I Want More from EPC Search

If RFID does only one thing, it must detect the Electronic Product Codes (EPCs) associated with items. The ability to detect EPCs enables the creation of a time and place log which delivers benefits related to logistics, inventory management, quality, and authentication. These benefits are immense and are reliably delivered by currently available products, but I want more.

The EPC should unlock more than just an item’s logistical history. If I know the EPC of a garment that I own, I want to know care instructions and where I can buy another garment like it. If I am considering the purchase of a consumer electronic, I want easy access to detailed specifications and instructions. If my neighbor has purchased a handbag second hand, she wants to know whether it’s genuine Gucci. If I see a poster for a movie, I want to read the tag on the poster and view the trailer on my mobile device.

Here are some more general statements of the information I want relative to an EPC. I want to...
- search for information about EPCs as easily as I search the web for key words
- get a result set of rich information about any type of item
- access information about a specific item
- avoid the labor and mistakes of typing in a long number
- be able to perform my search from my mobile device or any computer

International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) that are used to identify books provide an example of what can be achieved. Using just an ISBN number as a Google search term on my computer or mobile device returns purchase opportunities, summaries, author information, and more. ISBN searching has reached an admirable state of maturity. One drawback is that because most people including myself don’t have a barcode reader, typing the ISBN number is manually intensive and error-prone. A second drawback is that there is no item-specific identification, so I can’t determine whether a specific book is a copy my brother loaned me or a copy I bought myself.

The ISBN standard was published by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1970. Since UPCs first went into production use only 4 years later in 1974, it’s surprising that searching for information about UPCs is considerably less mature. Searching for information about a UPC using Google is fruitless. Instead, various specialized and competing search facilities (e.g., http://www.singleupc.com/, http://www.upcdatabase.com/, http://upcdata.info/) provide diverging results. Even using the specialized UPC search facilities, results are limited, consisting of a small number of highly structured fields such as description, size/weight, issuing country, and last modified date.

The EPC 96-bit format achieved a level of stability in June 2008 when "EPCglobal Tag Data Standards Version 1.4" was ratified by GS1. Predictably, freely available search facilities for EPC lag those for ISBN and UPC, but standards efforts related to Object Naming Service, EPC Information Services, and EPC Discovery Services provide a foundation for emergence of EPC search that can fulfill the wants above. With these standards efforts and the experience of ISBN and UPC, the best of searching for things lies ahead.