Kristen Thompson, customer care tech, scans a cat in search of a microchip to identify the pet's owner. (Post / John Leyba)

The Pros

The advantages of inserting a microchip in your pet are numerous:

• As we have already said, the procedure is quick and causes no pain for your pet;
• It is highly effective in returning pets to their owners when they go missing;
• The presence of the microchip and the information contained on the chip register demonstrates who owns the pet in the event someone else takes your missing animal in and decides to give them a “new home”;
• Microchips are usually used for cats and dogs but they are also eminently suitable for a wide range of other pets and animals, including livestock;
• The chip reader information is always clear and will never fade unlike a tattoo;
• Chipping your pet is permanent unlike using a collar and tag; and
• Shelters and the police will automatically scan a found pet to see if the animal has a chip.

Chipping your pet dramatically increases the odds of being reunited with them if they go missing compared to traditional forms of finding a missing animal.

This is not to say that there aren’t any drawbacks to the micro-chipping your pet.

The Cons

• Some microchips are not readable by different types of chip reader, so even if your pet is chipped, unless the shelter is operating the appropriate type of reader, your pet’s microchip may not actually be detected and read;
• Microchips are not visible and there is nothing to say that a pet has been chipped unless there is an additional identifying tag on their collar, though collars and tags may be lost as well – this leads to the possibility that your pet may be “adopted” by the finder who may be blissfully unaware you own the pet;
• The owner must keep the register updated with their contact information and frequently there are costs involved in maintaining the entry and for making any changes to it;
• The chip can migrate within your pet’s body which may make it impossible to read with a scanner;
• Microchips are not GPS tracking devices, so they do not give the animal’s position if it goes missing though many people assume this is in fact the case;
• The technology is not widely known to the general public who may therefore not know that the pet should be scanned in the first place – this means it is essential to still tag your pet and also to make it clear that there is microchip inserted; and
• When a pet does go missing, owners with an animal which has been chipped tend to assume the pet will be returned to them because of this.  As a result, they neglect to take action to locate their pet themselves, such as calling the shelters and placing missing posters around the neighborhood.

Asset Tags by Maverick Label – Mark Trumper

New Year is just around the corner and we are getting ready for welcoming 2009 in and waving goodbye to 2008 as it heads for the history books.

This last year has seen a range of developments in technology which have massively broadened the application of tagging and carrying information – this is after all what the point of a tag is – to carry information.

I expect to see greater application of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) technology with labeling and not just in security functions to protect goods from shop lifters but also in delivering information to consumers.  Already, there are several test programs for carrying RFID tags on food products so the customer can use a scanner provided by the store not only to automatically add the item to the bill but give the buyer a history of where the food is from, who grew or produced it, when it was made and what went into it and a host of other good stuff.  This is not so far fetched as you may think and they are already introducing this technology in the UK with leading grocery store, Sainsbury’s.

I’m also going to predict a dramatic increase in the application of biometric tagging in both identification and security functions.  Biometrics have still to achieve their full potential and there is the money in the market for it – the government is throwing huge sums not just at biometric development but in furthering the application of reliable technology.  There is just too much money being invested for this to fall flat on its face.

What else takes my fancy?

I think that there will be some of the first integrated scanning technology delivered for use in cell phones – in fact, I’ll confess, I know this is going to happen as a friend of mine writes cell phone reviews and Visa has been teaming up with several handset manufacturers so a cell phone will also be able to scan intelligent tags and act as a money payment device.  Still in its infancy but the Europeans are stepping up the momentum here and I expect we’ll catch up with them on this sooner rather than later.

That’s all from me for 2009, drive safe if you are going out to party and enjoy the holidays and we’ll see you all next year

Take look at some of the law enforcement statistics regarding lost and stolen property:

• a tagged item is 37 times more likely to be returned to the owner than an untagged one;
• 92% of crimes involving stolen property result in a conviction as a direct result of tagged items being found in the possession of the criminal involved;
• a tagged pet is returned to owner 90% of the time while an untagged one less than 10% of the time
• more than 80% of convicted thieves surveyed have responded that they are deterred by tagging of property;
• 100% of convicted thieves surveyed responded they would choose to steal from an untagged property than one where tagging was practised; and
• tagging is estimated to save $17 billion annually in insurance costs due to reduced payouts and premiums for policyholders.

