From SCDigest's OnTarget e-Magazine
- July 16, 2014 -
RFID and Automated Data Collection News Round Up for July 16, 2014
AIDC Founding Father Craig Harmon Dead at 67; RFID-Blocking Wallets - and Apparel? Zara Latest Retailer to Jump into Item-Level Tagging Program
SCDigest Editorial Staff
Below are summaries of the top stories in the world of RFID and automated data collection over the past week.
SCDigest Says: |
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Item-level RFID has reached we believe a tipping point.
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What Do You Say?
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Long Time AIDC Veteran Craig Harmon Dies
Craig Harmon, really one of the founding fathers of the automated data collection industry, died unexpectedly at the age of 67 at his home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in early July.
Harmon, a member of the AIDC (automated identification and data collection) 100, a group of industry professionals "who have significantly contributed to the growth and advancement of the AIDC industry," had been a leading figure since the dawn of the bar code age in the late 1980s.
He wrote what many believe to be the best-selling book ever on bar code technology, called "Reading Between the Lines - - An Introduction to Bar Code Technology," that was an industry staple throughout the 1990s.
After a stint at logistics wireless system provider Norand (later acquired by Intermec), Harmon started consulting firm QED, which he continued to lead until his recent death.
He was perhaps the pre-eminent participant in various AIDC standards setting organizations and efforts over his career, starting with bar coding but in the past decade RFID as well. He was involved in the development of the EPCglobal standard for passive RFID tags and readers, for example.
He also played a role many years before that as a consultant in the development of the FedEx bar code package tracking system.
 In 2004, the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM) recognized him for his contributions by bestowing upon him the prestigious Richard R. Dilling Award.
He was lately most focused on RFID and the potential for the "Internet of Things."
In addition to all that, Harmon volunteered for the US Army in 1965 and spent several years serving in Vietnam.
Well known AIDC and logistics systems expert John Hill, now at St. Onge, says he knew Harmon very well, and that he was a key figure in the industry's history.
"With over 25 years of proven experience in the information systems industry Craig Harmon was, without question, the leading expert on AIDC standardization in the world," Hill told SCDigest. "Craig's contributions to automatic data collection - bar code, RFID and related standards -were critical to the evolution of a family of technologies that will impact all of us for generations to come. The industry and I will miss him, his insights, eloquence and wit."
Said SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore: "I only really intersected with Craig Harmon a few times, but what really impressed me was his ability to manage and sweat the details of these standards development processes. This is really tough work, over many months or even years, but he seemed to be able to just stay with it at a level few others could."
(RFID and AIDC Story Continued Below)
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Well for just $10.00, you can acquire a stylish aluminum credit card holder from Xeni, pictured nearby. It is attractive, but if you want to save the ten bucks, just wrap your RFID-credit cards in a piece of aluminum foil to accomplish the same goal.
Taking the same basic concept even further, a company called Scottevest has just released a new line of vests that will also block unwanted RFID reads, noting that not only are some credit cards now embedded with RFID chips, but now also passports, cell phones and who knows what else down the road that will thus contain information in which hackers might have an interest.