RFID for healthcare

There is a call for papers for a micro edition of the open medical informatics journal - for RFID in healthcare - at http://www.bentham.org/open/tominfoj/Special-Issues.htm Off to HINZ next week (www.hinz.org.nz), It will be interesting to see if the health IT industry is moving forward in this area.

RFID for conception

From the RFID journal, an interesting approach to using RFID enabled systems as data-loggers http://www.temperatureconcepts.com/ a UK-based company has a device that detects ovulation by logging armpit temperature and then downloading the data via RFID. What is interesting is that the RFID element is used as a communication channel, which is turned off most of the time, rather than a conventional zygbee or mobile phone type device. In some ways its not RFID at all, its just piggybacking on the fact that readers are cheap and RFID technology allows this sort of reader- powered data transmission to be implemented easily. The device is pretty expensive - 500 UKP but this is a nice market to be in and one could conceive (sorry) of models where people hire them or are lent them as part of a fertility programme.
The model of using RFID as a data transmission tool is certainly interesting, and it may be that there is a markte for "dumb" tags, "Smart" tags and communication tags too.

Is it you, or is it me ?

RFID in new zealand passed a new milestone when RFID tags were mentioned on "Shortland Street" - http://tvnz.co.nz/shortland-street-episodes/happened-wednesday-2758512
"TK is disturbed by the strange microchip he finds in Jeff's skin, which he identifies as a pet identification advice. When Jeff reveals his wife is a vet, TK is certain something sinister is going on. " I won't spoil the plot but the RFID tag is not the villan of the piece.

Twitter and RFID

Linking twitter and the real world - http://www.switched.com/2009/04/06/twitter-enabled-cat-door-tweets-a-kittys-comings-and-goings/
a twitter enabled RFID catflap is obviously a bit silly, but this may be one of the solutions to data management for RFID. As H1N1 appears to be becoming pandemic, maybe linking the movement of people and contacts as measured by RFID to twitter is a sensible approach...
More web 2.0 stuff..
also, just playing with the webby winning wordle... I put my PhD abstract through wordle and it looks like: http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/929516/Phd_Abstrat_-_fuzzy_Ontology

Disclaimer

As always nothing in this BLOG represents AUT policy or a comittment to buy/endorse or marry any one or thing.

RFID on the Skifield

Apparently Whakapapa Skifield (http://www.mtruapehu.com/) in the central north island is introducing RFID -based season tickets. This could help to solve one of the biggest problems I seem to have when skiing - where were we supposed to meet ? As a snowboarder who falls down a lot and isn't as resilient as 20 years ago, I find having a mobile available often means it gets stuck in your ribs. However if the pass itself could alow you to track the locations of your party members then that would be great....

RFID and Kiwifruit

Article in the NZ herald -about the use of RFID in kiwifruit warehouses. A well established application, its particularly interesting as it integrates cameras and RFID technology and puts the readers on the forklifts.
Another bit of commercial news, DHL are running adverts in the economist magazine about using teperature sensing RFID for pharmaceutical cold-chain applications. This seems to be the technology described in this announcement, DHL seems to have blown hot and cold (!) about RFID, but this seems to be now establishes. Also in this weeks economist a lot about health technology and applications of IT and RFID. Maybe President Obama's investment in Health IT will also stimulate demand in this area. IEEE seems to think that the future is bright in that area