A spate of recent burglaries in my neighborhood got me thinking -- we used to mark valuables with those engraving pens, using a social security number or name. Clearly that's not suitable for all sorts of material.
A personal RFID writer would let would let you program your own passive RFID tags with personal identification information that you could then attach them to valuables. The tags could come in an assortment of types, shapes, sizes and colors, which could either be discretely stuck on or in selected items.
A second feature is that you could tie it into your home security system so that when an item goes out the door, the alarms go off, just like in Barnes and Noble, etc.
While RFID tags now are getting very inexpensive, the programmers aren't. A RFID writer at consumer price point would be an attractive item for homeowners and small businesses alike.
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An RFID writer and writable tags might be expensive, to start anyways, and writable tags (depending on the sort) could lead to fraud.
What would be secure and cheaper, IMHO, would by read only tags. You would buy a set of them, and at purchase they'd be registered to you in a database of RFID theft protection. You as the user don't even need an RFID reader, just the agencies that recover stolen items do.
IMO, RFID is probably not much fast (at this time) to sense immediate removal of a item, but you could use RFID in conjunction with traditional loss prevention sensor transponders and sensors, which work much faster than it would take to learn an RFID tagged item is gon.
I think the idea of an RFID mark sounds good, but wouldn't be.
Years ago in my area, the county, through the sherriff's department, issued 'property' numbers to many residents that weren't comfortable putting a SSN on their property. Our house was broken into and music equipment was stolen.
A month later, my brother found some of his stuff at a local pawn shop. It still had my parents' property number on it. The police were called and showed the number, but they were like 'maybe you sold it to him,' even though it was recorded as stolen in the police report. My brother had to go to small-claims court to get the items back from the pawn shop.
Now compare the fairly-simple property-number--issued by police-- scrawled into my brother's guitar-amps with some obscure RF tag. Do you think the police would believe you if you said "see, this is my stuff, here's my RF tag". Do you think they'd purchase the RF equipment to check themselves? I assume you mean a one-time write tag, otherwise the theives will just rewrite them. How could you prove anything? If they can scan them, they can find them.
When I've witnessed property crimes, the police are usually very disinterested "you have insurance, right? 'K, see you later".
I understand many people 'chip' their pets as identification, even though the humane societies don't always have a way to check for an RF tag--some have been destroyed as strays anyway.
Finally, if someone is in your home stealing stuff, the alarm should already be going off--it shouldn't wait until your laptop goes out the door. My house has six doors. I need a detector by every one?
I don't know the name of it, but there's a product that's been out for years that addresses this issue well (in theory anyway). It consists of numerous nearly invisible microscopic bits with numbers on them (readable with a microscope) that you strew inside electronic equipment and other items with some sort of an "inside." The numbers are uniquely yours, registered with the mfgr. (I don't know if there's enough space for a SS#, but if there is this could be used to provide prima facie evidence that the item had belonged to you.)