RFID for
Personal Property Identification
There are many
usage of RFID and RFID for Personal Property Identification is one
of them. Before discussing RFID for Personal Property
Identification, let’s see how RFID is useful in identification
systems. Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is an incredibly
useful concept for many industries. RFID is similar in purpose to a
bar code or a photograph for use with video imaging software. RFID
uses radio waves to communicate with a transceiver, which
communicates to a computer, all through the use of antennae. This
non-optical transmission allows for identification in a variety of
circumstances.
RFID for
Personal Property Identification systems are designed to track the
RF tag, and record its movements or changes for further purposes. A
basic system consists of three types of components, a transceiver, a
transponder (or RF tag), and antennae. The RF tag contains the
information regarding what is being tracked, for instance, its ID
number. When the tag comes in proximity of a transceiver, the two
communicate using radio waves. Information contained in the tag is
relayed to the transceiver, decoded, and then sent to a computer.
The computer then updates and maintains this information for various
purposes.
Radio bar-codes
embedded into billions of different things and organisms which have
value, including animals and possibly some human beings - sending
out radio signals about what they are, where they are, and possibly
what they are doing or how their bodies are working. Like mobile
phones, they cannot communicate to each other direct, but can
exchange information via send / receive base stations. These RFID
for Personal Property Identification devices are tiny micro-computer
systems which already cost as little as 25 cents, expected to fall
to less than 5 cents by 2005. They are going to change all lives,
containing hardware, software, and permanent memory stores. They
transmit and receive data and have their own built-in power
generators which could in theory last up to 100 years. Activated by
a high-intensity burst of electromagnetic radiation from a distance
of less than two metres, the devices respond with short bursts of
data.
So-called RFID
for Personal Property Identification are already being introduced
rapidly by chains such as Wal-Mart for larger consignments. RFIDs
have been around a long time. Since 1997 you'll have found the same
technology in Ski passes in Switzerland , in Swatch
watches, some of which can store credit, as well as more recently in
London Underground electronic tickets. Within the current decade
more of these RFIDs will be made each year than there are people
alive on earth. Once prices fall to less than 2 cents per tag,
retail usage will explode with anything from 20 - 40 billion tagged
products sold a year. Alien Inc has a machine the size of a small
room able to make 10 billion Radio Frequency Identification Tags -
or radio barcodes. Ten of these machines could provide 100 billion
tags a year. Since Wal-Mart alone will need 5 billion just to tag
pallets and boxes, it is clear the market is going to grow fast and
prices will tumble - perhaps reaching as low as 3.5 cents per
device.
RFID for
Personal Property Identification means that a retail outlet can
watch goods going out of the door and know who is taking them, even
which card to charge. RFIDs prevent theft, help guarantee quality,
provide absolute 100% precision about what stock remains in the food
store and when products are close to sell-by dates. RFIDs allow
factory owners to watch products moving off the shelves in Shopping
Malls the other side of the world, triggering automatic increases in
production, extra transportation, as well as instant requests for
more raw materials to the factory door.
RFIDs will
reduce waste, keep stock levels to the minimum, shorten lead times,
and allow some retailers to slash prices by more than 20%, by
eliminating cost at every level. Laundry tracking, ID cards for
employee security and staff location inside offices, data for
customer loyalty programs, automated guided vehicles in assembly
lines, automated airline baggage systems - use will be almost
universal across all industries.
At the same
time, expect huge emotive discussions about personal privacy, and
data leakage, with demands that next-generation RFIDs contain a
reliable switch which can be turned off by a consumer after a
product is bought. Pressure groups will campaign successfully in
some nations against data-leakage, where all kinds of information
could theoretically be transmitted about an individual without their
knowledge or consent, by tags in their shirts, shoes, gloves, belts,
car seats, credit cards and so on, in response to unscrupulous use
of scanners which could be as easy to conceal as mobile
phones.
