[EricH]

Originally Posted by MotorHead

What about the use of RFID? They put RFID tags in all kinds of things now for tracking purposes. In the triathlon world it is very effective at tracking athletes on a course. They can even embed them in the ear of my dog. So I don't think size would be a major drawback to performance of a game piece.

Biggest drawback is added cost to game piece.

Hmmm.... That COULD work. However, there are a number of potential concerns I would have.

1) Range. Where I've seen RFID used tends to be very short-range applications, like reading a badge. I'm not saying it can't be long-range, because I don't know the maximum range, but that's a definite consideration.
2) Cost. You need to be able to get the equipment and use it with every game piece (though reading equipment could be used year-to-year as needed).
3) Putting one in every game piece...time is not in your favor.
4) Read speed--with the volume of pieces coming in at any given time, a quick read is a must--there isn't very long where a piece is in range.