In light of the less than positive press RFID tags have been getting in recent months, it’s no surprise to see that the industry is working hard to make them more secure and claw back some public goodwill. The latest patent in the pipeline describes RFIDs that can only be read by special lasers rather than broadcast radio signals. While it’s good news that security issues are being taken seriously, it seems that the necessity of aligning the tags with a laser beam removes the locational convenience that they were designed to offer. And as for more advanced encryption methods, well, I’m going to wait for Schneier‘s word on that.