Radio Frequency Identification
Encyclopedia
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology
that uses radio waves
to transfer data from an electronic tag, called RFID tag or label, attached to an object, through a reader for the purpose of identifying and tracking the object. Some RFID tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. The application of bulk reading
enables an almost-parallel reading of tags.
The tag's information is stored electronically. The RFID tag includes a small RF transmitter and receiver. An RFID reader transmits an encoded radio signal to interrogate the tag. The tag receives the message and responds with its identification information. Many RFID tags do not use a battery. Instead, the tag uses the radio energy transmitted by the reader as its energy source. The RFID system design includes a method of discriminating several tags that might be within the range of the RFID reader.
A number of organizations have set standards for RFID, including the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC), ASTM International
, the DASH7
Alliance and EPCglobal
. (Refer to Regulation and standardization below.) There are also several specific industries that have set guidelines. These industries include the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) which has set a standard for tracking IT Assets with RFID, the Computer Technology Industry Association CompTIA
which has set a standard for certifying RFID engineers, and the International Airlines Transport Association IATA which has set tagging guidelines for luggage in airports.
RFID can be used in many applications. A tag can be affixed to any object and used to track and manage inventory, assets, people, etc. For example, it can be affixed to cars, computer equipment, books, mobile phones, etc. The Healthcare industry has used RFID to reduce counting, looking for things and auditing items. Many financial institutions use RFID to track key assets and automate compliance. Also with recent advances in social media RFID is being used to tie the physical world with the virtual world. RFID in Social Media first came to light in 2010 with Facebook's annual conference.
RFID is a superior and more efficient way of identifying objects than manual system or use of bar code systems that have been in use since the 1970s. Furthermore, passive RFID tags (those without a battery) can be read if passed within close enough proximity to an RFID reader. It is not necessary to "show" the tag to the reader device, as with a bar code. In other words it does not require line of sight to "see" an RFID tag, the tag can be read inside a case, carton, box or other container, and unlike barcodes RFID tags can be read hundreds at a time. Bar codes can only be read one at a time.
In 2011, the cost of passive tags started at US$0.05 each and special tags, meant to be mounted on metal or withstand gamma sterilization, can go up to US$5. Active tags for tracking containers, medical assets, or monitoring environmental conditions in data centers all start at US$50 and can go up over US$100 each. Battery Assisted Passive (BAP) tags are in the US$3–10 range and also have sensor capability like temperature and humidity.
, while an active has an on-board battery that always broadcasts or beacons its signal. A battery assisted passive (BAP) has a small battery on board that is activated when in the presence of a RFID reader.
Most RFID tags contain at least two parts: one is an integrated circuit
for storing and processing information, modulating
and demodulating
a radio-frequency (RF) signal, and other specialized functions; the other is an antenna
for receiving and transmitting the signal.
. If the reader reads tags in a stationary position, it is called fixed RFID. These fixed readers are set up specific interrogation zones and create a "bubble" of RF energy that can be tightly controlled if the physics is well engineered. This allows a very definitive reading area for when tags go in and out of the interrogation zone. On the other hand, if the reader is mobile when the reader reads tags, it is called mobile RFID. Mobile readers include hand helds, carts and vehicle mounted RFID readers from manufacturers such as Motorola
, Intermec
, Impinj
, Sirit, etc.
In 1945 Léon Theremin
invented an espionage tool
for the Soviet Union
which retransmitted incident radio waves with audio information. Sound waves vibrated a diaphragm
which slightly altered the shape of the resonator
, which modulated the reflected radio frequency. Even though this device was a covert listening device
, not an identification tag, it is considered to be a predecessor of RFID technology, because it was likewise passive, being energized and activated by waves from an outside source.
Similar technology, such as the IFF
transponder
developed in the United Kingdom
, was routinely used by the allies in World War II
to identify aircraft as friend or foe. Transponders are still used by most powered aircraft to this day.
Another early work exploring RFID is the landmark 1948 paper by Harry Stockman, titled "Communication by Means of Reflected Power" (Proceedings of the IRE, pp 1196–1204, October 1948). Stockman predicted that "... considerable research and development work has to be done before the remaining basic problems in reflected-power communication are solved, and before the field of useful applications is explored."
Mario Cardullo's device, patented on January 23, 1973, was the first true ancestor of modern RFID, as it was a passive radio transponder with memory. The initial device was passive, powered by the interrogating signal, and was demonstrated in 1971 to the New York Port Authority and other potential users and consisted of a transponder with 16 bit
memory for use as a toll device. The basic Cardullo patent covers the use of RF, sound and light as transmission media. The original business plan presented to investors in 1969 showed uses in transportation (automotive vehicle identification, automatic toll system, electronic license plate, electronic manifest, vehicle routing, vehicle performance monitoring), banking (electronic check book, electronic credit card), security (personnel identification, automatic gates, surveillance) and medical (identification, patient history).
An early demonstration of reflected power (modulated backscatter) RFID tags, both passive and semi-passive, was performed by Steven Depp, Alfred Koelle, and Robert Freyman at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
in 1973. The portable system operated at 915 MHz and used 12-bit tags. This technique is used by the majority of today's UHFID and microwave RFID tags.
The first patent to be associated with the abbreviation RFID was granted to Charles Walton
in 1983.
The largest deployment of active RFID is the US Department of Defense use of Savi active tags on every one of its more than a million shipping containers that travel outside of the continental United States. The largest passive RFID deployment is the enterprise-wide deployment performed by Wal*Mart which instrumented over 2800 retail stores with over 25,000 reader systems, however the exact number is considered 'corporate confidential'.
s in order to study their behavior. This trend towards increasingly miniaturized RFIDs is likely to continue as technology advances.
Hitachi holds the record for the smallest RFID chip, at 0.05mm × 0.05mm. This is 1/64th the size of the previous record holder, the mu-chip. Manufacture is
enabled by using the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process. These dust-sized chips can store 38-digit numbers using 128-bit Read Only Memory (ROM). A major challenge is the attachment of the antennas, thus limiting read range to only millimeters.
Potential alternatives to the radio frequencies (0.125–0.1342, 0.140–0.1485, 13.56, and 840–960 MHz) used are seen in optical RFID
(or OPID) at 333 THz (900 nm), 380 THz (788 nm), 750 THz (400 nm). The awkward antennas of RFID can be replaced with photovoltaic components and IR
-LED
s on the IC
s.
and—most recently added to the team—CSC
. The two other areas of significant use are financial services for IT asset tracking and healthcare. RFID is becoming increasingly prevalent as the price of the technology decreases.
Dairy Queen
in conjunction with Vivotech
has also begun using RFIDs on mobile phones as part of their new loyalty and rewards program. Patrons can ask to receive an RFID tag to place on their phone. After activation, the phone can receive promotions and coupons, which can be read by ViVOtech's specialized NFC devices.
Similarly, 7-Eleven
has been working alongside MasterCard
to promote a new touch-free payment system. Those joining the trial are given a complimentary Nokia 3220 cell phone – after activation, it can be used as an RFID-capable MasterCard credit card at any of 7-Eleven's worldwide chains.
Nokia
's 2008 device, the 6212, has RFID capabilities also. Credit card information can be stored, and bank accounts can be directly accessed using the enabled handset. The phone, if used as a vector for mobile payment, has added security in that users would be required to enter a passcode or PIN before payment is authorized.
car-sharing service uses RFID cards for locking and unlocking cars and for member identification.
, Portland
, Seattle, Los Angeles
, San Diego, and Las Vegas.
and Web technologies provide a way for organizations to identify and manage their assets. It was initially introduced to major retail by Craig Patterson, Knoxville, TN . Mobile computers, with integrated RFID readers, can now deliver a complete set of tools that eliminate paperwork, give proof of identification and attendance. This approach eliminates manual data entry.
Web based management tools allow organizations to monitor their assets and make management decisions from anywhere in the world. Web based applications now mean that third parties, such as manufacturers and contractors can be granted access to update asset data, including for example, inspection history and transfer documentation online ensuring that the end user always has accurate, real-time data.
Organizations are already using RFID tags combined with a mobile asset management solution to record and monitor the location of their assets, their current status, and whether they have been maintained.
RFID is being adopted for item-level retail uses. Aside from efficiency and product availability gains, the system offers a superior form of electronic article surveillance
(EAS), and a superior self checkout
process for consumers. The first commercial, public item-level RFID retail system installation is believed to be in May 2005 by Freedom Shopping, Inc.
in North Carolina, USA.
2009 witnessed the beginning of wide-scale asset tracking with passive RFID. Wells Fargo and Bank of America made announcements that they would track every item in their data centers using passive RFID. Most of the leading banks have since followed suit. The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) set a technical standard for tagging IT assets and other industries have used that standard as a guideline. For instance the US State Department is now tagging IT assets with passive RFID using the ISO/IEC 18000
-6 standard.
policies for large buyers.
was robbed of $1.5 million in chips. The RFID tags of these chips were immediately invalidated, thus making the cash value of these chips $0.
At the same time new integrated circuits (ICs) were introduced by Alien, Impinj
and NXP (formerly Philips) which proved much better performance and use of the IT asset tracking application increased. The largest adopter to date appear to be Bank of America and Wells Fargo – each with more than 100,000 assets across more than a dozen data centers. Some RFID specialists have engineered RFID Software specifically for optimizing RFID performance and scalability.
RFID tags for animals represent one of the oldest uses of RFID technology. Originally meant for large ranches and rough terrain, since the outbreak of mad-cow disease, RFID has become crucial in animal identification management.
An implantable variety of RFID tags or transponder
s can also be used for animal identification. The transponders are more well-known as passive RFID technology, or simply "chips
" on animals.
and by US farmers on a voluntary basis. The USDA
is currently developing its own program.
system based on the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has significant value for inventory systems. Notably, the technology provides an accurate knowledge of the current inventory. In an academic study performed at Wal-Mart, RFID reduced Out-of-Stocks by 30 percent for products selling between 0.1 and 15 units a day. Other benefits of using RFID include the reduction of labor costs, the simplification of business processes, and the reduction of inventory inaccuracies.
In 2004, Boeing integrated the use of RFID technology to help reduce maintenance and inventory costs on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. With the high costs of aircraft parts, RFID technology allowed Boeing to keep track of inventory despite the unique sizes, shapes and environmental concerns. During the first six months after integration, the company was able to save $29,000 in labor.
In 2007, Recall Corporation integrated the use of RFID to help organizations track and audit their records, to support compliance with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
and HIPAA
.
Mayo Clinic
was awarded the most innovative use of RFID in 2009 for their tracking of specimens in the pathology lab. Error rates were reduced from 9% to under .05%..
In 2011 Mayo Clinic
licensed its patent portfolio for specimen tracking to ODIN technologies
, their RFID partner, to commercialize the solution and offer it to other hospitals and laboratories
In June of 2011 the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Loma Linda CA announced that they had deployed active RFID technology usig AeroScout active tags and passive technology as well to track endoscope. The solution is one of more than 400 hospitals to believed deploying AeroScout technology
in April 2010 the Disney Cancer Center deployed both passive and active technology to track patients and assets. The solution included AeroScout ative tags, ThingMagic passive RFID readers and Reva Systems software.
In November 2009, the SocioPatterns platform was used to collect face-to-face proximity between persons with a fine spatial and temporal resolution. They used wearable active RFID devices to detect face-to-face contacts among individuals with a spatial resolution of about 1.5 meters, and a time resolution of 20 seconds. The study was performed in a general pediatric ward of the Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome, Italy, during a one-week period, and included 119 participants, with 51 health care workers, 37 patients, and 31 caregivers.
In 2008, ClearCount Medical introduced the SmartSponge System, an RFID-based system approved for use in the operating room. The system automatically provides a device-reconciled count by directly matching the unique identifier on each tagged item both entering into and then out of the surgical case.
and the United States Department of Defense
have published requirements that their vendors place RFID tags on all shipments to improve supply chain management
. Due to the size of these two organizations, their RFID mandates impact thousands of companies worldwide. The deadlines have been extended several times because many vendors face significant difficulties implementing RFID systems. In practice, the successful read rates currently run only 80%, due to radio wave attenuation
caused by the products and packaging. In time it is expected that even small companies will be able to place RFID tags on their outbound shipments.
In January 2005, Wal-Mart required its top 100 suppliers to apply RFID labels to all shipments. To meet this requirement, vendors use RFID printer/encoders to label cases and pallets that require EPC
tags for Wal-Mart. These smart labels are produced by embedding RFID inlays inside the label
material, and then printing bar code and other visible information on the surface of the label.
In October 2005 the University of Arkansas' Information Technology Research Institute released a report on its preliminary study of the impact of RFID on reducing retail out-of-stocks and concluded that RFID reduced OOS by 21% over non-RFID based stores.
