RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags have already been used for a variety of tasks, such as tracking people or animals or the movement of goods in a warehouse. Why not use RFID to track computer tapes and make tape management, until now an error prone and mostly human-driven activity, more reliable? The answer to that question comes from Imation, a vendor who has proposed in the past some daring and innova RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags have already been used for a variety of tasks, such as tracking people or animals or the movement of goods in a warehouse.Why not use RFID to track computer tapes and make tape management, until now an error prone and mostly human-driven activity, more reliable? The answer to that question comes from Imation, a vendor who has proposed in the past some daring and innovative products, such as Ulysses a unique product blending together disk and tape technology.Imation is announcing today DataGuard RF, a tracking system for removable media based on RFID that will ship starting in April as an all inclusive starter kit. How does the system work? Think of replacing the antiquate barcode labels of your media with a new version that remains friendly to the barcode reader installed in your tape library but embeds also a passive RFID tag. A passive RFID has no independent power source but comes to life when going through a scanner, for example. Obviously RFID scanners are also part of the DataGuard RF kit and they come in two models, a desktop and a hand-held version, the first directly connected to a Windows system, the second, much similar to a PDA, is connected via a docking station.The two scanners have similar functionality, but if you are thinking that the hand-held is overkill imagine how easy it would make checking the inventory of your cartridges, either at your location or at an outside vault. Part of the kit are also tape management applications from B&L Associates, and a bright yellow carrying case that can accommodate 20 half-inch cartridges and has removable inserts to custom fit different models. The DataGuard RF kit will sell for about $40,000, according to Imation.Later this year Imation plans to equip those carrying cases with an AGPS Tracking Transponder, essentially a GPS tracking device that will fall back to the cell phone system to call home if a direct line-of-site to the satellite is not available.Remember that sequence in Goldfinger when James Bond is tracking the villain across the Alps? Well, pretty soon you should be able to do the same if one of your carrying cases full of cartridges falls off the truck or off the screen. Stay tuned. Technology Industry