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RFID (radio frequency identification) chips or tags as they are better known are the size of the smallest coin in your pocket, but they can store huge amounts of data that can be manipulated in methods that can do incredible things.

For instance, RFID tags are in the majority of office identity tags and in a few passports, allowing the holder to pass through security quickly while keeping the building or the country safe.

They are a modern form of the bar code. Remember before bar codes and bar code readers? When a shop keeper had to key prices into the cash register, correct errors and look up prices that they could not remember? People do not have the time for that anymore.

It is OK at the newsagents, but imagine a teenager typing in your two trolleys of weekly shopping at the supermarket every Saturday. You would still be there on Sunday! Superstores have thousands of articles and dozens of special offers – no-one could remember that lot.

No-one could, but bar codes make it straightforward and so do RFID tags. Bar codes work well, but they have to be seen to be read. RFID tags send out their information on a unique frequency which can be read out of line of sight. In other words, an RFID scanner does not need to be able to see the tag to read it.

The scanner can read what is in your trolley without you having to unload it and as you pass by that scanner and pay for your things, they are subtracted from stock immediately so that the warehouse manger can see what people are buying and what nobody wishes to buy. So, if one brand of cat food sells better than another, the manager will see that on the computer print-out and buy more of that make, thus keeping more people happy.

This use of RFID in inventory control or asset management to give it its more official title, can translate itself into other uses as well. An RFID tag can be put under your cat’s fur or in its collar so that you can locate him if he gets lost. The police and the wardens scan stray animals for a tag as part of their routine these days. Consevationists have been doing this with wild elephants, big cats and other endangered animals for years. Now you can have it done with your pets as well.

Company vehicles, as assets of the business, often carry RFID tags and you can have one placed in your car to aid recovery if it is stolen. Baggage handlers at airports or bus terminals can (and do) use them to avoid mislaying luggage.

The US government insists that RFID tags be placed on all vehicles carrying ammunition or hazardous substances and have done for nearly ten years. The US military is in fact the principal user of these tags in the world. RFID tags are used to track military assets such as armaments, battle tanks, fuel, containers, artillery, you name it.

Some people are anxious about RFID technology. Where is the line between their convenience and their personal information? For instance, they do not like receiving junk emails from people that have been able to track the purchases they made with their credit cards.

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

Radio frequency identification or RFID is an old concept that has quietly become a large part of everyone’s life. RFID has been around for at least 90 years and was initially put into practice about 70 years, but not many people realized it. These days, you yourself are most likely scanned every day by an RFID reader and the things you purchase are certainly scanned at least once a week.

So what is RFID? Well, you could think of it as the update of the bar code although in fact, it is older than the bar code by 50 or 60 years. Bar codes were invented in order to integrate stock control with point of sales processing.

Everyone has seen this and is used to it: the sales clerk at the till takes the goods from your basket one at a time, looks for the bar code, flashes a light or a bar code reader over it and the cost of the article is added to your receipt.

What you do not see is that the computerized stock records for that item are lowered by one and the sales price is noted along side it. That procedure worked well for 40 years, but now there is a need for more information to be recorded than a bar code can accommodate and there is requirement for more stock control and even more speed at the check out. Nobody has any time any longer.

Enter RFID, an old technology brought back to life. RFID is the technology that they used to put in Second World War aircraft in order to identify friendly aircraft to the RADAR-controlled anti-aircraft guns. The same equipment, basically, that they still use in aircraft today to identify it to air traffic control. The difference is that until pretty recently, these radio signal emitters or transponders were as big as a suitcase and cost a lot of money.

These days they are the size of the tiniest coin in your change and cost about five cents. They win over the bar code because they can hold masses of data, such as where and when and by whom an item was made; how much it cost and how much it should be sold for; its colour, weight and description; which shelf and in which shop it should be kept on …. ad infinitum. The shop owner can write anything on that chip using an RFID printer.

And when it comes to the cash register… No more scanning each separate item by hand, because each RFID chip or tag, as they are called in the industry, sends out its own data on its own exclusive radio frequency, so so long as the RFID scanner is within three or four feet of the trolley, it knows what is in there instantaneously. No more unloading, scanning and reloading the basket.

In fact, no more check out clerk. Most people pay with a credit or debit card these days anyway, so as you walk past the scanner with your basket, you are scanned; you swipe your credit card through another scanner; if you are happy with it, you approve the payment and the barrier raises for you to proceed to your car. You only have to have a check out clerk for the people who want to pay with cash. Cheques are being done away with soon anyway.

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