RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) concepts are quite a popular topic of discussion today.

First, there's talk of the RFID Purse, known as the Ladybag. The Ladybag is aimed at young professional women who don't have to worry about leaving their cell phone, house keys, or wallet at home anymore. A team of female student researchers at Canada's Simon Fraser University embedded a radio frequency identification reader at the bottom of a bag, which is powered by a nine-volt battery. They wired the reader to a screen-like panel in the front of the bag, which contains three patterns of light-emitting diodes. Lastly, they attached an RFID sensor to each of those items. So, if you forget an item, the purse will light up, alerting you to grab the missing item that is lit up, and place it in your purse. Finally, a product that caters to women!!

Then, there's the RFID Fitness Wristband. Similar in look to those "Live Strong" bands ($10/pack of 10), Casio Japan has developed rubber wristbands embedded with RFID technology so that you no longer have to remember how many reps you completed on a fitness machine the week before. I like this idea, because it's already a struggle to carry my iPod and water bottle with me from machine to machine, not to mention lugging around a clipboard for keeping track of my workout sessions.

The RFID-enabled wristband would be recognized by a PDA on each fitness machine, and would display the history of your training sessions, along with personal health-related data. It could also be used for marking attendance for aerobic classes and automatic membership payments.

Casio's press release is in Japanese, but Google translated it to English, which is almost readable.

[Found via Gizmodo, PopGadget, Sci-Fi Tech]