RFID Tagging

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Radio Frequency Identification Detection (RFID) is a technology that involves a silicon chip and an antenna, which together is called a TAG. The tags emit radio signal to devices that are called readers. One of the things that is important to know about the Electronic Product Code (EPC) is that some people use RFID and EPC interchangeably, but they are different.
Would RFID work to track Products? Well, Bar Codes require a line of sight, so a person(s) with a bar code reader has to get right up on the bar code and scan it. When you are thinking about a supply chain, somebody in the warehouse would have to look at every single case. With RFID, all of the cases on the pallet would be picked up by a single swipe of a reader, even the ones stacked up in the middle that can’t be seen. So it’s much faster and more efficient and accurate.
In the retail sales market you may wonder why that type or kind of speed is important. In a recent interview about RFID usage in commercial sales, it was summoned up as follows “…We want our product to be on the shelf for consumers when they want it. A recent study of retailers showed that the top 2,000 items in stores had a 12 percent out-of-stock rate on Saturday afternoons, the busiest shopping day. I think the industry average for inventory levels is 65 days, which means products sitting around, taking up space for that time, and that costs about $3 billion annually. Often a retail clerk can’t quickly find products in the crowded back room of a store to make sure that the shelves are filled for the consumer, or doesn’t know that a shelf is sitting empty because they haven’t walked by lately. With RFID, the shelf can signal to the back room that it is empty, and the clerk can quickly find the product…” (Sandra Hughes, Technology Review (Cambridge Mass), July-August 2004 v107 i6 p74 (2))
Now let us step to the other side of the Merchant counter as a consumer and realize how RFID can benefit the average person. Have you ever felt impatient when standing behind someone in line at the grocery store who insisted on paying by check? Well, get ready to get agitated at the slowpoke of the future—the techno challenged person using a credit card. Contactless cards, already used in Asia for several transit and payment systems, have been introduced to the United States via pilot programs sponsored by American Express and MasterCard. Thes...

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...rence last week said DOD is preparing a deployment plan that would launch DOD’s version of the new network by fiscal 2008. The plan is augmented by a roughly $28 billion annual IT budget at the agency. But officials acknowledged that they still must convince commanders in the field that the cost of an Ipv6 upgrade-rather than merely expanding current networks would yield a sufficient return in terms of firepower. DOD officials said they are pushing for standard definitions and products that will allow them to build an Ipv6 architecture that pulls together existing networks while handling an expected flood of new data from satellites, Global Hawk unmanned spy planes and other sensors (Military—Guns, butter or digits? Electronic Engineering Times, Dec 13, 2004 P8)

References
Sandra Hughes (2004). Technology Review (Cambridge Mass), July-August 2004 v107, i6 p74 (2)

Professor Warwick Chips In (1999, January). ComputerWorld

Matthew French (2003). Federal computer Week: for DOD Logistics, tags are it! Radio frequency identification tags policy seeks to improve supplies, Nov 3, 2003 V17 i38 p54 (2))

Military—Guns, butter or digits? (2004, December), Electronic Engineering Times, P8

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