Introduction
A proven technology that has been around since about the
1940’s, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has the potential to dramatically
improve various industrial and service applications through automatic
detection, unique identification, and control.
RFID is expected to provide immense supply chain efficiencies, reduced
labor costs, and accurate real-time resource information.
What is RFID?
RFID uses wireless technology operating with the 50 kHz to
2.5Ghz frequency range. A RFID system consists
of a RFID tag or transponder that contains data about the tagged item/object,
and antenna, a RF transceiver to generate RF signals, and a RFID reader used
for collecting RFID data, which it passes to a host system for processing.
RFID does not require line-of-sight to operate for
communications between a tagged object (which could be almost anything
including a car, merchandise, package, etc.) and a reader (an electronic device
used to capture the RFID signal).
Data encoded on the RFID tag can contain a
variety of information about the object including item description through the
use of an electronic product code (EPC).
The EPC is an electronic representation of a product, which can include
information about the product, manufacturer, and uniquely identify the product.
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