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Printer FriendlyReprinted with permission from Popular Mechanics, January
1999.
© Copyright The Hearst Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
ID tags can foil shoplifters
Passive electronic tags have taken a bite out of crime by triggering in-store alarms if the items to which they are attached walk out the door. The next generation of these radio-frequency powered tagging systems will do more than shout for help.
Two systems are currently under development at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Wash. One will allow police equipped with mobile "interrogators" to track the movement of a stolen item. The other, intended for monitoring inventories of military and high-end personal electronics devices, can respond to deactivation commands that make it impossible, for example, for a thief to turn on a stolen PC.
The tags could also speed checkout lines. "Boxes of tagged items can be interrogated almost simultaneously by a single interrogator," says a PNNL researcher.
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