New ID requirement

Someone should ask Governor Doyle why my box of Macaroni & Cheese needs more identification than someone trying to vote.

Alfonso Gutierrez smiles as boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese tagged with tiny chips zip around a conveyor belt and pass under a reader that instantly displays information about the product.

"It's going fast," said Gutierrez, who heads a new UW- Madison research lab dedicated to helping businesses deploy technology that could one day replace the bar code.

Gutierrez was referring to the speed of the conveyor belt - 600 feet a minute, the speed Wal-Mart uses in its warehouses - but he could have been talking about the rapid acceptance of radio frequency identification, a technology that can revolutionize business but also erode privacy.

RFID uses a computer chip the size of a grain of rice to store data, which are transmitted wirelessly by a tiny antenna to a receiver. The chips, embedded in tags, now track pallets in warehouses and let drivers pass toll booths without stopping, but its potential is almost limitless.