CIO Magazine describes plans to deploy RFID in Seattle, to allow visitors (and focusing initially on the blind, as requiring more navigational support) to be informed by local businesses:
Some cafes and retail stores in Seattle are about to start individually marketing products and services to bypassers in Seattle using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. The first target group is visually and hearing-impaired individuals who can benefit from positioning and navigation applications added to the system.
Six wireless public areas, called activation fields, will go live next week throughout downtown Seattle and at the city’s ferry terminal. Over a few months 15 more city areas will be added. Users carrying an active tag and entering the activation field are recognized as the tag is read, and then are presented with announcements….
Similar to the idea of authenticating individuals for “extreme marketing” discussed previously, or previous research on geospatial awareness at places like Xerox PARC, where one could have the phone nearest you (using active RFID badges on individuals for awareness) deliver your calls, with a user-specific distinctive ring. (This before the ubiquity of cell phones, of course!)