| RFID (Radio Frequency ID) enables wireless data | | | | than 90% for bar code-only tags."One of the benefits |
| capture and transaction processing. Our last column | | | | Rafsec highlights is that the tags can be recoded |
| discussed proximity applications, used primarily for | | | | (using a rewrite function) at different points in the |
| access control. This time, we'll take a look at what are | | | | system. "This makes it possible to hold bags for |
| broadly defined as vicinity, or long-range applications, | | | | security checking and release them for loading when |
| used for product tracking, inventory control, product | | | | checked, provided the RFID system is linked to the |
| authentication, etc.One of my favorite applications is in | | | | baggage reconciliation systems. Similarly, RFID is |
| libraries. Instead of the traditional librarian checking out a | | | | already being used to track passenger progress |
| book - older readers will remember the card slipped | | | | through airports, reducing the number of passengers |
| into a pocket inside the cover, on which you could read | | | | arriving late at the gate and in so doing ensuring that |
| previous borrowers' names hand-written along with the | | | | planes leave on time."I anticipate a wider range of uses |
| check-out and return dates - or the bar-code system | | | | for RFID systems in the future. While some might cost |
| that replaced the cards a generation ago, RFID | | | | more than the systems they replace, they should be |
| technology allows libraries to lend and return books | | | | easy enough to implement and well worth the |
| and other media automatically. The authorized | | | | expense. For example, police departments have long |
| borrower - anyone with a library card - can take a | | | | urged bicycle owners to engrave a serial number on |
| book, video, or CD and check it out without taking the | | | | an attached tag or on the frame itself. If the bike is |
| librarian's time (or your own, which in my youth was | | | | stolen and turns up at a pawn shop or flea market, the |
| wasted standing on line every Saturday morning | | | | registered number can help track the thief and return |
| waiting to return last week's book and check out this | | | | the bike to its owner. An RFID tag can be incorporated |
| week's choice). When you return it, it's automatically | | | | into each bicycle sold, and reputable pawn shops can |
| checked back in.The central computer processor | | | | be linked to a control system in the police department - |
| tracks all loans and returns, giving the library real-time | | | | or the police can carry a portable unit, similar to that |
| knowledge of inventory. It automatically alerts staff to | | | | used for writing parking tickets, to check merchandise |
| late returns or missing books, saving staff time and | | | | and discover thefts.Some school boards are issuing |
| improving accuracy in tracking them. And it can | | | | RFID tags to students to control access to buses and |
| disallow a borrower from taking out anything if it | | | | school facilities, and it would be equally simple to install |
| shows that other items have not yet been returned, | | | | RFID systems in homes, replacing traditional locks and |
| whether to maintain a limit on the number of items a | | | | keys and even touch-key access control systems.One |
| borrower can check out at one time, or because of | | | | of my favorite possibilities - and one that will no doubt |
| overdue items still in his or her possession.Another | | | | raise the hackles of privacy advocates - is human |
| application, which is having a wide-ranging impact on | | | | implants. One company in Canada has already |
| the garment world, is the incorporation of RFID tags | | | | pioneered the process, though its success and |
| into clothing and accessories. With so much | | | | long-term value is still far from being proven. But I can |
| manufacturing having moved overseas during the past | | | | envision a day when every member of a family is |
| two decades, it's more important than ever to protect | | | | implanted (after all, time-release implants are already in |
| the integrity of product lines. Not doing so opens the | | | | wide use to help people stop smoking or for birth |
| door to knock-off imports that cut into the bottom line, | | | | control) with an RFID chip. A central computer can |
| cheap copies hurting the reputation of a well-known | | | | control access, not just to locked doors but to other |
| brand-name, and use of banned components such as | | | | items or products in a home: computers, a liquor |
| toxic dyes in fabric or children's toys.By incorporating | | | | cabinet, dangerous tools (power saws, etc.), or even a |
| an RFID tag into a label, or even sewing it into a suit or | | | | gun cabinet. Each person's chip can be encoded to |
| pocketbook, a brand owner can identify its source | | | | allow or prevent access, protecting the home and its |
| from among dozens of manufacturing locations, thus | | | | occupants.When these applications will begin to appear |
| simplifying tracking its origins. This is especially | | | | is a question that's impossible to answer; whether they |
| important if a product batch is inferior, allowing the | | | | will is easy: they will, and we should all be ready for |
| brand owner to easily locate the problem.The tag can | | | | them.ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE.Andrew Reed |
| also certify the product as authentic to identify and | | | | grew up in Asheville, North Carolina. He moved to New |
| control counterfeits, and simplify the process of | | | | York in 1970, and following his undergraduate studies at |
| distribution, store returns, and sales data. And, at the | | | | Columbia University he became a marketing specialist |
| retail end, the ID attached to each individual product | | | | with National Broadcasting and other companies. He |
| can reduce in-house theft.In airports, according to | | | | returned to the WNC mountains in 1993, where he |
| another RFID specialist, Rafsec.com, "many airlines | | | | works as an editor, freelance writer, and marketing |
| have run RFID trials over the past few years to prove | | | | consultant. He operates a web-based editing and |
| the efficacy of the systems employed in the air | | | | marketing company, and specializes in writing for web |
| transport environment. Tests have shown first-read | | | | sites. |
| rates of over 99% with RF tags compared to less | | | | |