RFID Technology Essay

RFID is a general term that is used to describe a system that transmits the identity data of an object wirelessly, using radio waves. This is sometimes referred to as contact-less technology and a typical RFID system is made up of three components: tags, readers and the host computer system. Tags – An RFID tag is a tiny radio device, it’s also referred as a transponder. The tag comprises of a simple silicon microchip attached to a small flat aerial and mounted on a substrate. The whole device can then be encapsulated in different materials (such as plastic) dependent upon its intended usage. The finished tag can be attached to an object, typically an item, box or pallet and read remotely to ascertain its identity, position or state. Different types of RDIF Tags available are passive and active, used as per the RDIF data read / write requirement. Readers – The reader, sometimes called an interrogator or scanner, sends and receives RF data to and from the tag via antennas. A reader may have multiple antennas that are responsible for sending and receiving radio waves. Host Computer – The data acquired by the readers is then passed to a host computer, which may run specialist RFID software or middleware application to filter the data and route it to the correct IS application as processed useful information. RFID can help hospitals to locate equipment more quickly, logistics providers to improve the management of moveable assets, brings efficiencies in the supply chain by tracking goods from the point of manufacture through to the retail stores, used as EZ card for toll-collections, remote car door access. Use of RFID technology can increase business productivity and reduce associated costs. Because of such potential benefits of RFID, many of the world’s major retailers have adopted RFID tagging for pallets and cases shipped into their distribution centers. To ensure that companies benefit from the advantages RFID provides it is important to understand how to adopt this technology. RDIF technology is been accepted by many retail chains like Wal-Mart, Tesco, Metro etc. For the supply chain and operations it provides increased levels of product and asset visibility. Retailers are looking at using the RFID technology to automatically receive shipments, and have greater visibility into the merchandize in the warehouse and on the store shelves. Few of the current Issues Facing RFID Adoption * Globally interoperable standardization problem: RFID has been implemented in different ways by different manufacturers; global standards are still being worked on. Because no global standards defined for RFID adoption, interoperability between applications or devices are not possible, which can significantly accelerate the adoption of RFID technology. * Environment: Working environment is another issue of RFID Usage. The first one is water and liquids which can absorb the radio energy signals and thereby limit range or prevent tag read/write operations altogether. Metals are another material that generally reflect radio frequency signals and deflect the radio waves, thus altering their path. The temperature of the tagged products also affected the readings. Another issue in cased by dense reader or dense tag environment are collision which cause poor read rates. Dense reader environment consist of several readers places in one closed area resulting same tag been read by multiple readers resulting reader collision. A dense tag environment involves tags placed too closely to each other resulting in tag collision because of overlap in electromagnetic waves generated by the tags interferes when being interrogated by the reader. Right type of tag/reader has to be used depending on the product, tagging level, and operational environment. The right fit is in many cases obtained through tests, which will increase read rates and accuracy. * Data management: Many conversations about RFID inevitably end up by high volume of data and data management issues that are expected to arise from tagging individual products especially in retail store environment. Data management is a key issue for any organization deploying RFID technology, and the robust middleware is required to handle that much amount of data and route it to the right database is most concerned. The right architecture is required to filter and translate RFID into useful information. Also it’s important to identify what useful RFID data should be collected and stored, which will enable easier data management and processing.