Hitachi's employee-tracking AirLocation II Tag-w WiFi-enabled RFID tags

Think wearing RFID-embedded clothing is pushing the limits of intrusion? If Hitachi has its way, your employer will soon be swapping out that company badge for a significantly more tricked-out version, complete with WiFi and RFID modules. Moving forward from the not-so-harmless RFID mirror, Hitachi is unveiling its AirLocation Tag-w at this week's CEATEC expo, which boasts a frightening ability to track and locate employees anywhere within the workplace. Aiming for "thorough and precise management of people," the device can pinpoint one's exact location, and also monitors any attempts to "enter and leave buildings." In an apparent attempt to color this voyeuristic tag in a positive hue, it also features an "emergency message function" which will broadcast a distress signal from the employee to a central help desk in case an uncontrollable robot army decides to invade your mundane corporate office. Although your manager may be salivating over the sudden ability to know the whereabouts of every mischievous subordinate on site, he / she may think twice once that ¥21,000 ($178) per unit expense hits the cost sheets.

[Via MobileMag]

[Robotron @ Oct 2nd 2006 7:19PM]

Kinda sad that employers feel the need to treat their staff like children.

[furtim @ Oct 2nd 2006 7:56PM]

Yeah. But, hey, the government wans like children. So, really, these employers are just following a set example.

It does get really hard to justify this, though, compared with using badges to log entry and exit, which does make some kind of sense. Particularly if you have sensitive areas like a server room or a medical/financial records file, you'll want to know who's going in there and how much time they're spending inside. But you can do that with standard ID badges. This system goes way beyond what's sensible for an employer to do.

[furtim @ Oct 2nd 2006 7:57PM]

Oy vey. "The government wants to treat us like children.", I meant. Serious brainfart.

[ET @ Oct 2nd 2006 10:39PM]

Scary stuff.

[CP @ Oct 4th 2006 2:37PM]

Furtim's right- you can do just as much for far less using conventional badges. And in cases of sensitive areas, all you need inside is something called a security detail or cameras or something of the sort. All thats' really needed to keep track of an employee's wearabouts are multiple locations where you have to scan your badge. the little magnetic strip is sure to be a hell of a lot cheaper than 178$ a pop.