Article explains the basics of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and its implications for business and privacy. |
RFID 101
The Future Is Here: A Beginner's Guide to RFID The RFID Gazette
Radio frequency identification technology (RFID) is beginning to revolutionize the way business is done. Already, the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart are requiring their top suppliers to have RFID technology implemented in their supply chains by January 1, 2005. As more manufacturers of RFID tags, readers and software solutions enter the market, the price of implementing the technology will continue to decline.
The technology, first invented by Harry Stockman with the publishing of his 1948 report "Communication by Means of Reflected Power," has only in the last few years become viable. As time passes, however, nearly every Fortune 500 company will join the DoD and Wal-Mart in employing the technology, making it an essential factor in almost any business.
The key feature of the technology is the ability for an RFID-tagged object to be tracked instantly from anywhere in the world, provided that a reader is in range. The main application for this today is tracking products along a supply chain. Everyone in the RFID-enabled supply chain, from the manufacturers at the factory to the inventory trackers at the retail location, has the ability to instantly call up the location, condition, and supply of a particular product. Industry professionals expect the RFID tag to eventually replace the barcode as the identification system of choice. And there are several reasons why this should eventually happen.
First, however, it is important to understand how the technology works. There are two types of RFID tags. An active tag uses its own battery power to contact the reader. It works over a greater distance than passive tags, but its larger size is its main drawback. On the other hand, a passive tag does not require a battery. Rather, a passive tag derives its power from the electromagnetic field created by the signal from the RFID reader. This generates enough power for the tag to respond to the reader with its information. While the range is smaller than active tags, having no need for a battery makes the passive tag’s life virtually unlimited and its size potentially minute.
In contrast to the barcode, RFID tags can be read from a larger distance, up to nine meters with some readers. Also, unlike optical barcode scanners, the RFID chip can be read from a reader not in its line of sight. For instance, cargo within a truck does not need to be unloaded to be scanned by an RFID reader, as the radio waves can penetrate the walls of the truck. The truck example brings up another intriguing feature of the technology. While a barcode needs to scan products one at a time, an RFID reader can read hundreds of chips virtually instantaneously, speeding up the loading and delivery processes.
Furthermore, some RFID tags contain other sensors that can transmit valuable data to managers. For example, a manager shipping a refrigerated product may like to know if the temperature increases too much along a supply chain route. With thermometer readings being transmitted, this is possible.
Other features of RFID technology have caught the attention of privacy advocates. It has been acknowledged that RFID technology can be used for marketing purposes or even, in a Brave New World scenario, government tracking of its citizens. For instance, it is possible to ubiquitously embed the chip within a product, for instance a pair of jeans or a set of automobile tires. What is most frightening, however, is the ability to implant an RFID chip under the human skin.
If the tag is able to remain active after purchase of a product, this could potentially enable marketers with the ability to track information about the product after it leaves the store. For human tracking, sub-dermal RFID chips are already being offered. Of course, the human implant is more than just a tracking device. Credit card and other personal information can be stored on the chip and transmitted to a reader to pay for goods in a supermarket or gain access to personnel-restricted high security areas.
More practical uses of RFID tags have emerged as well:
- In the pharmaceutical industry, RFID tags on drug bottles are being used as anti-counterfeiting devices. Read more
- Pet owners have begun implanting their cats and dogs with RFID chips to locate them should they become lost.
- In libraries, books are being tagged for self-automated checkout, freeing up librarians to perform other tasks. This also allows a librarian to easily locate a book misplaced on the wrong shelf. Read more
- The USDA is pushing to give every cow in the United States its own unique identification number, making it easier to track diseases, such as mad cow disease, back to the originating farm. Read more
Due to the lack of industry standards regarding the use of personal information that could be encoded on the chips, many privacy advocates have called on companies to state their intended use of the technology. Recently, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse called on the Federal Trade Commission to regulate the use of RFID. As of yet, however, no federal agency has come forth to regulate the usage of the technology.
Technical standardization will bring the cost of RFID down drastically. EPCglobal Inc., which has taken over for the MIT Auto ID Center, is the non-profit organization that is working to standardize electronic product codes and RFID technology.
The EPCglobal Network uses RFID to enable true visibility of objects in the supply chain. The network has five fundamental elements:
1. The Electronic Product Code (EPC) is a unique number that identifies an item in the supply chain, whether that be an individual product or a case, or pallet, of many products being shipped. 2. Each silicon chip of each RFID tag is encoded with a unique EPC that identifies the product. The silicon chip is wired to an antenna, and, using radio frequency identification technology, each tag communicates to an RFID reader its EPC. 3. The Object Name Service (ONS) collects the EPC that is passed on from the reader. The ONS resides on a computer or local application system. It tells the computer systems where to locate information on the network about the item whose EPC it has just encountered. This information will typically reside on the Internet, making it readily available on a worldwide level. 4. Physical Markup Language (PML) is an XML-based language that is used to define data on objects. 5. Savant is the middleware technology that coordinates the movement of information over the computer systems.
In light of RFID's emergence as a critical technology in the B2B world, Jimandi Corp. has announced the launch of a special report, "RFID 101". The report is available online at http://www.rfidgazette.org/2004/06/rfid_101.html and is subtitled "The Future Is Here: A Beginner's Guide to RFID".
The report was edited by Jimmy Atkinson of The RFID Gazette ( http://www.rfidgazette.org ). He predicts that adherence to standards is the key to widespread RFID adoption in many supply chains. "Technical standardization will bring the cost of RFID down drastically," Atkinson says in the report.
Jimandi Corp is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California. For more information, please visit http://www.dotmarketer.com . Visit The RFID Gazette at http://www.rfidgazette.org or read the report at http://www.rfidgazette.org/2004/06/rfid_101.html. Contact Information: Jimmy Atkinson, Jimandi Corp, Tel: 818-716-2734.
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