"Talkative" Smart Items

Call it "RFID 2.0" if you will, but even as RFID remains an emerging technology, the European Union is forging ahead with a service-oriented architecture that will allow "smart items" to communicate not just with a central reader, but with each other.

The Collaborative Business Items (CoBIs) project has been in development since 2004, and combines sensing and short-range wireless technologies to create a peer-to-peer network to observe subtle changes in the items' environment, and feed that information back to a central system.

The result would be to transform inventory items into individual nodes. The resulting self-aware network could detect unsafe conditions such as overloads or the presence of dangerous substances, prevent theft and loss, and be incorporated into smart clothing -- all presumably more effectively than conventional RFID technology.

Although those involved with CoBIs are confident that the technology will soon be ready for commercial deployment, a timetable has not yet been announced, and the number of potential users is unknown.

Source: ZDNet