Japan schools track students with RFID

We reported about it back in July - Japanese schools were playing with the idea to use RFID tags to track the movements of children, to secure there safety in a increasingly difficult school environment in Japan. Now, some schools go ahead with the idea and the children take it easy - in tech-crazed Japan, that is just something seen as "cool".

It works in a way that students carry chips that have tiny antennae and that can be traced by radio, with some of the kids attaching the tags to their backpacks. The chips send signals to receivers at school gates. A computer in the system shows when a student enters or leaves.

The method is not yet mainstream - the school that the Boston Herald reports from, is a public elementary school in Iwamura town, located about 170 miles west of Tokyo. But expect it elsewhere soon as well.