Two years later the Wall Street Journal published an article titled "Wal-Mart's Radio-Tracked Inventory Hits Static." The articles stated that the RFID plan set forth by Wal-Mart was "showing signs of fizzling" due to a lack of progress by Wal-Mart executives to introduce the technology to its stores and to the non-existent incentives for suppliers.
In October 2007 Wal-Mart announced new focus areas for its RFID implementation:
Another Wal-Mart division, Sam's Club
, has also moved in this direction. It sent letters dated Jan. 7, 2008 to its suppliers, stating that by Jan. 31, 2008, every full single-item pallet
shipped to its distribution center in DeSoto, Texas, or directly to one of its stores served by that DC, must bear an EPC Gen 2 RFID tag. Suppliers failing to comply will be charged a service fee.
However, in January 2009 Sam's Club drastically lowered the penalty for failure to tag pallets from $2 a pallet to just 12 cents a pallet. The 12 cents a pallet is what Wal-Mart estimated it would cost Sam's to do the tagging itself. Sam's also announced that pallet-level tagging is expected to be introduced throughout the entire chain in 2010 while the deadline for tagging individual items was "under review."
In February 2009 Procter & Gamble stated it was ending its promotional program with Wal-Mart after Procter & Gamble "validated" benefits of the RFID program in merchandising and promotional displays. This implied Wal-Mart was not acting on the information to improve store execution.
and as of 1 March 2007, EPC Global tags must comply with EPCglobal Class 1 Generation 2 specification.
, reselling discounted product to other retailers, a practice known as diverting. To combat this practice, manufacturers are exploring the use of RFID tags on promoted merchandise so that they can track exactly which product has sold through the supply chain at fully discounted prices.
Among the many uses of RFID technology is its deployment in libraries
. This technology has slowly begun to replace the traditional barcodes on library items (books, CDs, DVD
s, etc.). The RFID tag can contain identifying information, such as a book's title or material type, without having to be pointed to a separate database
(but this is rare in North America). The information is read by an RFID reader, which replaces the standard barcode reader
commonly found at a library's circulation desk. The RFID tag found on library materials typically measures 50×50 mm in North America and 50×75 mm in Europe. It may replace or be added to the barcode
, offering a different means of inventory management by the staff and self service by the borrowers. It can also act as a security
device, taking the place of the more traditional electromagnetic security strip
.
While there is some debate as to when and where RFID in libraries first began, it was first proposed in the late 1990s as a technology that would enhance workflow in the library setting. Singapore
was certainly one of the first to introduce RFID in libraries and Rockefeller University
in New York
may have been the first academic library in the United States
to use this technology, whereas Farmington Community Library in Michigan
may have been the first public institution, both of which began using RFID in 1999. In Europe
, the first public library to use RFID was the one in Hoogezand-Sappemeer
, Netherlands
in 2001, where borrowers were given an option. To their surprise, 70% used the RFID option and quickly adapted, including elderly people.
Worldwide, in absolute numbers, RFID is used most in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom
and Japan
. It is estimated that over 30 million library items worldwide now contain RFID tags, including some in the Vatican Library
in Rome
. At the time of 2010, the largest RFID implementation in academic library is the University of Hong Kong Libraries which have over 1.20 million library items contain RFID tags; whereas the largest implementation for public institution has been installed in Seattle Public Library in the United States.
RFID has many library applications that can be highly beneficial, particularly for circulation staff. Since RFID tags can be read through an item, there is no need to open a book cover or DVD case to scan an item. This could reduce repetitive-motion injuries
. Where the books have a barcode on the outside, there is still the advantage that borrowers can scan an entire pile of books in one go, instead of one at a time. Since RFID tags can also be read while an item is in motion, using RFID readers to check-in returned items while on a conveyor belt reduces staff time. But, as with barcode, this can all be done by the borrowers themselves, meaning they might never again need the assistance of staff. Next to these readers with a fixed location there are also portable ones (for librarians, but in the future possibly also for borrowers, possibly even their own general-purpose readers). With these, inventories could be done on a whole shelf of materials within seconds, without a book ever having to be taken off the shelf. In Umeå
, Sweden
, RFID is being used to assist visually impaired people in borrowing audiobooks. In Malaysia, Smart Shelves are used to pinpoint the exact location of books in Multimedia University Library, Cyberjaya. In the Netherlands, handheld readers are being introduced for this purpose.
The Dutch Union of Public Libraries ('Vereniging van Openbare Bibliotheken') is working on the concept of an interactive 'context library', where borrowers get a reader/headphones-set, which leads them to the desired section of the library (using triangulation methods, rather like GPS
) and which they can use to read information from books on the shelves with the desired level of detail (e.g. a section read out loud), coming from the book's tag itself or a database elsewhere, and get tips on alternatives, based on the borrowers' preferences, thus creating a more personalised version of the library. This may also lead them to sections of the library they might not otherwise visit. Borrowers could also use the system to exchange experiences (such as grading books). This is already done by children in the virtual realm at mijnstempel.nl, but the same could be done in physical form. Borrowers can grade the book at the return desk.
However, as of 2008 this technology remains too costly for many smaller libraries, and the conversion period has been estimated at 11 months for an average-size library. A 2004 Dutch estimate was that a library which lends 100,000 books per year should plan on a cost of €50,000 (borrow- and return-stations: 12,500 each, detection porches 10,000 each; tags 0.36 each). RFID taking a large burden off staff could also mean that fewer staff will be needed, resulting in some of them getting fired, but that has so far not happened in North America where recent surveys have not returned a single library that cut staff because of adding RFID. In fact, library budgets are being reduced for personnel and increased for infrastructure, making it necessary for libraries to add automation to compensate for the reduced staff size. Also, the tasks that RFID takes over are largely not the primary tasks of librarians. A finding in the Netherlands is that borrowers are pleased with the fact that staff are now more available for answering questions.
A concern surrounding RFID in libraries that has received considerable publicity is the issue of privacy. Because RFID tags can—depending on the RFID transmitter & reader—be scanned and read from up to 100 metres (328.1 ft) (eg Smart Label RFID's), and because RFID uses an assortment of frequencies
(both depending on the type of tag, though), there is some concern over whether sensitive information could be collected from an unwilling source. However, library RFID tags do not contain any patron information, and the tags used in the majority of libraries use a frequency only readable from approximately 10 feet (3 m). Also, libraries have always had to keep records of who has borrowed what, so in that sense there is nothing new. However, many libraries destroy these records once an item has been returned. RFID would complicate or nullify this respect of readers' privacy. Further, another non-library agency could potentially record the RFID tags of every person leaving the library without the library administrator's knowledge or consent. One simple option is to let the book transmit a code that has meaning only in conjunction with the library's database. Another step further is to give the book a new code every time it is returned. And if in the future readers become ubiquitous (and possibly networked), then stolen books could be traced even outside the library. Tag removal could be made difficult if the tags are so small that they fit invisibly inside a (random) page, possibly put there by the publisher.
") were issued by Malaysia in 1998. In addition to information also contained on the visual data page of the passport, Malaysian e-passports record the travel history (time, date, and place) of entries and exits from the country.
Other countries that insert RFID in passports include Norway (2005), Japan (March 1, 2006), most EU countries (around 2006) including Spain
, Ireland and the UK, Australia, Hong Kong and the United States (2007), Serbia (July 2008), Republic of Korea (August 2008), Taiwan (December 2008), Albania (January 2009), The Philippines (August 2009), Republic of Macedonia (2010).
Standards for RFID passports are determined by the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO), and are contained in ICAO Document 9303, Part 1, Volumes 1 and 2 (6th edition, 2006). ICAO refers to the ISO/IEC 14443 RFID chips in e-passports as "contactless integrated circuits". ICAO standards provide for e-passports to be identifiable by a standard e-passport logo on the front cover.
In 2006, RFID tags were included in new US passports. The US produced 10 million passports in 2005, and it has been estimated that 13 million will be produced in 2006. The chips inlays produced by Smartrac
will store the same information that is printed within the passport and will also include a digital picture of the owner. The US State Department
initially stated the chips could only be read from a distance of 10 cm (4 in), but after widespread criticism and a clear demonstration that special equipment can read the test passports from 10 meters (33 ft) away, the passports were designed to incorporate a thin metal lining to make it more difficult for unauthorized readers to "skim" information when the passport is closed. The department will also implement Basic Access Control
(BAC), which functions as a Personal Identification Number (PIN) in the form of characters printed on the passport data page. Before a passport's tag can be read, this PIN must be entered into an RFID reader. The BAC also enables the encryption of any communication between the chip and interrogator.
Security expert Bruce Schneier
has suggested that a mugger operating near an airport could target victims who have arrived from wealthy countries, or a terrorist could design an improvised explosive device
which functioned when approached by persons from a particular country if passengers did not put their cards in an area close to their body (high liquid and saline content) or in a foil-lined wallet.
Some other European Union countries are also planning to add fingerprints and other biometric data, while some have already done so.
are now chipping children's clothing, back packs, and student IDs in a primary school. A school in Doncaster
, England
is piloting a monitoring system designed to keep tabs on pupils by tracking radio chips in their uniforms. St Charles Sixth Form College in west London
, England, started September, 2008, is using an RFID card system to check in and out of the main gate, to both track attendance and prevent unauthorized entrance. Similarly, Whitcliffe Mount School in Cleckheaton
, England uses RFID to track pupils and staff in and out of the building via a specially designed card. In the Philippines, some schools already use RFID in IDs for borrowing books and also gates in those particular schools have RFID ID scanners for buying items at a school shop and canteen, library and also to sign in and sign out for student and teacher's attendance.
, a science museum in San Francisco, California
. A visitor entering the museum received an RF Tag that could be carried as a card. The eXspot system enabled the visitor to receive information about specific exhibits. Aside from the exhibit information, the visitor could take photographs of themselves at the exhibit. It was also intended to allow the visitor to take data for later analysis. The collected information could be retrieved at home from a "personalized" website keyed to the RFID tag.
RFID tags on the apparel item.
of Barsinghausen, Germany. It is used for registering race start and end timings for animals or individuals in large running races or multi-sport races where it is impossible to get accurate stopwatch readings for every entrant.
In the race, the racers wear passive or active tags that are read by antennae placed alongside the track or on mats across the track. UHF based tags instead of low or high frequency last-generation tags provide accurate readings with specially designed antennas. Rush error, lap count errors and accidents at start time are avoided since anyone can start and finish any time without being in a batch mode.
, Enduro
and Hare and Hounds racing. Riders have a transponder on their person, normally on their arm. When they complete a lap they swipe or touch the receiver which is connected to a computer and log their lap time. The Casimo Group Ltd sells such a system, as does Sweden's SportIdent and Japan's Micro Talk Systems Corp. which sells the J-Chip system shown in the photo left.
RFID is being adapted by many recruitment agencies which have a PET (Physical Endurance Test) as their qualifying procedure especially in cases where the candidate volumes may run into millions (Indian Railway Recruitment Cells, Police and Power sector).
s, particularly in Scandinavia
, the French Alps
and in the Spanish and French Pyrenees, have adopted RFID tags to provide skiers hands-free access to ski lift
s. Skiers do not have to take their passes out of their pockets. Early on skiers were forced to use systems that required nearly contact - bending over to touch the turnstyles. These systems were based on high frequency (HF) at 13.56 megahertz. While effective at tracking the skiers they were difficult to use and expensive to deploy. However the bulk of ski areas in Europe, from Verbier to Chamonix use these systems.
Implantable RFID chips designed for animal tagging are now being used in humans. An early experiment with RFID implants was conducted by British professor of cybernetics
Kevin Warwick
, who implanted a chip in his arm in 1998. In 2004 Conrad Chase
offered implanted chips in his night clubs in Barcelona
and Rotterdam
to identify their VIP customers, who in turn use it to pay for drinks.
In 2004, the Mexican Attorney General's office implanted 18 of its staff members with the Verichip
to control access to a secure data room.
Security experts have warned against using RFID for authenticating people due to the risk of identity theft
. For instance, a man-in-the-middle attack
would make it possible for an attacker to steal the identity of a person in real-time. Due to the resource constraints of RFIDs, it is virtually impossible to protect against such attack models as this would require complex distance-binding protocols.
Privacy advocates have protested against implantable RFID chips, warning of potential abuse and denouncing these types of RFID devices as "spychips
", and that use by governments could lead to an increased loss of civil liberties and would lend itself too easily to abuse. One such case of this abuse would be in the microchip's dual use as a tracking device. Such concerns were justified in the United States, when the FBI program COINTELPRO
was revealed to have tracked the activities of high profile political activist and dissident figures. There is also the possibility that the chip's information will be available to those other than governments, such as private business, thus giving employers highly personal information about employees. In addition, privacy advocates state that the information contained in this chip could easily be stolen, so that storing anything private in it would be to risk identity theft.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), implantation of an RFID chip poses potential medical downsides. Electrical hazards, MRI incompatibility, adverse tissue reaction, and migration of the implanted transponder are just a few of the potential risks associated with the Verichip ID implant device, according to an October 12, 2004 letter issued by the FDA.
