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NewsId=93770 Your Breakfast Could Be Spying On You Howard Dicus, WTOP News For more than 20 years, almost everything you bought has had a bar code. In fact, the first bar code was scanned from a pack of chewing gum in an Ohio supermarket in 1974. Today, billions of bar codes are scanned every day. Soon, new technology could go where bar codes have never gone before -- like into your home. MIT has invented a 96-bit code that can tag trillions of objects. Almost everything you buy could have a radio tag, and it won't just track price -- it will track whereabouts. It's similar to the way Metro fare cards and Visa smart cards work. The tags are triggered by a radio beam, more discreet than a bar code reader. A total of at least eight companies are working on radio tags that can go onto virtually any physical objects. Philips Semiconductors wants to track baggage with them. Three companies, including Motorola, want to track inventories with radio tags. Gillette wants to track consumer products right into the home. Smart refrigerators and ovens may one day report what you consume to people who want to sell you more. Microwaves can be sold that have readers that phone home with what your household is consuming -- or at least heating up. Other companies, including Texas Instruments, want to track baggage with radio tags. Also, the government could embed these things in sensitive documents.(WTOP Radio) |