RFID has far more constructive uses than just making sure a crook sticks to a curfew. RFID tags are used to track containers and shipments even down to the individual parcel in certain cases, but the technology has recently been enjoying new application.

Wells Fargo has the job of tracking thousands of laptops from hundreds of locations and knowing when one can leave a location and who ought to have possession of it has been a security nightmare.  Using RFID, each laptop has been implanted with a tag which has upon it the information necessary to automatically detect whether it can in fact leave their offices and in who’s possession it ought to be.  More than this, in the event of a lost or stolen laptop, RFID can be employed to track the location of the device in order to recover it.

Though the concept behind RFID is simple, the technology required is in fact extremely complex.  In this instance, complex technology does mean high cost for individual readers and tags and the price tag for most RFID solutions is beyond the budget of individual customers when insurance and ensuring back-up procedures are so much more cost effective.  An RFID kit from Tiktag will probably cost in the region of $190 yet insuring the laptop against loss of theft will cost a fraction of that amount.

RFID technology is not limited to tracking assets and determining the location of missing items for big companies with car tracking technology having been around for over a decade and the benefit certainly outweighs the cost in such instances.  When it comes to smaller, portable devices such as laptops, smart phones and personal items the cost effective technology for RFID tagging for personal use is still some distance away.

Article provided by MaverickLabel.com, a good source for custom property ID labels & RIFD labels.

Vein mapping provides for a more sophisticated and secure proprietary identification solution than finger printing security using the intricate network of veins under the skin of the palm of your hand.  This provides a far more unique security biometric that is itself more secure.  Finger prints can be replicated by taking copies off of objects touched by the target; making a replica becomes a simple process that anyone who watches CSI on a regular basis will be familiar with.  The vein map is however not so easily copied as it requires the palm of the targets hand to be physically scanned and mapped in order to obtain the necessary biometric data required to get past security.

The application for vein mapping extends beyond door locks with Fujitsu and Hitachi both offering solutions which are used for desktop and laptop security.  Both companies have developed infra red technology which upon scanning ensures the energy is absorbed by the blood and thus reveals the pattern of veins within the hand.  This pattern is then scanned and digitized before being stored as the template for comparison with the real palm vein pattern when it is scanned by an access reader securing the physical asset whether it be access to a building, machinery or computer.

Article provided by MaverickLabel.com, a reliable source for personalized ID labels.

More dogs and cats are lost in winter than at any other time of the year so it becomes doubly important that they are properly tagged and identifiable.  If your pet carries an identification tag, the chances of being reunited with your pet quadruple while inserting a microchip further increases the probability of Fido or Frisky making it back home after wandering off.

Microchipping involves the painless injection of a small microchip device usually under the skin of the scruff of the neck.  Once inserted, a scanner can be used to collect the information contained on the chip which will include the owners information as well as the pet’s name and any medical or behavioral issues.

Tagging or microchipping your pet may also be a legal requirement depending on where you live.  Some states require a tag and for those that do not, county or municipal bylaws may impose an obligation upon the owners.  In addition. indoor pets should also be tagged and/or microchipped; the reasoning that as the pet lives indoors they cannot get lost is fallcious and indeed, if an indoor pet does find themself in the great outdoors, there is a need to recover the pet that much sooner.

Whichever method you use for identification, you are relying on simple human behavior when it comes to getting your pet home; human nature being what it is, there is an automatic reaction to check the collar of a potential stray and agencies who come across a stray will automatically scan the neck of your pet to check if they have been microchipped as part of their standard procedures.  In either instance, in the event of a tag or microchip not being present your pet will probably end up transported many miles away to a central pound where the chances of finding them start to significantly drop.