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Inventor pioneered an idea in the 1970s that's finally catching on.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
Byline: Dean Takahashi
The next time you wave a key card to unlock the door to your office building, think of Charles Walton. One of Silicon Valley's unsung inventors, Walton's patents on radio frequency identification, or RFID, spawned those electronic door keys. Now the technology Walton pioneered in the 1970s and 1980s is poised to change the way billions of products are tracked.
Prodded by Wal-Mart and the Pentagon, manufacturers will soon be tagging everything from diapers to combat boots with RFID chips. The chips transmit information about products' location and use over radio waves to a central computer. Libraries are using RFID to keep tabs on books while hospitals embed radio chips on pharmaceutical bottles to makes sure drugs are not misused. A Barcelona nightclub scans RFID chips implanted under patrons' skins when they want to pay for a drink wirelessly.
For Walton, industry's embrace of RFID is bittersweet. Back in the 1970s, the bar code was a 25-cent solution that beat out Walton's $1.75 RFID cards as the identification system for goods scanned over supermarket ...
- WAL-MART'S WALTON SAYS KEEP RFID SIMPLE.(Radio Frequency Identification)
- Magazine article from: Supermarket News Zwiebach, Elliot November 8, 2004 700+ words
...has only begun dealing with RFID, Walton pointed out. "Right now...technology is expensive, Walton pointed out, with RFID-tag readers running as...could happen as more uses for RFID tags are found, Walton said. "Initially, the...
- RFID could cost average Wal-Mart vendor $9M.
- Magazine article from: Arkansas Business Bowden, Bill April 12, 2004 700+ words
...of Arkansas' Sam M. Walton College of Business...technology of implementing an RFID tag program. The answer...Hardgrave said, is to put an RFID tag on each fork-lift...logistics at the UA's Walton College, said RFID promises to cut down on...
- Reading between the lines: RFIDs confront the venerable bar code: security and...
- Magazine article from: EDN Asia Dipert, Brian January 1, 2005 700+ words
...Engineers) first detailed the theory and implementation of RFID. Prolific inventor Charles Walton in 1973 received the first RFID patent for a passive RFID-based door-lock reader. Walton coincidentally shares the same last name as the late Sam...
- Reading between the lines: RFIDs confront the venerable bar code: security and...
- Magazine article from: EDN Dipert, Brian October 14, 2004 700+ words
...Engineers) first detailed the theory and implementation of RFID. Prolific inventor Charles Walton in 1973 received the first RFID patent for a passive RFID-based door-lock reader. Walton coincidentally shares the same last name as the late Sam...
- Wal-Mart Forges Ahead with RFID.
- Magazine article from: eWeek March 6, 2006 700+ words
...Mart, during an RFID World panel discussion...Dallas on Feb. 28. Walton explained that as...execution" using RFID. The example Walton provided is time...supplier to shelf, Walton said Wal-Mart analyzes its RFID data and sits down...
- Wal-Mart to expand RFID: Next January, 1,000 stores will be able to receive...
- Newspaper article from: Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX) March 2, 2006 700+ words
...percent with the use of RFID," Carolyn Walton, vice president of information...panel discussion at the RFID World conference in Grapevine...if it was tagged with RFID, it was replenished...would," she said. Ms. Walton said that when the company...
- RFID: making the right moves: RFID mania has been a non-event for most food &...
- Magazine article from: Food Engineering Higgins, Kevin T. February 1, 2006 700+ words
Elders in the RFID temple stand ready to stone anyone...3 billion in pre-tax savings if RFID is used for all goods entering its...University of Arkansas's Sam M. Walton College of Business on RFID'S ability to reduce out of stocks...
- Wal-Mart pushes RFID.(radio frequency identification technology)
- Magazine article from: MMR Meyer, Scot March 20, 2006 700+ words
...conducted by the Walton College research...half of them RFID-enabled. Preliminary...involved." Carolyn Walton, Wal-Mart...attendees at the recent RFID World conference...a return on its RFID investments, according to Walton, who added that...
- WAL-MART'S MANDATE; THE RETAILER'S RFID INITIATIVE GENERATES MIXED SIGNALS.
- Magazine article from: WWD Corcoran, Cate T. January 12, 2005 700+ words
...t test its business case for RFID before issuing its mandate...report stated, "When it comes to RFID's impact on product availability...Wal-Mart's Carolyn] Walton [vice president in charge of RFID] shared the fact that product...
- Recharging RFID: an interview with Bill Hardgrave.(TECHNOLOGY)(radio frequency...
- Magazine article from: Supply Chain Management Review Quinn, Francis J. March 1, 2007 700+ words
...Hardgrave is working to get the RFID momentum back ... and he's...several fronts. As director of the RFID Research Center a he Sam Walton College of Business at University...square foot lab that investigates RFID applications in a real-world...
Source: HighBeam Research, Inventor pioneered an idea in the 1970s that's finally catching...