Intel makes RFID play

Intel Corp. is working with European retailers to advance the use of a next-generation bar code standard that will enable RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, the company announced Monday.

The Carrefour Group, Tesco PLC, and Metro Group have formed The EPC (electronic product code) Product Retail Users Group of Europe along with Intel. Intel's role in the working group is to provide advice as to how retailers can implement technologies such as scanners and handheld devices that work with EPC and RFID technologies, said Jon Stine, global industry manager of retail consumer packaged goods at Intel.

Intel has previously indicated a lack of interest in manufacturing RFID chips, which are small, inexpensive chips that send out radio signals allowing merchandise to be tracked on store shelves and in warehouses. But the company plans to share with retailers details of upcoming processors that can be used in inventory tracking devices, in order to help those retailers implement inventory tracking systems, Stine said.

The EPC is a 96-bit numbering system that assigns a unique tracking number to every item that leaves a factory. Those numbers are embedded into RFID chips that are placed onto products.

Backers of the technology say it will help companies greatly improve their supply-chain management efforts, but privacy advocates are skeptical that retailers will disable the RFID chips once a product leaves the retail store, allowing them to track a product's movements outside the supply chain.

Intel is working with several companies in the U.S. regarding RFID implementation strategies but hasn't yet organized a group surrounding the technology, Stine said.

Metro operates a next-generation supermarket in Rheinberg, Germany, that already utilizes RFID technology.