RFID Law Blog

Fifa World Cup Soccer is in the news, and there are some interesting RFID applications:

From: http://www.electricnews.net/ffocus.html?code=9688040

Perhaps the most contentious application of technology so far has been the insertion of tiny antennae into tickets to combat touts. These Philips RFID (radio frequency identification) devices broadcast a numerical identifier of the purchaser. Privacy advocates in Germany are railing against the creation of an electronic database of personal information about fans. Fifa rules state that legally purchased tickets are only transferable between family members of the buyer, or can be exchanged between individuals in genuine cases of hardship such as due to natural catastrophes or acts of war.

However, disappointed Irish fans praying for Armageddon in order to flog their tickets may also turn to a technological solution reliant on good old free trade from the US of A. The American eBay website is probably the only major auction site permitting touts to sell tickets.
Britain outlawed scalped tickets for the event, and a German lawsuit to allow ticket reselling was upheld, although it remains unclear whether it applied to that single case or all tickets within the host nation.

Fifa officials insist every fan entering a stadium will have to swipe their chipped ticket on a reader and show corresponding ID. However, illicit ticket-buyers are banking on the impossibility of checking everyone, so US eBay is seeing bids of USD3,000 for the chipped dockets. Not surprisingly, European organisation Uefa, which regulates soccer for arguably the most "excitable" soccer countries on Earth, has lobbied hard for ticket restrictions based on security fears of violent hooligans getting into the games.

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http://www.soccer-weblog.com/50226711/no_smart_ball_for_world_cup.php

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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/html/worldcup_2006/features/230506_01.html
6. Did it cross the line? Technology's answer

So the team is fit, mentally tough and has the perfect formation. David Beckham is ready to take the free kicks, and the squad has rehearsed its penalties. What can go wrong? Sadly, a great deal. World Cups have been marred by inconsistent refereeing and gamesmanship. Then there is the current offside rule, so complex that coherent decisions are almost impossible.

One area of potential controversy could have been eliminated - the "disputed goal", where the ball crosses the goal line but returns into play. The problem for officials is the speed at which this happens; the ball can be in and out of the net in only 18 milliseconds.

The most famous disputed goal was Geoff Hurst's of 1966, but four decades later we are no better placed to resolve incidents of this kind. The solution was meant to be the "smart ball" carrying a microchip that transmits the ball's position continuously. A computer compares the ball's location with the known co-ordinates of the goal line, posts and bar, so deciding whether the ball is over the line is easy.

The technology, developed by a German consortium including the ball maker Adidas, was tested at the World Under-17 championships in Peru in September 2005. No detailed results of the trials have been published and,Fifa says, further testing is needed. Football history has a knack of repeating itself, and a high-profile goal-line incident is overdue.

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Thanks to Blawg Review Editor for the tip!