It has been argued that RFID chipping of sex offenders in the US could be politically feasible, and allowable under the U.S. Constitution.
or EAN
barcodes. They may not ever completely replace barcodes, due in part to their higher cost and the advantage of multiple data sources on the same object. Also, unlike RFID labels, barcodes can be generated and distributed electronically, e.g. via e-mail or mobile phone, for printing and/or display by the recipient. An example is airline boarding passes. The new EPC
, along with several other schemes, is widely available at reasonable cost.
The storage of data associated with tracking items will require many terabytes. Filtering and categorizing RFID data is needed to create useful information. It is likely that goods will be tracked by the pallet using RFID tags, and at package level with Universal Product Code (UPC
) or EAN
from unique barcodes.
The unique identity is a mandatory requirement for RFID tags, despite special choice of the numbering scheme. RFID tag data capacity is large enough that each individual tag will have a unique code, while current bar codes are limited to a single type code for a particular product. The uniqueness of RFID tags means that a product may be tracked as it moves from location to location, finally ending up in the consumer's hands. This may help to combat theft and other forms of product loss. The tracing of products is an important feature that gets well supported with RFID tags containing a unique identity of the tag and also the serial number of the object. This may help companies to cope with quality deficiencies and resulting recall campaigns, but also contributes to concern about tracking and profiling of consumers after the sale.
It has also been proposed to use RFID for POS
store checkout to replace the cashier
with an automatic system which needs no barcode scanning. In the past this was not possible due to the higher cost of tags and existing POS process technologies. However, Industry Standard, a couture shop and recording studio in Ohio has successfully implemented a POS procedure that allows faster transaction throughput.
An FDA-nominated task force concluded, after studying the various technologies currently commercially available, which of those technologies could meet the pedigree requirements. Amongst all technologies studied including bar coding, RFID seemed to be the most promising and the committee felt that the pedigree requirement could be met by easily leveraging something that is readily available. (More details see RFID-FDA-Regulations)
back to a base station. Applications of tagometry data could include sensing of road conditions by implanted beacons, weather reports, and noise level monitoring.
Passive RFID tags can also report sensor data. For example, the Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform
is a passive tag that reports temperature, acceleration and capacitance to commercial Gen2 RFID readers.
It is possible that active or semi-passive RFID tags used with or in place of barcodes could broadcast a signal to an in-store receiver to determine whether the RFID tag (product) is in the store.
issued a ruling that essentially begins a final review process that will determine whether hospitals can use RFID systems to identify patients and/or permit relevant hospital staff to access medical records. Since then, a number of U.S. hospitals have begun implanting patients with RFID tags and using RFID systems, usually for workflow and inventory management. There is some evidence, as well, that nurses and other hospital staff may be subjected to increased surveillance of their activities or to labor intensification as a result of the implementation of RFID systems in hospitals.
The use of RFID to prevent mixups between sperm
and ova
in IVF clinics is also being considered.
In October 2004, the FDA approved USA's first RFID chips that can be implanted in humans. The 134 kHz RFID chips, from VeriChip Corp. can incorporate personal medical information and could save lives and limit injuries from errors in medical treatments, according to the company. The FDA approval was disclosed during a conference call with investors. Shortly after the approval, authors and anti-RFID activists Katherine Albrecht
and Liz McIntyre discovered an FDA Warning Letter
that spelled out serious health risks associated with the VeriChip. According to the FDA, these include "adverse tissue reaction", "migration of the implanted transponder", "failure of implanted transponder", "electrical hazards" and "magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] incompatibility."
St. Clair Hospital in Pittsburgh has deployed an RFID and barcode based bedside medication verification system that improves patient safety by reducing medication errors. Nurses use a PDA equipped with a portable RFID reader and barcode scanner to check patient ID and medications before administering any drugs, including drugs delivered through IV pumps.
To combat home health fraud, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced heightened scrutiny of the home health care industry. In March, 2009, Elite Medical Supply, a durable medical equipment supplier in New York were one of the first to sign on to combat Medical fraud. They selected CYBRA
's EdgeMagic RFID and Bar Code Software to rollout the process.
Low-frequency (LF: 125–134.2 kHz and 140–148.5 kHz) (LowFID) tags and high-frequency (HF: 13.56 MHz) (HighFID) tags can be used globally without a license. Ultra-high-frequency (UHF: 868–928 MHz) (Ultra-HighFID or UHFID) tags cannot be used globally as there is no single global standard. In North America, UHF can be used unlicensed for 902–928& MHz (±13 MHz from the 915 MHz center frequency), but restrictions exist for transmission power. In Europe, RFID and other low-power radio applications are regulated by ETSI recommendations EN 300 220 and EN 302 208, and ERO recommendation 70 03, allowing RFID operation with somewhat complex band restrictions from 865–868 MHz. Readers are required to monitor a channel before transmitting ("Listen Before Talk"); this requirement has led to some restrictions on performance, the resolution of which is a subject of current research. The North American UHF standard is not accepted in France as it interferes with its military bands. For China and Japan, there is no regulation for the use of UHF. Each application for UHF in these countries needs a site license, which needs to be applied for at the local authorities, and can be revoked. For Australia and New Zealand, 918–926 MHz are unlicensed, but restrictions exist for transmission power.
These frequencies are known as the ISM band
s (Industrial Scientific and Medical bands). The return signal of the tag may still cause interference
for other radio users.
standards that have been made regarding RFID technology include:
In order to ensure global interoperability of products several organizations have setup additional standards for RFID testing
. These standards include conformance, performance and interoperability tests.
Groups concerned with standardization are:
EPCglobal
(a joint venture between GS1
and GS1 US
) is working on international standards for the use of mostly passive RFID and the EPC
in the identification of many items in the supply chain
for companies worldwide.
One of the missions of EPCglobal was to simplify the Babel of protocols prevalent in the RFID world in the 1990s. Two tag air interfaces (the protocol for exchanging information between a tag and a reader) were defined (but not ratified) by EPCglobal prior to 2003. These protocols, commonly known as Class 0 and Class 1, saw significant commercial implementation in 2002–2005.
In 2004 the Hardware Action Group created a new protocol, the Class 1 Generation 2 interface, which addressed a number of problems that had been experienced with Class 0 and Class 1 tags. The EPC Gen2 standard was approved in December 2004. This was approved after a contention from Intermec
that the standard may infringe a number of their RFID-related patents. It was decided that the standard itself does not infringe their patents, making the standard royalty free. The EPC Gen2 standard was adopted with minor modifications as ISO 18000-6C in 2006.
The lowest cost of Gen2 EPC inlay was offered by the now-defunct company SmartCode, at a price of $0.05 apiece in volumes of 100 million or more. Nevertheless, further conversion (including additional label stock or encapsulation processing/insertion and freight costs to a given facility or DC) and of the inlays into usable RFID labels and the design of current Gen 2 protocol standard will increase the total end-cost, especially with the added security feature extensions for RFID Supply Chain item-level tagging.
Here is the full list of the update on UHF Gen2 Regulation around the world. The list is updated at 2009 January.
The EPC standards are available from EPCglobal at http://www.gs1.org/gsmp/kc/epcglobal
performing the filtering from noisy and redundant raw data to significant processed data.
. To address international trade concerns, it is necessary to use a tag that is operational within all of the international frequency domains.
's recent adoption of RFID tags for supply chain management
. More generally, privacy organizations have expressed concerns in the context of ongoing efforts to embed electronic product code (EPC) RFID tags in consumer products.
EPCglobal Network, by design, is also susceptible to DoS attacks
. Using similar mechanism with DNS
in resolving EPC data requests, the ONS Root servers become vulnerable to DoS attacks. Any organization planning to embark on EPCglobal Network may cringe upon discovering that the EPCglobal Network infrastructure inherits security weaknesses similar to DNS's.
A second class of defense uses cryptography to prevent tag cloning. Some tags use a form of "rolling code
" scheme, wherein the tag identifier information changes after each scan, thus reducing the usefulness of observed responses. More sophisticated devices engage in Challenge-response authentication
s where the tag interacts with the reader. In these protocols, secret tag information is never sent over the insecure communication channel between tag and reader. Rather, the reader issues a challenge to the tag, which responds with a result computed using a cryptographic circuit keyed with some secret value. Such protocols may be based on symmetric or public key cryptography. Cryptographically-enabled tags typically have dramatically higher cost and power requirements than simpler equivalents, and as a result, deployment of these tags is much more limited. This cost/power limitation has led some manufacturers to implement cryptographic tags using substantially weakened, or proprietary encryption schemes, which do not necessarily resist sophisticated attack.
Still other cryptographic protocols attempt to achieve privacy against unauthorized readers, though these protocols are largely in the research stage. One major challenge in securing RFID tags is a shortage of computational resources within the tag. Standard cryptographic techniques require more resources than are available in most low cost RFID devices. RSA Security
has patented a prototype device that locally jams RFID signals by interrupting a standard collision avoidance protocol, allowing the user to prevent identification if desired. Various policy measures have also been proposed, such as marking RFID-tagged objects with an industry standard label. RFID security has been an active research field for the past decade, with more than 400 scientific papers published since 2002. An extensive list of references in this field can be found at the RFID Security and Privacy Lounge .
reported in March 2006 an RFID buffer overflow
bug that could infect airport terminal RFID databases for baggage, and also passport databases to obtain confidential information on the passport holder.
, does work. Others claim that simply wrapping an RFID card in aluminum foil only makes transmission more difficult and is not completely effective at preventing it.
Shielding is again a function of the frequency being used. Low-frequency
LowFID tags, like those used in implantable devices for humans and pets, are relatively resistant to shielding, though thick metal foil will prevent most reads. High frequency
HighFID tags (13.56 MHz—smart cards and access badges) are sensitive to shielding and are difficult to read when within a few centimetres of a metal surface. UHF
Ultra-HighFID tags (pallets and cartons) are difficult to read when placed within a few millimetres of a metal surface, although their read range is actually increased when they are spaced 2–4 cm from a metal surface due to positive reinforcement of the reflected wave and the incident wave at the tag. UHFID tags can be successfully shielded from most reads by being placed within an anti-static plastic bag
.
s by consumer privacy advocates. Consumer privacy experts Katherine Albrecht
and Liz McIntyre are two prominent critics of the technology. The two main privacy
concerns regarding RFID are:
Most concerns revolve around the fact that RFID tags affixed to products remain functional even after the products have been purchased and taken home and thus can be used for surveillance
and other purposes unrelated to their supply chain inventory functions.
The RFID Network proved these fears to be unfounded in the premier episode of their syndicated cable TV series by having RF engineers show how RFID technology really works. RF engineers drove an RFID-enabled van around a building and tried to take an inventory of items inside. They also explored if a passive RFID tag can be tracked from satellite.
The concerns raised by the above may be addressed in part by use of the Clipped Tag
. The Clipped Tag is an RFID tag designed to increase consumer privacy. The Clipped Tag has been suggested by IBM
researchers Paul Moskowitz
and Guenter Karjoth. After the point of sale, a consumer may tear off a portion of the tag. This allows the transformation of a long-range tag into a proximity tag that still may be read, but only at short range – less than a few inches or centimeters. The modification of the tag may be confirmed visually. The tag may still be used later for returns, recalls, or recycling.
However, read range is both a function of the reader and the tag itself. Improvements in technology may increase read ranges for tags. Having readers very close to the tags makes short range tags readable. Generally, the read range of a tag is limited to the distance from the reader over which the tag can draw enough energy from the reader field to power the tag. Tags may be read at longer ranges than they are designed for by increasing reader power. The limit on read distance then becomes the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal reflected from the tag back to the reader. Researchers at two security conferences have demonstrated that passive Ultra-HighFID tags normally read at ranges of up to 30 feet, can be read at ranges of 50 to 69 feet using suitable equipment.
In January 2004 privacy advocates from CASPIAN
and the German privacy group FoeBuD were invited to the METRO Future Store in Germany
, where an RFID pilot project was implemented. It was uncovered by accident that METRO "Payback" customer loyalty cards contained RFID tags with customer IDs, a fact that was disclosed neither to customers receiving the cards, nor to this group of privacy advocates. This happened despite assurances by METRO that no customer identification data was tracked and all RFID usage was clearly disclosed.
During the UN World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) between the 16th to 18 November 2005, founder of the free software movement
, Richard Stallman
, protested the use of RFID security cards. During the first meeting, it was agreed that future meetings would no longer use RFID cards, and upon finding out this assurance was broken, he covered his card with aluminum foil, and would only uncover it at the security stations. This protest caused the security personnel considerable concern, with some not allowing him to leave a conference room in which he had been the main speaker, and the prevention of him entering another conference room, where he was due to speak.
