What are RFID Tags?

Radio-frequency identification chips (often called RFID tags) are passive, inductively powered chips that are used for many applications, from replacing bar codes on supermarket products to identifying lost dogs and cats. It is a tiny, battery-powered electronic device that can be carried around to advice its owner that a new RFID tag has been placed in his or her vicinity or that his or her tags are presently being scanned. One of the original RFID TAG development companies, Alien Technology leads the industry in developing high-quality compliant RFID tags, readers and printers for companies worldwide. Once the RFID tag is activated, the tag decodes the inbound query and makes an proper response by utilizing the energy of the entering radio wave to power the chip long enough to respond.

Numerous other companies are using RFID for a good sort of applications. Some of these applications include: supply chain management, automatic payment, physical access control, counterfeit prevention, airline baggage management, and smart homes and offices. The next are the most common forms of tags: Label: The tag is a flat, thin, flexible form. Ticket: A flat, thin, flexible tag on paper .Card: A flat, thin tag embedded in tough plastic for long life. Glass bead: A small tag in a cylindrical glass bead, used for applications such as animal tagging (e. Several frequencies have peculiar characteristics that make them more useful for different applications.)

RFID TAGS bring value and accuracy to many applications such as: Compliance labeling in retail distribution centers. High-speed operations in postal and parcel distribution. Manufacturing process control and verification, material tracking, Airline luggage recognition and routing systems, and Single-pass multiple item identification. RFID technology can be utilized to enhance productivity and tracking in discrete and process manufacturing. For RFID applications such as toll collecting and vehicle and container tracking, the tags are used over and over for many years. The most usual applications are payment systems (Mobil Speedpass and toll collection systems, for example ), access control and asset tracking. Active and semi-passive rfid tags are useful for tracking high-value items that need to be scanned over long ranges, such as railway cars on a track, but they cost more than passive tags, which means they can't be utilized on low-cost merchandise.

However, the ease with which RFID tags can be tracked opens the door to invading people's privacy. The rapid acceptance of RFID technology has increased fears with some groups involved with privacy such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union . Civil liberties groups are afraid about RFID technology being used to invade people's privacy; RFID tags enable unethical individuals to snoop on people and surreptitiously collect data on them without their approval or even knowledge.

RFID tag technology, a successor to bar code technology, identifies tagged items through wireless communication between an electronic reader and tags containing data on micro chips. The major disadvantages of a passive rfid tag are: The tag can be read only at very short distances, typically a few feet at most. Passive RFID tags are more suitable for storage surroundings where there is not a lot of interference, and comparatively short distances (typically ranging anywhere from a few inches to a few yards).

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