Let's face it, if they really wanted to they could potentially now. However, If a rapidly growing amalgamation of retailers and ambitious technology firms have their way (and by all accounts it WILL happen in some capacity) it could be a lot easier. What are we talking about? RFID: Radio Frequency Identification aka: a potential successor to barcode technology which has become all the rage with some of the largest retailers and product producers in America. The potential advantages offered by RFID are already revolutionizing the way products are recorded and tracked, however, potentials for an invasion to personal privacy are causing heated debates in many cirlces. Gauging the current proliferation of the RFID it seems this is an issue that will confront producers, retailers, conumers and ultimately fans of anime, manga and related goods sooner rather than later and the overwhelming electronic nature of commerce in this sector could present special challenges and oppertunites.
Today one goes to the average brick and mortar physical retailer. When they recieve their goods there are numbers and often barcodes associated with those products. When entered into the retailers inventory that information is recorded. A shopper enters a store, selects goods and moves to the checkout. Those items are scanned for a barcode or an associated production ID number is entered. This identifys those products and the associated information of the transaction (ie: those items were purcahsed and are naturally removed from inventory stock etc..).
Enter the RFID system. Ideally, every item would carry an RFID microchip (woven into clothing attached by adhesive, etc..) currently a little larger than the period at the end of this sentence with an antenna attached that ranges in size and shape on the order of several inches. The tag can contain a host of information including ePC (short for "electronic product code"), this system is poised to replace the UPC (Universal Product Code) used with barcodes today. Where the UPC has a limitation beyond identifying product categories the ePC system will actually give a unique number or value to every single item so equipped with a tag. Requiring no independant power source, the chip's contents are read via an RF scanner at remote distances up to about 30 feet currently which could be ubiquitously placed at virtually every major checking point of product production all the way to purchase by consumers.
The privacy concerns start for some upon the purchase of the tagged item. RFID's are not designed to be deactivated under the current system after purchase, this means any item with such a tag can certainly be tracked beyond purchase on virtually anyone's person at a remote distance. Indeed, being able to track your items at any point and time from creation on is a major boon the of system acknowledged by some proponenets.
For the anime/manga industry RFID offers a near perfect tracking method for product lines, for anime convention dealer's rooms packed wall to wall with eager consumers and an occasional thief who might take advantage of the chaotic nature of the enviroment and looseness of items, RFID equipped proudcts could mean sure method toward the stoppage of such theft. The same sensors arranged in a con dealers room could allow a particular company to know exactly how many of it's DVD for instances had sold via every dealer in the room on a given day.
RFID tags embeded in membership badges could litteraly track the total movements of attendees in real-time. Instead of knowing how many people are in X panel just by the virtue of every seat being filled this type of IDing could tell you who was in each seat, after 2 panels you've got data to compare and patterns can be drawn, do they like to sit in the front back, are they usually late or early? Did X company's panel fill faster than Y's? Superimosing data gleened from attendee activity to the above dealer's room scenario equals a demographic data goldmine. For instance: Did X attendee spend 5 minutes at this booth, 10 minutes at that booth and then purchase such and such amount of goods only before rushing to the same company's panel? So it's possible to see where this could lead. Again, this is where privacy concerns emerge.
For the present at least the above scneario is no where near the present reality, RFID and Anime are still some distance prior to meeting but it may not be long before they do. How long? Perhaps 1-2 years, then it may begin appearing in giant retail chains in the USA. It was revealed last week by this CNet article that Wal-Mart, the largest such chain in America may begin encouraging its top 100 suppliers to start using wireless inventory tracking by 2005.
For info and research into RFID please check awareness proponent CASPIAN's website at www.stoprfid.com.
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