Saturday, March 31, 2007

Explaning RFID Is Not An Easy Task

There is no easy way to explain RFID but this is the easiest way I can think of in easy to understand for the common person that has no clue what RFID is.

RFID technology is used frequently today, but not many people know about, or even know what it is never mind understand it. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and is used to store and retrieve information. This information is stored and retrieved using RFID tags or transponders. These tags are small and can be incorporated into many products. The tags have antennas that allow them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver.

The RFID industry is currently undergoing speedy growth and orgasmic changes. Market research firms forecast the market for products and services will intensity to the $7 billion range by 2008. With mandates from both distinguished retailers and government entities, many more companies are ready to infuse on the RFID technology journey.

How Does It Work

RFID works off of a system that relies on tags, tag readers, tag programming stations, sorting equipment, circulation readers, and tag inventory wands. RFID is generally used in security, because security gates are programmed to read the RFID tags and then either open or close accordingly. The system helps the information be easily transmitted via an RFID device. Systems have evolved over the years along with Generation 2 chips. The hope is that it will one day be available to everyone (meaning consumers) because it will be more efficient and cost effective to implement RFID processes.

There are two types of RFID tags:

*Passive tags do not have their own power supply, but rather receive their power from a tiny electrical current present in the antenna that is induced by an incoming radio frequency scan. These tags are good for a short distance tracking solution.

*Active RFID tags have a power source and therefore are much stronger and can be used over larger distances and are therefore more highly effective. Active tags also have the ability to store more information than their passive counterparts. Some active tags have a battery life of up to ten years.

Where is RFID Used?

RFID can be found almost everywhere. It can even be found in your local Wal-Mart or other big brand retailers. The little alarm that sounds if an item has not been scanned is made possible by a chip. These chips are also found on car alarms,and even animal tags. One other use of this solution is to track and detect motion. This could be very useful in the coming years in terms of prisons. This technology will be employed in many states in the coming years.

Who knew that this technology was so simple to learn.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

A video on RFID

There is so much information out there on RFID that is so wrong. This little video will answer most questions on what RFID can do.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Amber Alerts and RFID

I was just reading all about the Amber alert down in Lubbock Texas for Mychael Darthard-Dawodu and it got my mind thinking. First I am glad that the baby was found alive in New Mexico but is there any way that the abduction could have been prevented in the first place.

If you are not familiar with this particular Amber alert the baby was taken from the mother in a Texas hospital by someone posing as a nurse. The infant was kidnapped early Saturday from a woman who walked out of Covenant Lakeside Hospital with the 5 pound baby hidden in her purse.

This woman allegedy said she needed to take this days old baby to get some test done. Any mother in this situation would hand over their baby to someone that had hospital clothes on. It has been said that the woman actually came in the room a few times posing as a nurse. I am sure the mother felt comfortable hat this was a hospital employee.

Sure a hospital is busy place and this lady was seen on a security camera exiting the building but what could be done to stop this from happening in the first place is what I am thinking about. I would never want to think about the feelings that poor mother had when they told her about what happened.

I believe that we could and should use some sort of RFID tag device, maybe a label in a wrist strap on each baby that would be hard to remove. They already tag the baby with it's name so they don't get all the babies mixed up. It would be easy to make that wristband RFID capable. That's another thing that could be tracked also using something like I am thinking about. Maybe a tag on the inside of the diaper where it would not be seen. I know the wetness part is a tricky issue but the label can be placed high enough on the waistband that it could avoid getting wet.

Each hospital could place a RFID reader at each elevator entrance and staircase on the maternity floor. When the tag goes through it a big read flashing light could go off and security could have stopped this from happening before the suspect was caught 100 miles away.

Once again I am sure the people that are against using RFID for anything will say that it violates the babies privacy rights but that is something that I bet every parent that reads about this story will just laugh at.

I am sure that there is already a RFID product on the market that would be able to handle this already. I just can't focus on one as I keep thinking about what those poor parents must have been going through at the time.

With the cost of Generation 2 tags on the decline and the important issue at hand many hospitals should look into some sort of RFID enabled device or something else to keep this from happening.