Ireland may lead way in radiowave tagging

According to one of Intel's top Irish researchers, Ireland could be the global centre for research into one of the hottest areas of information technology development: radio frequency identification, or RFID technologies.

RFID, based on chips working in tandem with tiny antennae to identify and broadcast information about an item using radio waves, has been touted by many of the largest IT companies as central to the future of identification and management of objects - and even people.

However, as with most cutting-edge technologies still in the development phase, and still entangled in wrangles over industry standards, there's more hype than usage at present.

But if Dr Joe Dalton, senior technologist at Intel Ireland's research and development innovation centre, has his way, Ireland will take centre-stage in the development of what he sees as one of the most important technologies of the future.

"There's a real opportunity for Ireland. With the anchor of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries here, there is no country better equipped to do the transitional work and take RFID from academia to the business side," Dalton says. He also notes that Ireland is already a centre for software development and has a diverse range of expertise in academic centres on RFID and the use of sensors.

Certainly, the big names in IT - IBM, Siemens, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP - are already deeply interested in RFID and involved in various pilot schemes across the globe. The problem, says Dalton, is that the pilots are scattered and unconnected, and there's very little bridging between academic research and business applications.

One problem is that RFID is already hyped, as companies make claims about what will be possible, and the market hears this as a statement that this is a technology ready to be used.

Dalton, however, is blunt about RFID's current limitations. "When people say it's a mature technology, they're wrong. There's years of work before RFID will become mainstream - probably not until 2010 - but in the meantime, there's so much work that needs to be done."

He wants that work to be done here, where focused research, coupled with a base of companies in sectors that could most benefit from RFID technology, mean there's much opportunity for research coupled with highly structured pilot schemes.

What sorts of things might be done? Dalton says the pharmaceutical industry has a $30 billion (€24.8 billion) problem with counterfeiting, coupled with regulatory demands to tightly control the manufacturing and distribution process from 2007. RFID is one of the technologies offered as a solution, and pilot projects such as tagging bottles and vials for tracking would be perfect for Ireland, he says.

Ireland is also an ideal location for healthcare trials, he says. RFID use in hospitals is seen as an excellent counter to many healthcare problems, such as the fact that 100,000 people die annually in the US due to medical errors such as offering the wrong medication at the wrong dosage.

Patients could be tagged with RFID wristbands, and in one South Korean project, babies are tagged with RFID ankle bands.

Some 23,000 babies a year are mismatched to parents in US hospitals, says Dalton. Intel has already been involved with a pilot project at St Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.

"The response we got back was overwhelmingly positive. Admission discharge time improved by 85 per cent and throughput increased by 40 per cent. There was up to an eight-hour gap when a bed might be free, which they reduced to an average of 45 minutes," he says.

The pilot also found the hospital had up to 50 per cent excess stock on its books, because doctors and nurses wouldn't know where an item was and would order a new one. With RFID, a real-time picture of every asset in every room was available, and nurses knew from looking at a computer screen whether a room was occupied or free.

RFID has a huge number of applications in the supply chain - every possible angle of managing stock from warehouse to shelves, as well as transport, cold storage, livestock management and tracking blood supplies. "RFID has a huge ability to organise chaotic processes," Dalton says.

Ultimately, RFID will be a central building block of the next-generation internet. He believes all types of objects will be tagged and will make their status known to a world of sensors, readers and computers sharing information.

He insists Intel has no direct interest in pushing RFID, as the company doesn't make the chips that go into tags. But Intel is convinced RFID is an ideal fit for Ireland. "We are willing to step up and drive this thing on behalf of interested parties,"he says.

"We're on the cusp of something big, that is going to take us to 2020 and beyond, " Dalton says. "I also believe the RFID spin-offs are huge. I would like in 10 years' time for Ireland to be seen as the hotbed of activity for RFID and sensors. Someone is going to be doing it, so why not us?"