IBM’s ‘clipped’ RFID tag ready for market

IBM this week announced its design for a radio frequency identification tag that consumers can disable for increased privacy. Canadian manufacturer Marnlen RFiD licensed the technology and is set to begin production immediately, according to IBM.

IBM developed the so-called Clipped Tag at its Watson Research Center and has been demonstrating it since July. The tag features a perforated design that lets consumers tear off the majority of an RFID tag’s antenna to reduce its read range from as much as 30 feet to just a few inches. At the same time, retailers can still use the remaining portion of the tag for operational tasks such as product authentication and recalls.

“The Clipped Tag puts privacy protection into the hands of the consumer, as it gives the consumer a visual confirmation of the tag’s modification,” said IBM’s Paul Moskowitz, one of the tag’s inventors, in a statement.

Toronto-based Marnlen RFiD manufactures custom and standard RFID labels at its facilities in Markham, Ontario.

Most RFID implementations in the consumer-goods industry today require tags at the case and pallet level, but item-level RFID tagging is not far off, according to industry watchers. Already in the pharmaceutical industry, companies are tagging single items to help combat the counterfeit drug problem.

In the retail industry, companies can use item-level RFID tagging to reduce out-of-stock conditions and streamline product replenishment processes. In item-level inventory tracking pilot projects, based on RFID, participants yielded stock availability improvements of over 50% in targeted merchandise categories, according to AMR Research. In addition, retailers lowered their labor costs related to managing stock and handling replenishments by as much as 15% to 20%, the firm says.