http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/ Engadget Comments for RFID bag tracking by airlines might not fly http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/Dec 19th 2005 1:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/
It was USAirways. Don't fly with them. Ever.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/Dec 19th 2005 1:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/rfid-bag-tracking-by-airlines-might-not-fly/
RFID doesn't have to be short range. Those toll tags (EZ-Pass in the NY area) are RFID tags.

It's kind of silly that the airlines haven't done this. It's not as hard as you'd think to implement an RFID system. Bascially, you need readers, a database, and tags.

The problem is when you get into high-data situations, like every item in a Wal-Mart being read every 10 seconds. That's a couple of million data points being fed in every 5 seconds.

The airlines won't have anywhere near that much data. They will, though, have a lot more interference and load, being distributed and all.

Maybe they should contract with FedEx to do the tracking. FedEx's tracking system is pretty unbelievable. Last I heard (4 years ago), the average lookup time for a tracking number was around .3 seconds. Adapting their system to RFID shouldn't be a big deal, as long as you can get good data out of the readers.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM