Consumer acceptance of RFID-enabled services: a model of multiple attitudes,perceived system characteristics and individual traits

The introduction of emerging technologies in retailing and their infusion in the service encounter necessitates research to better understand consumer attitudes towards the usage of technology in service delivery systems. The capability of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to automatically and uniquely identify products makes this technology promising as an enabler of innovative consumer services. However there is limited research on how consumers perceive the RFID-enabled service systems. The authors develop and empirically test a model that focuses on consumer attitudes towards technology-based services. Based on the pre-prototype user acceptance framework and using RFID as a focal technology, the proposed model includes a hierarchy of three distinct consumer attitudes: towards the general service concept, towards the general technology-based service application and towards the RFID-enabled service. Perceived system characteristics as well as personality traits are included in the model. The partial least squares method of structural equation modelling is used to analyse 575 questionnaires collected in two consumer surveys in Greece (n=173) and Ireland (N=402). The results of the study show that consumer attitude towards RFID-enabled services in retailing can be modelled as a confluence of multiple attitudes. The results also indicate that perceived system-related factors – such as performance and effort expectancy – as well as individual traits – such as technology anxiety and information privacy concern – affect consumer attitude towards technology-based and RFID-enabled services, respectively.     

RFID and privacy: what consumers really want and fear

This article investigates the conflicting area of user benefits arising through item level radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging and a desire for privacy. It distinguishes between three approaches feasible to address consumer privacy concerns. One is to kill RFID tags at store exits. The second is to lock tags and have user unlock them if they want to initiate reader communication (user model). The third is to let the network access users’ RFID tags while adhering to a privacy protocol (network model). The perception and reactions of future users to these three privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) are compared in the present article and an attempt is made to understand the reasoning behind their preferences. The main conclusion is that users do not trust complex PETs as they are envisioned today. Instead, they prefer to kill RFID chips at store exits even if they appreciate after sales services. Enhancing trust through security and privacy ‘visibility’ as well as PET simplicity may be the road to take for PET engineers in UbiComp.     

Threshold jumping and wrap-around scan techniques toward efficient tag identification in high density RFID systems

With the emergence of wireless RFID technologies, the problem of Anti-Collision has been arousing attention and instigated researchers to propose different heuristic algorithms for advancing RFID systems operated in more efficient manner. However, there still have challenges on enhancing the system throughput and stability due to the underlying technologies had faced different limitation in system performance when network density is high. In this paper, we present a Threshold Jumping (TJ) and a Wrap-Around Scan (WAS) techniques, which are query tree based approaches, aiming to coordinate simultaneous communications in high density RFID environments, to speedup tag identification, to increase the overall read rate and to improve system throughput in large-scale RFID systems. The main idea of the Threshold Jumping is to limit the number of collisions. When the number of collisions exceeds a predefined threshold, it reveals that tag density in RF field is too high. To avoid unnecessary enquiry messages, the prefix matching will be moved to next level of the query tree, alleviating the collision problems. The method of setting frequency bound indeed improves the efficiency in high density and randomly deployed RFID systems. However, in irregular or imbalanced RFID networks, inefficient situation may happen. The problem is that the prefix matching is performed in single direction level-order scheme, which may cause an imbalance query tree on which the right sub-tree always not been examined if the identification process goes to next level before scan the right sub-tree due to threshold jumping. By scanning the query tree from right to left in alternative levels, i.e., wrap-around, this flaw cold be ameliorated. To evaluate the performance of proposed techniques, we have implemented the TJ and the WAS method along with the query tree protocol. The simulation results show that the proposed techniques provide superior performance in high density environments. It is shown that the TJ and WAS are effective in terms of increasing system throughput and minimizing identification delay.     

A dynamic logistics process knowledge-based system – An RFID multi-agent approach

PurposeThis paper proposes a real-time knowledge support framework for the development of an RFID-multi-agent based process knowledge-based system which has the ability to solve dynamic logistics process management problems.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed system is developed with “real-time process management” capability which automatically identifies current process status, performs the process logic checking/reasoning, and, provides process knowledge support to staff members when they are tackling logistics activity problems. The unique feature of this on-line knowledge-based system, which enables it to enhance the performance of logistics organizations, is a process management engine incorporating radio-frequency identification (RFID) and multi-agent (MA) technologies.FindingsThe capability of the proposed system is demonstrated through an application case study in Eastern Worldwide Company Limited. The result reveals that both performance of operations and the utilization of resources have improved significantly.Originality/valueThe proposed system is a novel approach which leverages logistics performance and facilitates the creation of a learning organization through the provision of real-time knowledge support for those who handle logistics operations.Article typeResearch Paper.     

Enterprise Security Architecture

Abstract

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification (auto- ID) technology developed by the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags and readers (Auto-ID Center, 2002; Doyle, 2004; EPC, 2004b; Finkenzeller, 2000; Shepard, 2005). With RFID technology, physical assets will have embedded intelligence that allows them to communicate with each other and with the tracking points (Auto-ID Center, 2002; IBM, 2003; VeriSign, 2004).     

RFID breadcrumbs for enhanced care data management and dissemination

Conventionally, RFID tags are used to identify uniquely objects whose data can then be accessed over the network. This implies that the data storage capacity (up to 4K) of HF RFID has usually been neglected. In contrast, this work follows the data-on-tag approach, combining RFID and NFC technologies, with the aim of improving care data management in assistive environments. It analyzes the potential and feasibility of writing and reading small breadcrumbs of information at/from residents’ RFID wristbands, as a solution to the inherent difficulties of gathering, processing and disseminating data within a multi-user, multi-stakeholder assistive environment such as a residence or a caring home. As a result of this, an AAL platform is extended to deploy what we have termed as the “RFID breadcrumbing” interaction metaphor.     

Software Process Improvement barriers: A cross-cultural comparison

ContextSoftware Process Improvement initiatives have been around for many years with the growing globalisation of software development is making them increasingly important.ObjectiveThe objective of this exploratory research is to gain an in-depth understanding of barriers that can undermine SPI, in the context of Global Software Development, from the perspective of software development practitioners; this will enable SPI managers to better manage SPI initiatives. We intend to discover if the barriers to SPI initiatives in a developed country are different to those in a developing country.MethodIn an empirical study, Vietnamese software practitioners’ experiences of SPI barriers are compared with barriers identified by Australian practitioners. Face-to-face questionnaire-based survey sessions with 23 Vietnamese SPI practitioners were conducted. Our survey included barriers to SPI improvement initiatives identified in previous research. We asked the participants to rank each SPI barrier on a three-point scale (high, medium, low) to determine the importance of each barrier. We then compare our results, with results (identified in previous work), from 34 Australian software development practitioners.ResultsWe identify (1) lack of project management, (2) lack of resources, (3) lack of sponsorship, (4) inexperienced staff/lack of knowledge, and (5) lack of SPI awareness as ‘high’ value SPI barriers in Vietnam. The results also reveal similarities and differences between the experiences of Australian and Vietnamese practitioners regarding the importance of the SPI barriers identified. While the Australian practitioners were also concerned with (1) lack of SPI awareness, they were even more concerned with (2) organisational politics, and (3) lack of support.ConclusionsPractitioners identify SPI barriers based on previous SPI implementation experience. Their role(s) in their different organisations have helped them to understand the importance of that barrier. Vietnamese software practitioners cited more SPI barriers than their counterparts in Australia. The Vietnamese SPI barriers relate to project management, resources, and sponsorship while the Australian barriers are concerned with organisational politics and lack of support.     

Towards a sales assistant using a product knowledge graph

The phenomenal growth in the consumer electronics industry over the last decade is mainly due to rapid advances in integration technologies. The market is ever evolving with new products made available on a frequent basis. However, typically, the average consumer tends to have insufficient knowledge of the features and functions of an electronic device. Although most manufacturers provide product specifications, they are often difficult for consumers to understand and it is hard for customers to grasp the details of a product. This study introduces the concept of a product knowledge graph, which is constructed by transforming a set of data from a product management system and external data. This study overcomes the technical barriers for customers with the use of knowledge graph technologies. To construct large-scale product knowledge, an ontology model is designed and a platform for knowledge extraction and transformation is also developed. Then, a sales assistant called God of Sales is demonstrated. This study provides a novel approach to explaining product features and functions in a comprehensive manner with semantic recommendations.     

A near field communication-driven home automation framework

Rapid advances in the field of consumer electronic devices have made home automation a research issue of increasing importance. In recent years, one of the most popular and widely used devices in certain consumer electronic applications has been RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and of particular interest here is Near Field Communication (NFC), a two-way communication technology based on RFID. A setup that has a NFC device embedded in a cellular phone has attracted growing attention for various business applications, among them payments and ticketing. In this paper, we propose a novel application and framework that uses a NFC phone to create a personalized digital home environment. With this proposed setup, by one touch the NFC phone is used to send a request that carries predefined personal preferences to control various home appliances. We present the system architecture and implement the prototype, employing such well-known standards as NFC, OSGi, and UPnP to demonstrate the feasibility of the framework. We then evaluate the performance for efficiency and discuss the merits of the approach.     

An efficient and secure authentication protocol for RFID systems

The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags may cause privacy violation of users carrying an RFID tag. Due to the unique identification number of the RFID tag, the possible privacy threats are information leakage of a tag, traceability of the consumer, denial of service attack, replay attack and impersonation of a tag, etc. There are a number of challenges in providing privacy and security in the RFID tag due to the limited computation, storage and communication ability of low-cost RFID tags. Many research works have already been conducted using hash functions and pseudorandom numbers. As the same random number can recur many times, the adversary can use the response derived from the same random number for replay attack and it can cause a break in location privacy. This paper proposes an RFID authentication protocol using a static identifier, a monotonically increasing timestamp, a tag side random number and a hash function to protect the RFID system from adversary attacks. The proposed protocol also indicates that it requires less storage and computation than previous existing RFID authentication protocols but offers a larger range of security protection. A simulation is also conducted to verify some of the privacy and security properties of the proposed protocol.     

物联网关键技术在食品溯源中的研究与应用

提出了使用RFID、ZigBee、Web服务器等物联网关键技术在食品溯源系统中的应用方法。其中,RFID技术是识别生产对象的唯一标识号,ZigBee无线网络可将生产加工过程中的温度、湿度、其他环境参数、产品储存参数和唯一的标识号汇集到带有数据库的嵌入式网关中,并在嵌入式网关中实现Web服务器的功能。食品安全管理人员或者消费者只需通过浏览器就可以访问嵌入式网关,以获取食品生产、加工和存储等各个环节的信息,实现对食品加工企业的实时监管。试验证明,物联网技术的引入可以提高管理人员的工作效率,及时发现和查处食品链中的违法环节,保证消费者购买食品的安全性和食品信息的真实性。     

Detecting relay attacks on RFID communication systems using quantum bits

RFID systems became widespread in variety of applications because of their simplicity in manufacturing and usability. In the province of critical infrastructure protection, RFID systems are usually employed to identify and track people, objects and vehicles that enter restricted areas. The most important vulnerability which is prevalent among all protocols employed in RFID systems is against relay attacks. Until now, to protect RFID systems against this kind of attack, the only approach is the utilization of distance-bounding protocols which are not applicable over low-cost devices such as RFID passive tags. This work presents a novel technique using emerging quantum technologies to detect relay attacks on RFID systems. Recently, it is demonstrated that quantum key distribution (QKD) can be implemented in a client–server scheme where client only requires an on-chip polarization rotator that may be integrated into a handheld device. Now we present our technique for a tag–reader scenario which needs similar resources as the mentioned QKD scheme. We argue that our technique requires less resources and provides lower probability of false alarm for the system, compared with distance-bounding protocols, and may pave the way to enhance the security of current RFID systems.

     

A knowledge broker for collaboration and sharing for SIDS: the case of comprehensive disaster management in the Caribbean*

ABSTRACT

Knowledge sharing can be hindered by barriers that prevent the free flow of information, especially across organizational and other boundaries. Therefore information produced at one location might not be available to entities elsewhere even if there are benefits to sharing this information. This can often lead to 'reinventing the wheel' and wasted investments in duplicating resources and ultimately will lead to the development of knowledge silos. Information technologies can be used to address this problem as they provide opportunities to lower the barriers to knowledge sharing and increase collaboration. This need for knowledge sharing and collaborative technologies can be important for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) within particular regions that are exposed to similar environmental and economic issues that can hinder their development. Although each SIDS may have Knowledge Resources that it uses to address its own issues, there would be benefits to collaborating and sharing these resources to collectively tackle these regional issues. Even when there is a willingness to share and collaborate and entities have been established to foster this collaboration, there is a void in the availability of tools and technologies needed to support collaboration and sharing of resources. This paper describes the research that has been done to help fill this void by designing and developing a technological solution, a Knowledge Broker, for the identification and sharing of Knowledge Resources that may be spread across various locations (e.g. countries). The Design Science Research methodology was used to develop the Knowledge Broker architecture, which provides a single point of access to the knowledge resources within a particular domain. A critical component of this Knowledge Broker is a common, online interactive vocabulary of the domain of interest which provides the terms which are used to describe and search for the knowledge resources available. The Knowledge Broker was evaluated using informed arguments and an illustrative scenario in the Comprehensive Disaster Management domain in the Caribbean region. The initial evaluations that have been reported in this paper indicates that the Knowledge Broker has the potential to increase the efficiency of solving regional issues through the sharing of knowledge resources.     

Enabling RFID in retail

The past two years have witnessed an explosion of interest in radio-frequency identification and supporting technologies, due primarily to their rapidly expanding use in tracking grocery products through the supply chain. Currently such applications monitor store-keeping units (SKUs) rather than individual goods, as the relatively high cost of RFID deployment and the very low profit margin of supermarket products make item-level tagging impractical. Yet, economic and technical concerns aside, it is easy to envision a supermarket in which each item is tagged with an RFID label and all shopping carts feature RFID readers. The carts could potentially include onboard computers that recognize products placed inside and that display information and promotions retrieved wirelessly from the system back end. RFID-enabled smart phones, which are commercially available today and becoming increasingly popular, could carry out the same function. Item-level deployment of RFID technology would also allow for quick checkout aisles that scan all products at once and thus eliminate queues, which are consistently reported as one of the most negative aspects of supermarket shopping. A simple extension of this system would be to embed RFID devices in consumers' loyalty or frequent-shopper cards to identify individuals. This could expedite system login and charge the shopping cost directly to the customer's account at the point of sale-unless removed at the POS, item-level tags will inevitably follow the consumer home. This scenario undoubtedly raises numerous privacy concerns.     

Evaluation of RFID applications for logistics: a framework for identifying,forecasting and assessing benefits

As with all information technologies, there is a necessity to determine the profitability of investments in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) ex ante. A particularly important aspect is the challenging task of evaluating the multi-faceted benefits of RFID deployments. While a large body of research on RFID benefits exists, our literature review indicates the absence of a comprehensive approach. We introduce a framework that combines the benefit evaluation steps of identification, forecasting and assessment. Based on insights gained in a 3-year research project with case studies in logistics, we refine a process-based IT-benefits classification and subsequently derive six types of RFID benefits that support the systematic identification of benefits, as well as the selection of forecast and assessment methods. We discuss how our framework can facilitate and enhance RFID investment decisions and guide future research activities.     

Physical hypermedia: Augmenting physical material with hypermedia structures

This paper introduces the notion of physical hypermedia, addressing the problem of organizing material in mixed digital and physical environments. Based on empirical studies, we propose concepts for collectional actions and meta-data actions, and present prototypes combining principles from augmented reality and hypermedia to support organization of mixtures of digital and physical materials. Our prototype of a physical hypermedia system is running on an augmented architect's desk and digital walls utilizing Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) tags as well as visual tags tracked by cameras. It allows users to tag physical materials, and have these tracked by readers (antennas) that may become pervasive in our work environments. In the physical hypermedia system, we work with three categories of RFID tags: simple object tags, collectional tags, and tooltags invoking operations such as grouping and linking of physical material. In addition, we utilize visual ARToolKit tags for linking and navigating 3D models on a physical desk. Our primary application domain is architecture and design, and so we discuss the use of augmented collectional artifacts primarily for this domain.     

物联网技术在校园的服务和管理中的应用研究

首先论文分析了物联网的特点及关键性技术,在此基础之上,研究了物联网在校园中的应用,实现为学生和教师提供身份识别、消费、就餐等服务和管理功能,并设计数据中心、校园卡、RFID技术等各项技术在校园智能化管理中的应用。     

Developing and validating a model explaining the assimilation process of RFID: An empirical study

In this research we studied the assimilation process of a technological innovation (i.e. technovation) called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Like many other technovations, RFID is considered as a revolutionary one, but its assimilation is an evolutionary process. Here, we extended the conventional assimilation theories and initiated an intellectual argument by introducing extension as an important stage of assimilation, which is contextual and highly relevant for RFID assimilation process. Data for the empirical tests were collected via survey from 221 livestock farms in Australia that are using RFID for livestock identification and tracing. We examined ten Technology-Organization-Environmental (TOE) factors on four stages of RFID assimilation process. Empirical results, based on Partial Least Square (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), suggest that assimilation of RFID technovation does involve four stages: initiation, adoption, routinization, and extension. We also found that one single factor may have different effect on different stages of assimilation, which may even be different directioned. For instance, external environmental uncertainty has a positive impact on RFID adoption while it has a negative impact on RFID extension. The paper discusses the results and practical implications in detail.     

An adaptive RFID middleware for supporting metaphysical data independence

Sensor devices produce data that are unreliable, low-level, and seldom able to be used directly by applications. In this paper, we propose metaphysical data independence (MDI), a layer of independence that shields applications from the challenges that arise when interacting directly with sensor devices. The key philosophy behind MDI is that applications do not deal with any aspect of physical device data, but rather interface with a high-level reconstruction of the physical world created by a sensor infrastructure. As a concrete instantiation of MDI in such a sensor infrastructure, we detail MDI-SMURF, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) middleware system that alleviates issues associated with using RFID data through adaptive techniques based on a novel statistical framework. Met·a·phys·ics: A division of philosophy that is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being [2].