In 2004–2005 the Federal Trade Commission
Staff conducted a workshop and review of RFID privacy concerns and issued a report recommending best practices.
RFID was one of the main topics of 2006 Chaos Communication Congress
(organized by the Chaos Computer Club
in Berlin
) and triggered a big press debate. Topics included: electronic passports, Mifare cryptography and the tickets for the FIFA World Cup 2006. Talks showed how the first real world mass application of RFID technology at the 2006 FIFA Soccer World Cup worked. Group monochrom
staged a special 'Hack RFID' song.
Zeitgeist The Movie presented RFID chips as a negative technology, theorizing that they will one day be used to track the world population and keep them under control.
in the US has approved the use of RFID chips in humans.
Some business establishments give customers the option of using an RFID-based tab to pay for service, such as the Baja Beach nightclub in Barcelona
. This has provoked concerns into privacy of individuals as they can potentially be tracked wherever they go by an identifier unique to them. There are concerns this could lead to abuse by an authoritarian government or lead to removal of freedoms.
On July 22, 2006, Reuters reported that two hackers, Newitz and Westhues, at a conference in New York City showed that they could clone the RFID signal from a human implanted RFID chip, showing that the chip is not hack-proof as was previously claimed.
Surgery, even on a small scale, comes with its risks. The RFID chip implantation is no exception. According to David B. Smith, the author of "Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology in Humans in the United States for Total Control," Smith gives the examples of health risks such as "…adverse tissues reaction migration of implanted transponder, compromised information security, failure of implanted transponder, failure of insertion, failure of electronic scanner, electromagnetic interference electrical hazards, magnetic resonance imaging incompatibility, and needle stick" (38). Such risks exist for anyone undergoing an implantation procedure.
By early 2007, Chris Paget of San Francisco, California, showed that RFID information can be pulled from individuals by using only $250 worth of equipment. This supports the claim that with the information captured, it would be relatively simple to make counterfeit passports.
According to ZDNet, critics believe that this technology will lead to tracking individuals every movement and will be an invasion of privacy. Some conceptualize a future where every movement is tracked by the government. In the book SpyChips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID by Katherine Albrecht
and Liz McIntyre, one is encouraged to "imagine a world of no privacy. Where your every purchase is monitored and recorded in a database and your every belonging is numbered. Where someone many states away or perhaps in another country has a record of everything you have ever bought. What's more, they can be tracked and monitored remotely".
tags), may catch fire if subjected to this process for too long (as would any metallic item inside a microwave oven). This simple method cannot safely be used to deactivate RFID features in electronic devices, or those implanted in living tissue, because of the risk of damage to the "host". However the time required is extremely short (a second or two of radiation) and the method works in many other non-electronic and inanimate items, long before thermal buildup (fire) problems become of concern.
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
that uses radio waves
Radio waves
Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies from 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, and corresponding wavelengths from 1 millimeter to 100 kilometers. Like all other electromagnetic waves,...
to transfer data from an electronic tag, called RFID tag or label, attached to an object, through a reader for the purpose of identifying and tracking the object. Some RFID tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. The application of bulk reading
Bulk reading
For RFID tags, bulk reading is the extension of single reading to a set of tags. A group of objects, all of them RFID tagged, shall be read completely from one single reader position in timely coincidence.- Limitations :...
enables an almost-parallel reading of tags.
The tag's information is stored electronically. The RFID tag includes a small RF transmitter and receiver. An RFID reader transmits an encoded radio signal to interrogate the tag. The tag receives the message and responds with its identification information. Many RFID tags do not use a battery. Instead, the tag uses the radio energy transmitted by the reader as its energy source. The RFID system design includes a method of discriminating several tags that might be within the range of the RFID reader.
A number of organizations have set standards for RFID, including the International Organization for Standardization
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
(ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
(IEC), ASTM International
ASTM International
ASTM International, known until 2001 as the American Society for Testing and Materials , is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services...
, the DASH7
DASH7
DASH7 is an open source wireless sensor networking standard for wireless sensor networking, which operates in the 433 MHz unlicensed ISM band. DASH7 provides multi-year battery life, range of up to 2 km, low latency for connecting with moving things, a very small open source protocol...
Alliance and EPCglobal
EPCglobal
EPCglobal is a joint venture between GS1 and GS1 US .It is an organization set up to achieve worldwide adoption and standardization of Electronic Product Code technology....
. (Refer to Regulation and standardization below.) There are also several specific industries that have set guidelines. These industries include the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) which has set a standard for tracking IT Assets with RFID, the Computer Technology Industry Association CompTIA
CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association , a non-profit trade association, was created in 1982 as the Association of Better Computer Dealers, Inc. by representatives of five microcomputer dealerships...
which has set a standard for certifying RFID engineers, and the International Airlines Transport Association IATA which has set tagging guidelines for luggage in airports.
RFID can be used in many applications. A tag can be affixed to any object and used to track and manage inventory, assets, people, etc. For example, it can be affixed to cars, computer equipment, books, mobile phones, etc. The Healthcare industry has used RFID to reduce counting, looking for things and auditing items. Many financial institutions use RFID to track key assets and automate compliance. Also with recent advances in social media RFID is being used to tie the physical world with the virtual world. RFID in Social Media first came to light in 2010 with Facebook's annual conference.
RFID is a superior and more efficient way of identifying objects than manual system or use of bar code systems that have been in use since the 1970s. Furthermore, passive RFID tags (those without a battery) can be read if passed within close enough proximity to an RFID reader. It is not necessary to "show" the tag to the reader device, as with a bar code. In other words it does not require line of sight to "see" an RFID tag, the tag can be read inside a case, carton, box or other container, and unlike barcodes RFID tags can be read hundreds at a time. Bar codes can only be read one at a time.
In 2011, the cost of passive tags started at US$0.05 each and special tags, meant to be mounted on metal or withstand gamma sterilization, can go up to US$5. Active tags for tracking containers, medical assets, or monitoring environmental conditions in data centers all start at US$50 and can go up over US$100 each. Battery Assisted Passive (BAP) tags are in the US$3–10 range and also have sensor capability like temperature and humidity.
Terminology
A radio-frequency identification system involves hardware known as interrogators or readers and tags, also known as labels, as well as RFID software or RFID middleware.RFID tags
RFID tags can be either passive, active or battery assisted passive. Passive RFID does not use a batteryBattery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
, while an active has an on-board battery that always broadcasts or beacons its signal. A battery assisted passive (BAP) has a small battery on board that is activated when in the presence of a RFID reader.
Most RFID tags contain at least two parts: one is an integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
for storing and processing information, modulating
Modulation
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a high-frequency periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with a modulating signal which typically contains information to be transmitted...
and demodulating
Demodulation
Demodulation is the act of extracting the original information-bearing signal from a modulated carrier wave.A demodulator is an electronic circuit that is used to recover the information content from the modulated carrier wave.These terms are traditionally used in connection with radio receivers,...
a radio-frequency (RF) signal, and other specialized functions; the other is an antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
for receiving and transmitting the signal.
Fixed and Mobile RFID
Depending on mobility, RFID readers are classified into two different types: fixed RFID and mobile RFIDMobile RFID
Mobile RFID can be defined as services that provide information on objects equipped with an RFID tag over a telecommunication network.”. The reader or interrogator can be installed in a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA....
. If the reader reads tags in a stationary position, it is called fixed RFID. These fixed readers are set up specific interrogation zones and create a "bubble" of RF energy that can be tightly controlled if the physics is well engineered. This allows a very definitive reading area for when tags go in and out of the interrogation zone. On the other hand, if the reader is mobile when the reader reads tags, it is called mobile RFID. Mobile readers include hand helds, carts and vehicle mounted RFID readers from manufacturers such as Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
, Intermec
Intermec
Intermec Inc. is a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of Automated identification and data capture equipment, including barcode scanners, barcode printers, mobile computers and RFID systems....
, Impinj
Impinj
Impinj, Inc. is a manufacturer of radio-frequency identification technology. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company was started based on the research done at the California Institute of Technology by Carver Mead and Chris Diorio...
, Sirit, etc.
History and technology background
Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology...
invented an espionage tool
Thing (listening device)
The Thing, also known as the Great Seal bug, was one of the first covert listening devices to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal...
for the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
which retransmitted incident radio waves with audio information. Sound waves vibrated a diaphragm
Diaphragm (acoustics)
In the field of acoustics, a diaphragm is a transducer intended to faithfully inter-convert mechanical motion and sound. It is commonly constructed of a thin membrane or sheet of various materials. The varying air pressure of the sound waves imparts vibrations onto the diaphragm which can then be...
which slightly altered the shape of the resonator
Resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior, that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonant frequencies, with greater amplitude than at others. The oscillations in a resonator can be either electromagnetic or mechanical...
, which modulated the reflected radio frequency. Even though this device was a covert listening device
Covert listening device
A covert listening device, more commonly known as a bug or a wire, is usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. The use of bugs, called bugging, is a common technique in surveillance, espionage and in police investigations.A bug does not have to be a device...
, not an identification tag, it is considered to be a predecessor of RFID technology, because it was likewise passive, being energized and activated by waves from an outside source.
Similar technology, such as the IFF
Identification friend or foe
In telecommunications, identification, friend or foe is an identification system designed for command and control. It is a system that enables military and national interrogation systems to identify aircraft, vehicles, or forces as friendly and to determine their bearing and range from the...
transponder
Transponder
In telecommunication, the term transponder has the following meanings:...
developed in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, was routinely used by the allies in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to identify aircraft as friend or foe. Transponders are still used by most powered aircraft to this day.
Another early work exploring RFID is the landmark 1948 paper by Harry Stockman, titled "Communication by Means of Reflected Power" (Proceedings of the IRE, pp 1196–1204, October 1948). Stockman predicted that "... considerable research and development work has to be done before the remaining basic problems in reflected-power communication are solved, and before the field of useful applications is explored."
Mario Cardullo's device, patented on January 23, 1973, was the first true ancestor of modern RFID, as it was a passive radio transponder with memory. The initial device was passive, powered by the interrogating signal, and was demonstrated in 1971 to the New York Port Authority and other potential users and consisted of a transponder with 16 bit
Bit
A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states...
memory for use as a toll device. The basic Cardullo patent covers the use of RF, sound and light as transmission media. The original business plan presented to investors in 1969 showed uses in transportation (automotive vehicle identification, automatic toll system, electronic license plate, electronic manifest, vehicle routing, vehicle performance monitoring), banking (electronic check book, electronic credit card), security (personnel identification, automatic gates, surveillance) and medical (identification, patient history).
An early demonstration of reflected power (modulated backscatter) RFID tags, both passive and semi-passive, was performed by Steven Depp, Alfred Koelle, and Robert Freyman at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
in 1973. The portable system operated at 915 MHz and used 12-bit tags. This technique is used by the majority of today's UHFID and microwave RFID tags.
The first patent to be associated with the abbreviation RFID was granted to Charles Walton
Charles Walton (inventor)
Charles Walton is best known as the first patent holder for the RFID device. Many individuals contributed to the invention of the RFID, but Walton was awarded ten patents in all for various RFID-related devices, including his key 1973 design for a "Portable radio frequency emitting identifier"...
in 1983.
The largest deployment of active RFID is the US Department of Defense use of Savi active tags on every one of its more than a million shipping containers that travel outside of the continental United States. The largest passive RFID deployment is the enterprise-wide deployment performed by Wal*Mart which instrumented over 2800 retail stores with over 25,000 reader systems, however the exact number is considered 'corporate confidential'.
Miniaturization
RFIDs are easy to conceal or incorporate in other items. For example, in 2009 researchers at Bristol University successfully glued RFID micro-transponders to live antAnt
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s in order to study their behavior. This trend towards increasingly miniaturized RFIDs is likely to continue as technology advances.
Hitachi holds the record for the smallest RFID chip, at 0.05mm × 0.05mm. This is 1/64th the size of the previous record holder, the mu-chip. Manufacture is
enabled by using the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process. These dust-sized chips can store 38-digit numbers using 128-bit Read Only Memory (ROM). A major challenge is the attachment of the antennas, thus limiting read range to only millimeters.
Potential alternatives to the radio frequencies (0.125–0.1342, 0.140–0.1485, 13.56, and 840–960 MHz) used are seen in optical RFID
Optical RFID
Optical RFID is an alternative to RFID that is based on optical readers. Applications for optical RFID tags may be found in future supply chain scenarios...
(or OPID) at 333 THz (900 nm), 380 THz (788 nm), 750 THz (400 nm). The awkward antennas of RFID can be replaced with photovoltaic components and IR
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
-LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
s on the IC
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
s.
