All RFID tags are used to store and ultimately send data. They can best be thought of as the replacement for the bar code. However, they have significant advantages over bar codes. For instance: RFID tags can hold much more data than bar codes; they can be scanned from further away and they can in point of fact send data, not only store data.

There are three kinds of RFID tags: passive, active and hybrid. Passive RFID tags are the least expensive, because they are less complicated. They need to be asked to disclose their information by taking power from an RFID reader. When the reader’s radio waves hit them, they reflect back their information. This is the sort of tag used in goods in a retail outlet or on crates in a warehouse.

On the other hand, active RFID tags have a battery, a transmitter and an aerial so that they are always transmitting. These devices are obviously a lot more expensive and so are used only on more expensive items such as a container, a battle tank, an aircraft, on criminals ankle bands or on an animal of an endangered species.

The hybrid RFID tag is capable of transmitting, but it has to be told to transmit; it has to be turned on by a signal. This signal could be a satellite flying over head. These hybrid RFID tags are also costly, but the battery lasts longer because they are not ‘always on’. These tags have the same uses as the active tags, but are suitable for use where it is not vital to know where something is every minute of the day: for instance cows in a field or goats on a mountain.

Passive tags can be attached permanently by sewing them into linings or putting them under skin because they do not have their own power source and do not wear out. This is a cause of anxiety to some people who worry about an invasion of their privacy or the erosion of their human rights.

Active and hybrid tags are most often clearly visible so that the batteries can be replaced as and when necessary. If this is going to unlikely to happen, as in the case of wild animals, the tag can have a biodegradable clasp which will break sometime after the probable life of the battery.

Some uses for RFID tags are on season tickets so that the owner can pass through the style more quickly than a customer paying by cash. It has applications in security; most of the ID badges you see pinned to shirts have RFID built into them so that security guards do not have to stop and query everybody.

They can be put into trucks that regularly cross borders so that they do not need to stop for identification. They can be placed in windscreens so that as you pass through a motorway toll station, either your credit card is billed or the charge is added to your company’s monthly statement.

Hospitals use them on patients so that they do not lose anyone or mis-identify them. RFID tags are useful in our daily lives but people are worried about criminals being able to read all this information too easily as well.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is now concerned with the RFID asset tracking. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

RFID is the recognized acronym for Radio Frequency IDentification. The basis of RFID technology is that every RFID chip or tag is capable of sending a radio signal on a frequency wholly unique to itself.

Therefore, every RFID tag must have its own unique frequency and the RFID tag readers have be sensitive enough to be able to differentiate between frequencies that are only a very tiny bit different from its neighbouring tags. The disparity can be microscopic.

Therefore, the technology needs to be sensitive and discriminating, but not fragile, because the equipment has to be used on the shop floor and by people who are often in a hurry and in weather that may be inclement.

In order for RFID to work, you need a tag, which is an upmarket kind of bar code and a radio receiver, often called a (tag) reader. However, whereas a bar code can only hold a small amount of information and the bar code reader has to be pointed at it, an RFID tag can store much more information and can be read from a hundred yards or more – even out of line of sight.

Passive tags will only divulge their details when asked to by a reader, whereas an active tag is constantly broadcasting its contents. Obviously, active RFID tags are more expensive than passive tags, because they have to have a long life battery.

These tags can be utilized to track items from the moment they leave the manufacturer of the items they describe to the in-bay of the vendor. The tags can then be up-dated or renewed and stored in the warehouse. Once there, RFID readers can keep management informed about which goods are where and if the sell-by-date is approaching.

This has ramifications for the levels of stock that a business needs to hold, the amount of goods sold cheap because the sell-by-date is too near and for theft, all of which should boost company profits more than funding the cost of the tags, the readers, the printers and the programmes.

At the click of a mouse, managers will be able to read how much inventory they have in real time and if this is all linked to the checkout cash registers, which are the most and least profitable items. This makes reordering easy . Easy to the point of automation. For instance, when stocks of the top ten percent of the best selling items falls below 1,000 order 10,000 more. Automatically, no questions asked.

RFID has many other uses as well. The principle mentioned above can be applied to farm animals, a call centre’s computers, a fleet of commercial vehicles, an inventory of household items, your pets, your car and even your garden furniture. Some individuals who work over a border are even having them placed under their skin so that they do not have to wait at customs.

And bear in mind that criminals on early release are also tagged. It is the same technology.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a few topics, but is currently concerned with the RFID asset management. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.