>foreword

Business 2.0 magazine (November 2003) lists ten technologies to watch out for in 2004. Two of the technologies are RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification Tags) and OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Displays). The application for these technologies will be the beginning of a transformation to mobile devices and consumer product intelligence, by not only allowing information to transmit and be displayed in two dimensions, but by allowing for the wrapping and enveloping of the third dimension. OLEDs are flexible display systems, that unlike LCDs can be wrapped organically around objects (think of a Coke can with a screen on the surface.) RFIDs are tiny radio transmitters, that range in size from a grain of rice to a grain of sand. RFIDs as cost lowers will replace barcodes on products, for inventory, tracking, and other creative purposes. Major consumer product companies like Procter & Gamble and retailers like Wal-Mart, are aiming to blanket most of their products in warehouses and on store shelves with RFIDs by the end of the decade. These technologies are creating a new type of space, or network that not only affects the way in which people and products can interact, but the way products could possibly talk to other devices (i.e. mobile phones or wireless PDAs) to encourage the mobile's would-be owner that a possible complimentary match to another person or product could only be a few steps away.