Current uses
In 2010 three key factors drove a significant increase in RFID usage: decreased cost of equipment and tags, increased performance to a reliability of 99.9% and a stable international standard around UHF passive RFID. The adoption of these standards were driven by EPCglobal, a joint venture between GS1 and GS1 US, which were responsible for driving global adoption of the barcode in the 1970s and 1980s. The EPCglobal Network was developed by the Auto-ID Center, an academic research project headquartered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with labs at five leading research universities around the globe: Cambridge, Adelaide, Keio, Shanghai, Fudan, St. Gallen. At RFID Journal Live 2010 in Orlando, Airbus detailed 16 active projects, IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and—most recently added to the team—CSC
Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Sciences Corporation is an American information technology and business services company headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, USA...
. The two other areas of significant use are financial services for IT asset tracking and healthcare. RFID is becoming increasingly prevalent as the price of the technology decreases.
Electronic vehicle registration
With security of cars being a major concern in many countries, some countries are using RFID technology for vehicle registration and enforcement. RFID can help detect and retrieve stolen cars.Payment by mobile phones
Since summer 2009, two credit card companies have been working with Dallas, Texas-based DeviceFidelity to develop specialized microSD cards. When inserted into a mobile phone, the microSD card can be both a passive tag and an RFID reader. After inserting the microSD, a user's phone can be linked to bank accounts and used in mobile payment.Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen, often abbreviated DQ, is a chain of soft serve and fast food restaurants owned by International Dairy Queen, Inc, who also owns Orange Julius and Karmelkorn. The name "Dairy Queen" is taken from the name of their soft serve product, which the company refers to as "Dairy Queen" or...
in conjunction with Vivotech
Vivotech
ViVOtech is a company which produces software and hardware for the Near Field Communication mobile payment and promotion market. Founded in 2001, it is based out of Santa Clara, California...
has also begun using RFIDs on mobile phones as part of their new loyalty and rewards program. Patrons can ask to receive an RFID tag to place on their phone. After activation, the phone can receive promotions and coupons, which can be read by ViVOtech's specialized NFC devices.
Similarly, 7-Eleven
7-Eleven
7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...
has been working alongside MasterCard
MasterCard
Mastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...
to promote a new touch-free payment system. Those joining the trial are given a complimentary Nokia 3220 cell phone – after activation, it can be used as an RFID-capable MasterCard credit card at any of 7-Eleven's worldwide chains.
Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
's 2008 device, the 6212, has RFID capabilities also. Credit card information can be stored, and bank accounts can be directly accessed using the enabled handset. The phone, if used as a vector for mobile payment, has added security in that users would be required to enter a passcode or PIN before payment is authorized.
Transportation payments
Governments use RFID applications for traffic management, while automotive companies use various RFID tracking solutions for product management. Many of these solutions may work together in the future, though privacy regulations prevent many initiatives from moving forward at the same pace that technology allows.Car-sharing
The ZipcarZipcar
Zipcar is an American membership-based car sharing company providing automobile reservations to its members, billable by the hour or day. Zipcar was founded in 2000 by Cambridge, Massachusetts residents Antje Danielson and Robin Chase, and is now led by Scott Griffith, Chairman and Chief Executive...
car-sharing service uses RFID cards for locking and unlocking cars and for member identification.
Season parking tickets
Following a successful pilot, Housing & Development Board (HDB) Singapore called two tenders in 2006 to implement RFID to replace the paper Season Parking Ticket (SPT). The successful tenders have distributed RFID tags to SPT holders since March 2007.Toll roads
- In Mexico, RFID technology is being used extensively and is implemented by Neology
- In Pakistan, RFID is being used for e–tolling in Motorways, implemented by NADRA.
- In India, various toll booths are now in the process of implementing RFID.
- In Dubai, UAE, RFID is being used for e–tolling – RFID Cards (named SALIK) are used on Motorways, implemented by RTA.
- In TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, 13.56 MHz RFID cards have been used in the motorways and bridges as a payment system since 2005; it is also used in public transportation systems in IstanbulIstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, ÇanakkaleÇanakkaleÇanakkale is a town and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern coast of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 106,116 . The mayor is Ülgür Gökhan ....
, IzmirIzmirIzmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
and DenizliDenizliDenizli is a growing industrial city in the Southwestern part of Turkey and the eastern end of the alluvial valley formed by the river Büyük Menderes, where the plain reaches an elevation of about a hundred meters. Denizli is located in southwestern Turkey, in the country's Aegean Region.The city...
. - RFID is used in Malaysia's Touch 'n GoTouch 'n GoThe Touch 'n Go or smart card is used by Malaysian toll expressway and highway operators as the sole electronic payment system . The credit card sized smartcard made of plastic with Philips' MIFARE microchip technology embedded in it....
. As the system's name indicates, the card is designed to only function as an RFID card when the user touches it. - In NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, all public toll roads are equipped with an RFID payment system known as AutoPASSAutopassAutopass is an electronic toll collection system used in Norway. It allows collecting road tolls automatically from cars...
. - In ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, all public toll roads are equipped with an optional RFID payment system named TelepassTELEPASSthumb|300px|Film showing the approach to and passing of a toll station in Italy, using a Telepass OBU. Note the yellow Telepass lane signs and road markings and the sound emitted by the OBU when passing the lane...
. - In GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, public toll roads in the Attica and Peloponnese regions are equipped with an RFID payment system known as E-Pass. - In IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, the eToll system uses RFID tags for payments on all road tolls, including the barrier-free M50M50 motorway (Ireland)The M50 motorway is a motorway in Ireland running in a C-shaped ring around the north-eastern, northern, western and southern sides of the capital city, Dublin. The northern end of the route is located at the entrance to the Dublin Port Tunnel. Anti-clockwise it heads northwest through the tunnel...
toll between exits 6 and 7. - In Singapore, public transportation buses and trains employ passive RFID cards known as EZ-LinkEZ-LinkThe EZ-Link card is a contactless smart card based on the Sony FeliCa smartcard technology and used for the payment of public transportation fares in Singapore, with limited use in the small payments retail sector...
cards. Traffic into crowded downtown areas is regulated by variable tolls imposed using an active tagging system combined with the use of stored-value cards (known as CashCards). - In Ontario, Canada, Electronic Road Pricing systems are used to collect toll payments on Ontario Highway 407.
- RFID tags are used for electronic toll collectionElectronic toll collectionElectronic toll collection , an adaptation of military "identification friend or foe" technology, aims to eliminate the delay on toll roads by collecting tolls electronically. It is thus a technological implementation of a road pricing concept...
at toll boothToll houseA tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal. Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries...
s with GeorgiaGeorgia (U.S. state)Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
's Cruise Card, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
's FasTrakFasTrakFasTrak is the electronic toll collection system used in the state of California in the United States. The system is used statewide on all of the toll roads, toll bridges, and high occupancy/toll and express toll lanes along the California Freeway and Expressway System.As with other ETC systems,...
, ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
's E-470E-470E-470 is a 46-mile limited-access tollway traversing the eastern portion of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area in Colorado. The toll road is not a state highway, but is instead maintained by the E-470 Public Highway Authority.-Route description:...
, IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
' I-PassI-PassI-PASS is the electronic toll collection system used by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority on its toll highways. It uses the same transponder as the E-ZPass system used in the Northeastern US, and the Indiana Toll Road's i-Zoom program....
, OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
's Pikepass, the expanding eastern states' E-ZPassE-ZPassE-ZPass is an electronic toll-collection system used on most tolled roads, bridges, and tunnels in the northeastern US, south to Virginia and West Virginia, and west to Illinois. Currently, there are 25 agencies spread across 14 states that make up the . All member agencies use the same technology,...
system (including Massachusetts's Fast LaneFast LaneFast Lane is the RFID electronic toll collection system used in Massachusetts. Fast Lane is used on the Massachusetts Turnpike, Sumner Tunnel, Ted Williams Tunnel, and Tobin Bridge. It is also accepted at one parking structure operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority...
, Delaware, New Hampshire Turnpike, Maryland, New Jersey TurnpikeNew Jersey TurnpikeThe New Jersey Turnpike is a toll road in New Jersey, maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. According to the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, the Turnpike is the nation's sixth-busiest toll road and is among one of the most heavily traveled highways in the United...
, Pennsylvania TurnpikePennsylvania TurnpikeThe Pennsylvania Turnpike is a toll highway system operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. The three sections of the turnpike system total . The main section extends from Ohio to New Jersey and is long...
, West Virginia Turnpike, New York's Thruway system, Virginia, the Maine Turnpike, and Rhode Island's Newport BridgeClaiborne Pell Newport BridgeThe Claiborne Pell Bridge, commonly known as the Newport Bridge, is a suspension bridge operated by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority that spans the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island , connecting the City of Newport on Aquidneck Island and the Town of Jamestown on...
); Central Florida also uses this technology, via its E-PASS System. E-PASS and Sunpass are mutually compatible. Florida's SunPassSunPassSunPass is an electronic toll collection system in use by the State of Florida and was originally created by the Florida Department of Transportation's Florida's Turnpike...
, various systems in Texas including D/FW's NTTA TollTagTollTagTollTag is the electronic toll collection system used by the North Texas Tollway Authority in the Dallas / Fort Worth metro area. It was North America’s first electronic toll collection system when it was installed on the Dallas North Tollway in 1989. There are currently over 2,000,000 TollTags in...
, the Austin metro TxTagTxTAGTxTag , operated by the Texas Department of Transportation , is one of three interoperable electronic toll collection systems in Texas.-Current system status:The TxTag brand name is used on the following highways:* Operated by TxDOT:...
and Houston HCTRA EZ TagEZ TAGEZ TAG is an electronic toll collection system in Houston, Texas, United States that allows motorists to pay tolls without stopping at toll booths. Motorists with the Tags are allowed to use lanes reserved exclusively for them on all Harris County Toll Road Authority roads...
(which as of early 2007 are all valid on any Texas toll road), KansasKansasKansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
's K-TagKTAGKTAG is a radio station broadcasting an adult contemporary music format. It is licensed to Cody, Wyoming. The station is currently owned by the Big Horn Radio Network, a division of Legend Communications of Wyoming, LLC...
, The "Cross-IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
Highway" (Highway 6), PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
South Luzon ExpresswaySouth Luzon ExpresswayThe South Luzon Expressway ', which is formerly called the South Superhighway ', and officially known as Radial Road 3 or R-3, is a network of three expressways that connects Metro Manila to the provinces of the CALABARZON region in the Philippines...
E-Pass, BrisbaneBrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
's Queensland MotorwaysQueensland MotorwaysQueensland Motorways is company wholly owned by the Government of Queensland, Australia which operates and owns the Gateway Bridge and 20 km of the Gateway Motorway, Gateway Extension and Logan Motorway. The company began operating in 1980....
GoVia tag (previously called E-Toll) System in AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Autopista del Sol (Sun's Highway), Autopista Central (Central Highway), Autopista Los Libertadores, Costanera Norte, Vespucio Norte Express and Vespucio Sur urban Highways and every forthcoming urban highway (in a "Free Flow" modality) concessioned to private investors in ChileChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, all toll tunnels in Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
(AutotollAutotollAutotoll is the company that operates all the electronic toll booths in Hong Kong. It is controlled by the same company that operates one of the first toll tunnels in Hong Kong, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel....
) and all highways in PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
(Via VerdeVia Verdethumb|right|Freeway lane sign in the Portuguese A6 freeway/motorway . The leftmost lane is for exclusive use by vehicles equipped with Via Verde tags.thumb|right|Via Verde lanes in the 25 April Bridge toll plaza, Almada....
, the first system in the world to span the entire network of tolls), FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(Liber-T system), ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(TelepassTELEPASSthumb|300px|Film showing the approach to and passing of a toll station in Italy, using a Telepass OBU. Note the yellow Telepass lane signs and road markings and the sound emitted by the OBU when passing the lane...
), SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(VIA-T), BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(Sem Parar - Via Fácil). The tags, which are usually the active type, are read remotely as vehicles pass through the booths, and tag information is used to debit the toll amount from a prepaid account. The system helps to speed traffic through toll plazas as it records the date, time, and billing data for the RFID vehicle tag. The plaza- and queue-free 407 Express Toll Route, in the Greater Toronto AreaGreater Toronto AreaThe Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...
, allows the use of a transponder (an active tag) for all billing. This eliminates the need to identify a vehicle by license plate.
Europe
- Throughout EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and in particular in Paris (system started in 1995 by the RATP), Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Nancy and Marseilles in France, in the whole of the Portuguese highway system and in many Portuguese public car parks, Milan, Turin, Naples and Florence in Italy, and Brussels in Belgium, RFID passes conforming to the Calypso international standard are used for public transport systems. - The Moscow MetroMoscow MetroThe Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow and the neighbouring town of Krasnogorsk. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 182 stations and its route length is . The system is...
