years, my car will be smart. Not only will it automatically keep its distance from the traffic in front, it will constantly report its speed, fuel status and destination to intelligent traffic system roadside terminals. These terminals will monitor all traffic and the information will be processed in a central computer.

Most traffic jams are caused by accidents. Vehicular radar will reduce the incidents of collisions significantly. Since intelligent systems will stop a car from running red lights, perhaps these collisions will all but disappear as well.

RFID will be your vehicle's registration. Your registration fee will be charged depending on what roads you use, the weight of your vehicle, its emission profile and the length of your trip. If you choose to travel in peak hour you will pay for it, and thus market mechanisms will be used to control traffic and pollution as well.

RFID systems will have many other applications, such as the automated ordering of your household groceries.

In the past two years, the Australian Communications and Media Authority has been involved in evaluating the effect of a power increase for RFID systems on adjacent systems in the 900 MHz (spectrum) band. If the increase is feasible, RFID will become a more powerful influence in our lives.

RFID tags will tell our fridges when the milk is out of date, and milk will then be added by the fridge to our shopping lists. All the information about your food will be on its RFID tag. You will be able to see where it came from, its organic history and its freshness, either on your home system or on your personal digital assistant while shopping. All your groceries will be tagged. Your kitchen will monitor them, reorder as you use them and even dispose of them if they go out of date. If you're still one who likes the shopping experience, your trolley will have its own RFID reader and, if you use an automated shopping list, the trolley will tell you where the next item is located.

It will keep a running total of your purchases and, as you leave the store, automatically debit them via your phone or PDA. No checkouts, no queues. Nirvana.

RFID will open myriad opportunities, some simple, some controversial. We already tag our pets; some day will someone suggest we tag our children so we can trace them and make sure they are safe? This debate will continue well into the future.

This is an edited part of ACMA chairman Chris Chapman's speech to the Radcomms '08 conference in Melbourne.