Congressional Hearing on Item-Level Intelligence

WHAT: A congressional briefing, "Making Dollars and Sense: U.S. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Companies, the Global Market and the U.S. Government"
WHERE: Hart Senate Office Building, Room 902
WHEN: Thursday 17 July, 12:30 p.m. to 2
PANELISTS: Jeff Harris, Alien Technology Corporation; Kevin Kali, EPC Solutions, Inc.; Peter Kuzma, Thin Battery Technologies, Inc.; Paul Rudolf, Arnold & Porter, LLP; and James Clark (moderator), XIO Strategies.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who co-chairs the Senate RFID Caucus with Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), is scheduled to speak at 12:30.
SPONSORS: IEEE-USA, the International RFID Business Association and the RFID Technology Council ( http://www.rfidtechcouncil.org/) are sponsoring the briefing.
WHY ATTEND: To learn more about the pluses and challenges U.S. RFID companies face in the global marketplace from a panel of experts whose companies use and market RFID-based products
RFID is one of a group of automatic identification technologies that includes bar codes, optical character readers, smart cards like those used in mass transportation and express toll lanes, and some biometric technologies, among others. RFID technology has many applications, a few of which include health care, supply chain management and homeland security.
Unlike bar codes, RFID doesn't require line-of-sight reading, and information can be exchanged at greater distances.