, the world's second busiestMetro systems by annual passenger ridesThe most-used metro systems in terms of passenger rides per year:# Tokyo Subway 3.161 billion # Moscow Metro 2.348 billion # Seoul Subway 2.048 billion...
, was the first system in Europe to introduce RFID smartcards in 1998. - In the UK, operating systems for prepaying for unlimited public transportPublic transportPublic transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
have been devised, making use of RFID technology. The design is embedded in a credit card-like pass, that when scanned reveals details of whether the pass is valid, and for how long the pass will remain valid. The first company to implement this is the NCTNottingham City TransportNottingham City Transport is the major bus operator of the English city of Nottingham, running a comprehensive network of services in the Greater Nottingham area, with some services continuing to Southwell, Loughborough, and East Midlands Airport. There are over 80 routes across the City, giving...
company of NottinghamNottinghamNottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, where the general public affectionately refer to them as "beep cards". It has since been successfully implemented in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where "Oyster cardOyster cardThe Oyster card is a form of electronic ticketing used on public transport services within the Greater London area of the United Kingdom. It is promoted by Transport for London and is valid on a number of different travel systems across London including London Underground, buses, the Docklands...
s" allow for pay-as-you-go travel as well as passes valid for various lengths of time and in various areas. - In OsijekOsijekOsijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...
(CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
) RFID cards have been used to pay for public transportation (buses and trams) since 2008. - In FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, the RFID travel card system used in the Greater HelsinkiHelsinkiHelsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
region is the largest of systems in Europe that cover all modes of traffic (busses, trams, commuter train units, metros and ferry terminals) operation since 2001. RFID travel card system in TampereTampereTampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...
has been in operation since 1995. - In OsloOsloOslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, the upcoming public transport payment is to be entirely RFID-based. The system was slated for introduction around spring 2007. - In Sweden, public transportation has used RFID cards since 2006 in GothenburgGothenburgGothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, and since 2009 in StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. - In Dublin (Ireland) the LUAS light rail system has been using an RFID enabled 'smart card' system since March 2005.
- Since 2010, bus transit in LjubljanaLjubljanaLjubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
(SloveniaSloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
) is payable only by RFID with pre-paid city card named UrbanaUrbana (payment card)Urbana is a stored-value card used on public transport services in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is a credit-card sized plastic card on which the customer electronically loads fares...
which can be re-filled with monthly passes or cash value on Urbanomats scattered all over the city. - In the NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
public transportation has been experimenting with RFID cards since 2005. Since 2009 the system is nationally introduced. Since then you can use the RFID card, called the "OV Chipkaart" (OV Chip Card), in busses, trams, subways and trains everywhere in the country. A single card for all national public transportation. In busses and trams the RFID card is the only means of payment. In the subway or train a paper ticket can still be bought (till end 2012 (expected) by then there will be no more paper tickets). The card can be uploaded with special accounts (e.g. for students), monthly upgraded with a certain amount of money or uploaded with a certain amount of money when it is almost depleted.
Asia
- In South KoreaSouth KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, T-moneyT-MoneyT-money is a rechargeable series of cards and other "smart" devices used for paying transportation fares in and around Seoul and other areas of South Korea. T-money can also be used in lieu of cash or credit cards in some convenience stores and other businesses...
cards can be used to pay for public transit. It can also be used in most convenience stores and vending machines in subways as cash. 90% of cabs in Seoul accept card payment, including most major credit cards and the T-money card. T-money replaced Upass, first introduced for transport payments in 1996 using MIFAREMIFAREMIFARE is the NXP Semiconductors-owned trademark of a series of chips widely used in contactless smart cards and proximity cards. According to the producers, billions of smart card chips and many millions of reader modules have been sold...
technology. - In Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, mass transit is paid for almost exclusively through the use of an RFID technology, called the Octopus CardOctopus cardThe Octopus card is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong...
. Originally it was launched in September 1997 exclusively for transit fare collection, but has grown to be similar to a cash card, and can still be used in vending machineVending machineA vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....
s, fast-food restaurants and supermarketSupermarketA supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s. The card can be recharged with cash at add-value machines or in shops, and can be read several centimetres from the reader. The same applies for Delhi MetroDelhi MetroDelhi Metro is a rapid transit system serving Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad in the National Capital Region of India. It is one of the largest metro networks in the world. The network consists of six lines with a total length of with 142 stations of which 35 are underground...
, the rapid transit system in New Delhi, capital city of IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. - In ShanghaiShanghaiShanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
the Shanghai Public Transportation CardShanghai Public Transportation CardThe Shanghai public transportation card or jiaotong yikatong is a contactless card, utilizing RFID technology, which can be used to access many forms of public transport and related services in and around the Shanghai, China area.-Uses:...
allows the user to credit money in advance and to be debited according to the distance travelled, as determined by the check-in and check-out stations. The card can also be used to pay taxi drivers, and some shops offer card readers as well. - JR East in JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
introduced SUICaSuicais a rechargeable contactless smart card used as a fare card on train lines in Japan. Launched in November 2001, the card is usable currently in the Kantō region, at JR East stations near Sendai and Niigata...
(Super Urban Intelligent Card) for transport payment service in its railway transportation service in November 2001, using Sony's FeliCaFeliCaFeliCa is a contactless RFID smart card system from Sony in Japan, primarily used in electronic money cards. The name stands for Felicity Card...
(Felicity Card) technology. The same Sony technology was used in Hong Kong's Octopus cardOctopus cardThe Octopus card is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong...
, and Singapore's EZ-LinkEZ-LinkThe EZ-Link card is a contactless smart card based on the Sony FeliCa smartcard technology and used for the payment of public transportation fares in Singapore, with limited use in the small payments retail sector...
card. - Since 2002, in TaipeiTaipeiTaipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
, TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
the transportation system uses RFID operated cards as fare collection. The EasyCardEasyCardThe EasyCard is a contactless smartcard system operated by the Taipei Smart Card Corporation for payment on the Taipei MRT, buses, and other public transport services in Taipei since June 2002. Its use has since been expanded to include convenience stores, department stores, supermarkets, and...
is charged at local convenience stores and metro stations, and can be used in Metro, buses, certain trains, certain taxis and parking lots. The uses are planned to extend all throughout Taiwan in the future. Since 2010 the EasyCard can also be used for payment in convenience stores as well as some other chain stores. - In DubaiDubaiDubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, (United Arab Emirates) drivers through Sheikh Zayed Road and Garhoud Bridge pay tolls using RFID tags called Salik (road toll)Salik (road toll)Salik is the name given to the electronic toll road system in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The system has been by some residents of the city state for being an added expense for them. However, in general the system has been well received as a further way of attempting to reduce the serious...
. Dubai has also initiated a public transportation card named Nol (which means fare in Arabic) for use in the metro, bus, and waterbus. It was introduced to service on 9 September 2009, the day of the official launch of the Dubai MetroDubai MetroThe Dubai Metro is a driverless, fully automated metro network in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai. The Red Line and Green Line are operational, with three further lines are planned. These first two lines run underground in the city centre and on elevated viaducts elsewhere...
.
North America
- The Washington MetroWashington MetroThe Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
rail became the first U.S. urban mass-transit system to use RFID technology when it introduced the SmarTripSmarTripSmarTrip is a plastic contact-less stored-value smart card used for payment within the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority system in Washington, D.C...
card in 1999. - The Chicago Transit AuthorityChicago Transit AuthorityChicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs....
has offered the Chicago Card and the Chicago Card PlusChicago cardThe Chicago Card and the Chicago Card Plus are contactless smart cards used by riders of the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace to electronically pay for bus and train fares in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA and the surrounding suburbs....
for rail payments across the entire system since 2002 and for bus payments since 2005. - The MBTAMassachusetts Bay Transportation AuthorityThe Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
introduced the RFID enabled CharlieCardCharlieCardThe CharlieCard is a MIFARE-based, contactless, stored value smart card used for electronic ticketing as part of the Automated Fare Collection system installed by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority at its stations and on its vehicles...
across BostonBostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's subway, streetcar, and bus system in 2006, replacing the decades-old token based fare collection system. - The public transit systems in the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
accept the Clipper card, which replaced the previous RFID TranslinkTranslinkThere are several entities called Translink or TransLink, including*Translink , a proposed track-guided bus system linking Houghton Regis, Dunstable and Luton in England...
card. The card can be used on BARTBay Area Rapid TransitBay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...
, SF Muni, AC TransitAC TransitAC Transit is an Oakland-based regional public transit agency serving the western half of Alameda County and parts of western Contra Costa County in the western, Bay-side area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area...
, CaltrainCaltrainCaltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. The northern terminus of the rail line is in San Francisco, at 4th and King streets; its southern terminus is in Gilroy...
, Golden Gate TransitGolden Gate TransitGolden Gate Transit is a public transportation system serving the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. It mainly serves Marin and Sonoma Counties, and also provides limited service to San Francisco and Contra Costa County.Golden Gate Transit is one of three...
, SamtransSamTransSamTrans is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into portions of San Francisco and Palo Alto...
, and VTASanta Clara Valley Transportation AuthorityThe Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is a special-purpose district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California, United States...
. - The New York City Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityMetropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S...
conducted an RFID trial that used PayPass by MasterCardMasterCardMastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...
. The trial primarily took place on the IRT Lexington Avenue LineIRT Lexington Avenue LineThe Lexington Avenue Line is one of the lines of the IRT division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Downtown Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East Harlem. The portion in Lower and Midtown Manhattan was part of the first subway line in New York...
with several busier stations on other lines also included. The trial ended on May 31, 2009, however the option of using PayPass may be reintroduced on a wider scale at a later date. The MTA is also studying the possibility of accepting SmartLinkSmartLink (smart card)SmartLink is a Radio Frequency Identification Chip-enabled credit card-sized smartcard that can be used as a fare payment method on the PATH transit system in Newark and Hudson County in New Jersey and Manhattan in New York City...
(introduced by PATHPort Authority Trans-HudsonPATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey...
) for fare payment on the New York City Subway and Buses, and as an eventual replacement for the MetroCardMetroCardThe MetroCard is the payment method for the New York City Subway rapid transit system; New York City Transit buses, including routes operated by Atlantic Express under contract to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ; MTA Bus, and MTA Long Island Bus systems; the PATH subway system; the...
. - In Atlanta, MARTAMetropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit AuthorityThe Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA is the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the ninth-largest in the United States. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting...
(Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) has transitioned its bus and rail lines from coin tokens to the new Breeze CardBreeze CardThe Breeze Card is a stored value smart card that passengers use as part of an automated fare collection system which the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority introduced to the general public in early October 2006. The card automatically debits the cost of the passenger’s ride when placed...
system which uses RFID tags embedded in disposable paper tickets. More permanent plastic cards are available for frequent users. - In San Diego, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Metropolitan Transit Systems (MTS), North County Transit District (NCTD), and The San Diego Association Of Governments (SANDAG) use a re-writable RFID smart card referred to locally as the Compass CardCompass CardThe Compass Card is a form of electronic ticketing used on public transport services within San Diego County, California. It is administered by the San Diego Association of Governments and is valid on a number of different travel systems in San Diego County including MTS buses, the San Diego...
, to store daily, weekly, or monthly passes or cash value, making the boarding of buses and trains quicker and simpler. - In Seattle the Orca CardOrca CardThe ORCA ' Card is a contactless, stored value smart card used for payment of public transport fares in the Puget Sound region...
was introduced in 2009 for fares on buses, ferries, light rail, a street car, and commuter trains. In Tacoma, WashingtonTacoma, WashingtonTacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, a sticker tag is used for paying the toll of the Tacoma Narrows BridgeTacoma Narrows BridgeThe Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of twin suspension bridges in the U.S. state of Washington, which carry State Route 16 across the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula...
. - In CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, MetrobusMetrobusMetrobus may refer to:* MCW Metrobus, a bus model manufactured by MCW in the 1970s and 1980s* Metrobus a bus operator in south-east England* M-é-t-r-o-b-u-s, the bus and metro operator Tramway de Rouen in Rouen, France...
in St. John'sSt. John's, Newfoundland and LabradorSt. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
adopted RFID on December 1, 2006. In the Greater TorontoGreater Toronto AreaThe Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...
and HamiltonHamilton, OntarioHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
areas, under Metrolinx, full implementation of the RFID farecard Presto began in November 2009, and will be rolled out in stages across the network. OC TranspoOC TranspoOC Transpo is the urban transit service of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. An integrated hub-and-spoke system of services is available consisting of: regular buses travelling on fixed routes in mixed traffic, typical of most urban transit systems; a bus rapid transit system — a high...
in OttawaOttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
is also in the process of implementing Presto, with completion expected in late 2011.
