Just how much interest exists in the business sector for RF ID tag use? Consider that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are heading a project to slash the cost of RF ID tags to just five cents by 2005. Joining them are 52 companies, including such giants as Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Wal-Mart. This ambitious project, known as the "Auto-ID Center," is additionally trying to develop a common language of electronic product codes to identify billions of items.
A key element in the use of RF ID tags by the masses is security. Although present RF ID tags provide a reasonable amount of security for single-function, single-person, small-scale uses like gasoline purchases, they're prone to fraud when multiple-application, multi-user situations are involved. Some experts call for a public-key security approach to ensure user confidentiality, authentication, and privacy for any transaction. With a public key, two keys are implemented—a private key for use by only the user, and a public key, which anyone can access. Next-generation RF ID devices will likely employ this approach by storing public-key data on tokens. Specific key readers can rewrite the token's credentials on-the-fly, enabling "dynamic" re-keying once a different but "authorized" user makes the transaction.
Propelled by smaller and more powerful computers and improved communications technology, the office of the future will undergo fundamental changes, as workers increasingly become telecommuters. This will bring more efficient business operations (smaller central offices and less related expenses), conserve valuable resources (fewer cars on the road, using less gas), help lessen environmental smog, and mean safer driving for those who do drive to the office. Computers will shrink down to wristwatch-like wearable units, while shirt-pocket PDAs equipped with the latest wireless technology will allow instant communications between a central business office and other workers either in the field, on the road, or at their home office. Besides high-resolution graphics, these small powerhouses will feature enough storage space to hold large databases.
Further, the same electronic device technology that's driving down the cost and size of office machines like printers, copiers, faxes, and scanners will translate into completely equipped personal offices and cubicles for every worker. No more waiting for that single networked machine shared by a large group or department. Each office worker will have his or her own machines, yet they'll all be networked together with other workers' machines, no matter where they are on the globe, for up-to-the-minute communications.
Electronics technology also allows mankind to conduct geophysical explorations of the worlds around him, beneath him, above him, and underwater. Satellite mapping of potential underground resources has been going on for a few years and is improving each day. Microsensors that are thousands of times more sensitive and accurate than legacy devices used for decades are giving scientists a new view of potential oil and gas resources buried deep underground.
Ever since Jules Verne's classic novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea became a bestseller, the fire of curiosity for underwater exploration has burned brightly. But until recently, such endeavors were confined to the military sector. Now autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) are under development for the commercial sector. They will be used to survey arctic ice packs, study underwater fish populations, salvage high-profile discoveries like sunken ships and planes, research underwater environmental conditions, and explore for oil and gas resources. AUVs and UUVs are big business, a market that analysts expect to double to $12 billion next year.
Expect to see underwater, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) attached to overhead mother ships, either by cable or by wireless communications. The GPS will have overall control, while the mothership will provide the fine-tuned control. Such future systems will improve data-collection quality via synthetic-aperture sonar, sophisticated instrumentation, and high-resolution sonar mapping. Some experts predict the development of hybrid RUVs/AUVs capable of traveling to wherever they're needed within the next three years. These can then be plugged into a seafloor network to become ROVs for oil and gas exploration.
The creation of civil structures, like buildings, dams, bridges, and tunnels, will also rely more heavily on electronics technology for better safety, maintenance, and efficiency. Micro-size sensors will be deeply embedded within these structures, constantly supplying data on shear, strain, pressure, and other forces that can affect them. Soon it may not be necessary to regularly send out engineers to inspect these structures. We will depend on manned computerized data centers that constantly monitor every conceivable parameter to ensure the safety of such structures.
Electronics technology and "the business" of business are two entities inevitably linked together for survival—one simply can't do without the other now, and it will be even more so in the future.
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