South America
- In Porto AlegrePorto AlegrePorto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
, the card used in buses is called "cartão TRI" (TRansporte Integrado), it comes in many varieties, including one for workers (which is recharged by the company you work for), one for students (who pay half the cost for each travel), one for old people and people with disabilities (who can travel for free) etc. - In Rio de JaneiroRio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, "RioCard" passes can be used in buses, ferries, trains and subway. There are two types: one you cannot recharge, the other one can be recharged if it's been bought by the company you work for, if they provided it (only in BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
). - In SantiagoSantiago, ChileSantiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
the subway system Metro and the recently implemented public transportation system TransantiagoTransantiagoTransantiago is a public transport system that serves Santiago, the capital of Chile. It is considered the most ambitious transport reform undertaken by a developing country according to the World Resources Institute....
use an RFID card called "Bip" or "Multivia". - In MedellínMedellínMedellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...
, the recently-implemented card system for the Metro system uses an RFID card called Cívica. - In CaliCalìCalì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...
, the recently-implemented card system for the Masivo Integrado de OccidenteMasivo Integrado de OccidenteThe Masivo Integrado de Occidente , also referred to as MIO, is a bus rapid transit system that serves Santiago de Cali, Colombia. The system is operated through articulated buses which move in dedicated lanes. Approximately the 97% of the spatial perimeter of the city will be involved by this...
(MIO) system uses an RFID card. - In Buenos AiresBuenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Monedero is an RFID card used in all metroBuenos Aires MetroThe Buenos Aires Metro , locally known as Subte is a mass-transit system that serves the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first station of this network opened in 1913, the first of its kind in South America, the Southern Hemisphere and the entire Spanish-speaking world...
lines and, since May 2009, on some bus lines as an experimental program. The card can also be used to pay, as a debit card in some small shops and in toll roads. The Monedero card could be prepaid or linked to a credit card.
Australia
- The TransperthTransperthTransperth is the brand name of the public transport system in Perth, Western Australia. It is operated by the Public Transport Authority.-History:...
public transport network in Perth, Western AustraliaPerth, Western AustraliaPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
uses RFID technology its SmartRiderSmartRiderSmartRider is Transperth's contactless electronic ticketing system using smartcard technology for the process of charging patrons for public transport in Western Australia....
ticketing system, allowing passengers to "tag on" and "tag off" and be charged automatically, according to how many zones they have travelled.
Bicycle Parking Facilities
Some bike lockers are operated with RFID cards assigned to individual users. A prepaid card is required to open or enter a facility or locker and then used to track and charge based on how long the bike is parked. Electronic bike lockers operated by BikeLink are found in the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
, Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Seattle, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, San Diego, and Las Vegas.
Asset management and retail sales
RFID combined with mobile computingMobile computing
Mobile computing is a form of human–computer interaction by which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage. Mobile computing has three aspects: mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software...
and Web technologies provide a way for organizations to identify and manage their assets. It was initially introduced to major retail by Craig Patterson, Knoxville, TN . Mobile computers, with integrated RFID readers, can now deliver a complete set of tools that eliminate paperwork, give proof of identification and attendance. This approach eliminates manual data entry.
Web based management tools allow organizations to monitor their assets and make management decisions from anywhere in the world. Web based applications now mean that third parties, such as manufacturers and contractors can be granted access to update asset data, including for example, inspection history and transfer documentation online ensuring that the end user always has accurate, real-time data.
Organizations are already using RFID tags combined with a mobile asset management solution to record and monitor the location of their assets, their current status, and whether they have been maintained.
RFID is being adopted for item-level retail uses. Aside from efficiency and product availability gains, the system offers a superior form of electronic article surveillance
Electronic article surveillance
Electronic article surveillance is a technological method for preventing shoplifting from retail stores or pilferage of books from libraries. Special tags are fixed to merchandise or books. These tags are removed or deactivated by the clerks when the item is properly bought or checked out...
(EAS), and a superior self checkout
Self checkout
Self checkout machines provide a mechanism for customers to pay for purchases from a retailer without direct input to the process by the retailer's staff. They are an alternative to the traditional cashier-staffed checkout...
process for consumers. The first commercial, public item-level RFID retail system installation is believed to be in May 2005 by Freedom Shopping, Inc.
Freedom Shopping, Inc.
Freedom Shopping, Inc. provides RFID inventory solutions, specializing in the retail market. The company has offered RFID based point of sale , security and self-service solutions since 2005.-History:...
in North Carolina, USA.
2009 witnessed the beginning of wide-scale asset tracking with passive RFID. Wells Fargo and Bank of America made announcements that they would track every item in their data centers using passive RFID. Most of the leading banks have since followed suit. The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) set a technical standard for tagging IT assets and other industries have used that standard as a guideline. For instance the US State Department is now tagging IT assets with passive RFID using the ISO/IEC 18000
ISO/IEC 18000
ISO/IEC 18000 is an international standard that describes a series of diverse RFID technologies, each utilizing a unique frequency range.ISO/IEC 18000 consists of the following parts, under the general title Information technology — Radio frequency identification for item management:* Part 1:...
-6 standard.
Product tracking
RFID use in product tracking applications begins with plant-based production processes, and then extends into post-sales configuration managementConfiguration management
Configuration management is a field of management that focuses on establishing and maintaining consistency of a system or product's performance and its functional and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life.For information assurance, CM...
policies for large buyers.
Casino chip tracking
In 2005, the Wynn Casino, Las Vegas, began placing individual RFID tags on high value chips. These tags allowed casinos the ability to detect counterfeit chips, track betting habits of individual players, speed up chip tallies, and determine counting mistakes of dealers. In 2010, the Bellagio casinoBellagio (hotel and casino)
Bellagio is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in the Paradise area of unincorporated Clark County, Nevada, USA and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. It is owned by MGM Resorts International and was built on the site of the demolished Dunes hotel and casino.Inspired by the...
was robbed of $1.5 million in chips. The RFID tags of these chips were immediately invalidated, thus making the cash value of these chips $0.
IT asset tracking
By 2011 there are more than 100 passive RFID tags that are meant to be specifically mounted on metal. Members of the financial service industry, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Fidelity and others, are purported to have tagged more than one million assets.At the same time new integrated circuits (ICs) were introduced by Alien, Impinj
Impinj
Impinj, Inc. is a manufacturer of radio-frequency identification technology. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company was started based on the research done at the California Institute of Technology by Carver Mead and Chris Diorio...
and NXP (formerly Philips) which proved much better performance and use of the IT asset tracking application increased. The largest adopter to date appear to be Bank of America and Wells Fargo – each with more than 100,000 assets across more than a dozen data centers. Some RFID specialists have engineered RFID Software specifically for optimizing RFID performance and scalability.
- High-frequency RFID or HFID/HighFID tags are used in libraryLibraryIn a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
book or bookstore tracking, jewelry tracking, palletPalletA pallet , sometimes called a skid, is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, pallet jack, front loader or other jacking device. A pallet is the structural foundation of a unit load which allows handling and storage efficiencies...
tracking, building access controlAccess controlAccess control refers to exerting control over who can interact with a resource. Often but not always, this involves an authority, who does the controlling. The resource can be a given building, group of buildings, or computer-based information system...
, airline baggage tracking, and apparel and pharmaceutical items tracking. High-frequency tags are widely used in identification badgeBadgeA badge is a device or fashion accessory, often containing the insignia of an organization, which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath , a sign of legitimate employment or student status, or as a simple...
s, replacing earlier magnetic stripe cards. These badges need only be held within a certain distance of the reader to authenticate the holder. The American ExpressAmerican ExpressAmerican Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
Blue credit card now includes a HighFID tag. In Feb 2008, Emirates AirlineEmirates AirlineEmirates is the airline based in the Emirate of Dubai part of the United Arab Emirates . Based at Dubai International Airport it is the largest airline in the Middle East, operating over 2,400 flights per week, from its hub at Terminal 3, to 111 cities in 62 countries across six continents...
started a trial of RFID baggage tracing at London and Dubai airports. - BGN has launched two fully automated SmartstoresSmartstoresSmartstores is the generic term for next generation retail technologies that use RFID that sell using a full complement of smart technologies including smart shelves , smart carts, smart cards, etc. They can also deliver their services via the Web and smart phones.Retailers are fast adopting...
that combine item-level RFID tagging and SOAService-oriented architectureIn software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
to deliver an integrated supply chain, from warehouse to consumer. - UHFUltra high frequencyUltra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
, Ultra-HighFID or UHFID tags are commonly used commercially in case, pallet, and shipping container tracking, and truckTruckA truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...
and trailer tracking in shipping yards. - In May 2007, Bear River Supply began using Intelleflex Corporation's ultrahigh-frequency identification (UHFID) tags to help monitor their agricultural equipment.
- In ColombiaColombiaColombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, "Federación Nacional de Cafeteros" uses an RFID solution to trace the coffee. - Purdue PharmaPurdue PharmaPurdue Pharma L.P., is a privately held pharmaceutical company founded by physicians and now located in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. In its early years, Purdue was known for its antiseptic product, Betadine Solution, and its Senokot laxatives...
currently uses RFID to track shipments of the painkiller OxyContin. - In BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the Berliner Wasserbetriebe (water treatment facility) uses RFID systems from Psion TeklogixPsion TeklogixPsion Teklogix Inc. is the operational business of Psion, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.Psion Teklogix is a global provider of solutions for mobile computing and wireless data collection...
and Elektroniksystem-und-Logistik-GmbH (ESG) to identify and track its 60,000 assets. - In 2009, RCD TechnologyRCD TechnologyRCD Technology is a Radio Frequency Identification solution provider located in Quakertown, PA. Founded in 2001 RCD Technology provides RFID solutions to businesses and governments to help them overcome problems associated with tracking, security and authentication...
, in partnership with a major supplier of IT equipment, developed the only commercially available worldwide mount on metal asset tracking tag to meet the FSTC requirements for 860 – 960 MHz frequency band. The Sentry-M WW is now shipped with every Oracle hardware product.
Garment tracking
RFID can also be used for supply chain management in the fashion industry. The RFID label is attached at the garment at production, can be read/traced througout the entire supply chain and is removed at the point of sale (POS).Transportation and logistics
- Logistics and transportation are major areas of implementation for RFID technology. For example, yard management, shipping and freight and distribution centers are some areas where RFID tracking technology is used. Transportation companies around the world value RFID technology due to its impact on the business value and efficiency.
- The North American railroadRail transportRail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
industry operates an automatic equipment identification system based on RFID. Locomotives and rolling stock are equipped with two passive RFID tags (one mounted on each side of the equipment); the data encoded on each tag identifies the equipment owner, car number, type of equipment, number of axles, etc. The equipment owner and car number can be used to derive further data about the physical characteristics of the equipment from the Association of American RailroadsAssociation of American RailroadsThe Association of American Railroads is an industry trade group representing primarily the major freight railroads of North America . Amtrak and some regional commuter railroads are also members...
' car inventory database and the railroad's own database indicating the lading, origin, destination, etc. of the commodities being carried. - Aerospace applications that incorporate RFID technology are being incorporated into Network Centric Product SupportNetwork Centric Product SupportNetwork Centric Product Support is an emerging computer architecture that was developed to leverage new information technology and global networks to assist in managing maintenance, support and supply chain of mobile complex products made up of one or more systems, such as an aircraft or fleet...
architecture. This technology serves to help facilitate more efficient logistics support for systems maintenance on-board commercial aircraft. - QantasQantasQantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
has introduced RFID cards and bag tags in their "Next Generation Check-in" system into the airlines' Australian domestic airport terminals from late 2010 to speed passenger check-in and tracking and recovery of their luggage. - Baggage passing through the Hong Kong International AirportHong Kong International AirportHong Kong International Airport is the main airport in Hong Kong. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport , being built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation, and also to distinguish it from its predecessor, the closed Kai Tak Airport.The airport opened for commercial...
are individually tagged with "HKIA" RFID tags as they navigate the airport's baggage handling systemBaggage Handling SystemA baggage handling system is a type of conveyor system installed in airports that transports checked luggage from ticket counters to areas where the bags can be loaded onto airplanes...
, which improves efficiency and reduces misplaced items. - In the Netherlands, the Dutch Government sponsors an RFID project in which Cargobox Europe B.V. tests an intelligent air cargo container. The container has a semi-active, or battery-assisted, tag and can be followed by a series of fixed and handheld readers that will be used in the warehouses of partners throughout the supply chain. This track-and-trace capability is achieved by a web-based IT platform which allows authorized users to view relevant Cargoboxes. The intelligence is in the RFID tags but also in the GPS, GSM, GPRS and airplane detection module that switches off the tag and sensors when the container is airborne.
Animal identification
An implantable variety of RFID tags or transponder
Transponder
In telecommunication, the term transponder has the following meanings:...
s can also be used for animal identification. The transponders are more well-known as passive RFID technology, or simply "chips
Microchip implant (animal)
A microchip implant is an identifying integrated circuit placed under the skin of a dog, cat, horse, parrot or other animal. The chips are about the size of a large grain of rice and are based on a passive RFID technology....
" on animals.
RFID tracking and tracing for meatpackers
The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency began using RFID tags as a replacement for barcode tags. The tags are required to identify a bovine's herd of origin and this is used for tracing when a packing plant condemns a carcass. Currently CCIA tags are used in WisconsinWisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
and by US farmers on a voluntary basis. The USDA
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
is currently developing its own program.
Inventory systems
An advanced automatic identification technology such as the Auto-ID LabsAuto-ID Labs
The Auto-ID Labs network is a research group in the field of networked radio-frequency identification and emerging sensing technologies. The labs consist of seven research universities located on four different continents. These institutions were chosen by the former Auto-ID Center to design the...
system based on the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has significant value for inventory systems. Notably, the technology provides an accurate knowledge of the current inventory. In an academic study performed at Wal-Mart, RFID reduced Out-of-Stocks by 30 percent for products selling between 0.1 and 15 units a day. Other benefits of using RFID include the reduction of labor costs, the simplification of business processes, and the reduction of inventory inaccuracies.
In 2004, Boeing integrated the use of RFID technology to help reduce maintenance and inventory costs on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. With the high costs of aircraft parts, RFID technology allowed Boeing to keep track of inventory despite the unique sizes, shapes and environmental concerns. During the first six months after integration, the company was able to save $29,000 in labor.
In 2007, Recall Corporation integrated the use of RFID to help organizations track and audit their records, to support compliance with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 , also known as the 'Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act' and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act' and commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law enacted on July 30, 2002, which...
and HIPAA
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It was originally sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy and Sen. Nancy Kassebaum . Title I of HIPAA protects health insurance coverage for workers and their...
.
Hospital and Healthcare
Adoption of RFID in the medical industry has been widespread and very effective. Hospitals are among the first users to combine both active and passive RFID technology. Many successful deployments in the healthcare industry have been cited where active technology tracks high-value, or frequently moved items, where passive technology tracks smaller, lower cost items that only need room-level identification.Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
was awarded the most innovative use of RFID in 2009 for their tracking of specimens in the pathology lab. Error rates were reduced from 9% to under .05%..
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
licensed its patent portfolio for specimen tracking to ODIN technologies
ODIN technologies
ODIN provides RFID software and solutions for the Aerospace, Government, Healthcare, Financial Services and Social Media markets.ODIN provides RFID services and RFID software....
, their RFID partner, to commercialize the solution and offer it to other hospitals and laboratories
Many other instance of RFID in the healthcare industry are available as reference, but it is clear that the trend is toward using ISO 18000-6c as the tag of choice and combining an active tagging system that relies on existing 802.11X wireless infrastructure for active tags.
RFID mandates
Wal-MartWal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
and the United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
have published requirements that their vendors place RFID tags on all shipments to improve supply chain management
Supply chain management
Supply chain management is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers...
. Due to the size of these two organizations, their RFID mandates impact thousands of companies worldwide. The deadlines have been extended several times because many vendors face significant difficulties implementing RFID systems. In practice, the successful read rates currently run only 80%, due to radio wave attenuation
Attenuation
In physics, attenuation is the gradual loss in intensity of any kind of flux through a medium. For instance, sunlight is attenuated by dark glasses, X-rays are attenuated by lead, and light and sound are attenuated by water.In electrical engineering and telecommunications, attenuation affects the...
caused by the products and packaging. In time it is expected that even small companies will be able to place RFID tags on their outbound shipments.
Wal-Mart mandate
Electronic Product Code
The Electronic Product Code is designed as a universal identifier that provides a unique identity for every physical object anywhere in the world, for all time. Its structure is defined in the EPCglobal Tag Data Standard , which is an open standard freely available for download from the website...
tags for Wal-Mart. These smart labels are produced by embedding RFID inlays inside the label
Label
A label is a piece of paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or article, on which is printed a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. A label may also be printed directly on the container or article....
material, and then printing bar code and other visible information on the surface of the label.
In October 2005 the University of Arkansas' Information Technology Research Institute released a report on its preliminary study of the impact of RFID on reducing retail out-of-stocks and concluded that RFID reduced OOS by 21% over non-RFID based stores.
Two years later the Wall Street Journal published an article titled "Wal-Mart's Radio-Tracked Inventory Hits Static." The articles stated that the RFID plan set forth by Wal-Mart was "showing signs of fizzling" due to a lack of progress by Wal-Mart executives to introduce the technology to its stores and to the non-existent incentives for suppliers.
In October 2007 Wal-Mart announced new focus areas for its RFID implementation:
- Shipments going to Sam's Club
- Promotional displays and products going to Wal-Mart stores
- Tests to see RFID's impact in improving category management in select areas
Another Wal-Mart division, Sam's Club
Sam's Club
Sam's Club is a chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. , the Sam's Club chain serves more than 47 million U.S. members...
, has also moved in this direction. It sent letters dated Jan. 7, 2008 to its suppliers, stating that by Jan. 31, 2008, every full single-item pallet
Pallet
A pallet , sometimes called a skid, is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, pallet jack, front loader or other jacking device. A pallet is the structural foundation of a unit load which allows handling and storage efficiencies...
shipped to its distribution center in DeSoto, Texas, or directly to one of its stores served by that DC, must bear an EPC Gen 2 RFID tag. Suppliers failing to comply will be charged a service fee.
However, in January 2009 Sam's Club drastically lowered the penalty for failure to tag pallets from $2 a pallet to just 12 cents a pallet. The 12 cents a pallet is what Wal-Mart estimated it would cost Sam's to do the tagging itself. Sam's also announced that pallet-level tagging is expected to be introduced throughout the entire chain in 2010 while the deadline for tagging individual items was "under review."
In February 2009 Procter & Gamble stated it was ending its promotional program with Wal-Mart after Procter & Gamble "validated" benefits of the RFID program in merchandising and promotional displays. This implied Wal-Mart was not acting on the information to improve store execution.
Department of Defense mandate
The DoD requirements for RFID tags on packages is prescribed in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplements (DFARS) 252.211-7006. Positioning of the tag needs to be completed in accordance with the clause and definitions in MIL STD 129MIL STD 129
MIL-STD-129 standard is used for maintaining uniformity while marking military equipment and supplies that are transported through ships. This standard has been approved to be used by the United States Department of Defense and all other government agencies. Items must be marked for easy...
and as of 1 March 2007, EPC Global tags must comply with EPCglobal Class 1 Generation 2 specification.
Promotion tracking
Manufacturers of products sold through retailers promote their products by offering discounts for a limited period on products sold to retailers with the expectation that the retailers will pass on the savings to their customers. However, retailers typically engage in forward buying, purchasing more product during the discount period than they intend to sell during the promotion period. Some retailers engage in a form of arbitrageArbitrage
In economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices...
, reselling discounted product to other retailers, a practice known as diverting. To combat this practice, manufacturers are exploring the use of RFID tags on promoted merchandise so that they can track exactly which product has sold through the supply chain at fully discounted prices.
Libraries
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
. This technology has slowly begun to replace the traditional barcodes on library items (books, CDs, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s, etc.). The RFID tag can contain identifying information, such as a book's title or material type, without having to be pointed to a separate database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
(but this is rare in North America). The information is read by an RFID reader, which replaces the standard barcode reader
Barcode reader
A barcode reader is an electronic device for reading printed barcodes. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor translating optical impulses into electrical ones...
commonly found at a library's circulation desk. The RFID tag found on library materials typically measures 50×50 mm in North America and 50×75 mm in Europe. It may replace or be added to the barcode
Barcode
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
, offering a different means of inventory management by the staff and self service by the borrowers. It can also act as a security
Security
Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...
device, taking the place of the more traditional electromagnetic security strip
Electronic article surveillance
Electronic article surveillance is a technological method for preventing shoplifting from retail stores or pilferage of books from libraries. Special tags are fixed to merchandise or books. These tags are removed or deactivated by the clerks when the item is properly bought or checked out...
.
While there is some debate as to when and where RFID in libraries first began, it was first proposed in the late 1990s as a technology that would enhance workflow in the library setting. Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
was certainly one of the first to introduce RFID in libraries and Rockefeller University
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. It has a strong concentration in the biological sciences. It is also known for producing numerous Nobel laureates...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
may have been the first academic library in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to use this technology, whereas Farmington Community Library in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
may have been the first public institution, both of which began using RFID in 1999. In Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the first public library to use RFID was the one in Hoogezand-Sappemeer
Hoogezand-Sappemeer
Hoogezand-Sappemeer is a municipality in the northeastern Netherlands. It is the second largest municipality in the province of Groningen, after the city of Groningen. It is well known for its ship building industry....
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
in 2001, where borrowers were given an option. To their surprise, 70% used the RFID option and quickly adapted, including elderly people.
Worldwide, in absolute numbers, RFID is used most in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. It is estimated that over 30 million library items worldwide now contain RFID tags, including some in the Vatican Library
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. At the time of 2010, the largest RFID implementation in academic library is the University of Hong Kong Libraries which have over 1.20 million library items contain RFID tags; whereas the largest implementation for public institution has been installed in Seattle Public Library in the United States.
RFID has many library applications that can be highly beneficial, particularly for circulation staff. Since RFID tags can be read through an item, there is no need to open a book cover or DVD case to scan an item. This could reduce repetitive-motion injuries
Repetitive strain injury
Repetitive strain injury is an injury of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems that may be caused by...
. Where the books have a barcode on the outside, there is still the advantage that borrowers can scan an entire pile of books in one go, instead of one at a time. Since RFID tags can also be read while an item is in motion, using RFID readers to check-in returned items while on a conveyor belt reduces staff time. But, as with barcode, this can all be done by the borrowers themselves, meaning they might never again need the assistance of staff. Next to these readers with a fixed location there are also portable ones (for librarians, but in the future possibly also for borrowers, possibly even their own general-purpose readers). With these, inventories could be done on a whole shelf of materials within seconds, without a book ever having to be taken off the shelf. In Umeå
Umeå
- Transport :The road infrastructure in Umeå is well-developed, with two European highways passing through the city. About 4 km from the city centre is the Umeå City Airport...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, RFID is being used to assist visually impaired people in borrowing audiobooks. In Malaysia, Smart Shelves are used to pinpoint the exact location of books in Multimedia University Library, Cyberjaya. In the Netherlands, handheld readers are being introduced for this purpose.
The Dutch Union of Public Libraries ('Vereniging van Openbare Bibliotheken') is working on the concept of an interactive 'context library', where borrowers get a reader/headphones-set, which leads them to the desired section of the library (using triangulation methods, rather like GPS
Global Navigation Satellite System
A satellite navigation or SAT NAV system is a system of satellites that provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning with global coverage. It allows small electronic receivers to determine their location to within a few metres using time signals transmitted along a line-of-sight by radio from...
) and which they can use to read information from books on the shelves with the desired level of detail (e.g. a section read out loud), coming from the book's tag itself or a database elsewhere, and get tips on alternatives, based on the borrowers' preferences, thus creating a more personalised version of the library. This may also lead them to sections of the library they might not otherwise visit. Borrowers could also use the system to exchange experiences (such as grading books). This is already done by children in the virtual realm at mijnstempel.nl, but the same could be done in physical form. Borrowers can grade the book at the return desk.
However, as of 2008 this technology remains too costly for many smaller libraries, and the conversion period has been estimated at 11 months for an average-size library. A 2004 Dutch estimate was that a library which lends 100,000 books per year should plan on a cost of €50,000 (borrow- and return-stations: 12,500 each, detection porches 10,000 each; tags 0.36 each). RFID taking a large burden off staff could also mean that fewer staff will be needed, resulting in some of them getting fired, but that has so far not happened in North America where recent surveys have not returned a single library that cut staff because of adding RFID. In fact, library budgets are being reduced for personnel and increased for infrastructure, making it necessary for libraries to add automation to compensate for the reduced staff size. Also, the tasks that RFID takes over are largely not the primary tasks of librarians. A finding in the Netherlands is that borrowers are pleased with the fact that staff are now more available for answering questions.
A concern surrounding RFID in libraries that has received considerable publicity is the issue of privacy. Because RFID tags can—depending on the RFID transmitter & reader—be scanned and read from up to 100 metres (328.1 ft) (eg Smart Label RFID's), and because RFID uses an assortment of frequencies
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
(both depending on the type of tag, though), there is some concern over whether sensitive information could be collected from an unwilling source. However, library RFID tags do not contain any patron information, and the tags used in the majority of libraries use a frequency only readable from approximately 10 feet (3 m). Also, libraries have always had to keep records of who has borrowed what, so in that sense there is nothing new. However, many libraries destroy these records once an item has been returned. RFID would complicate or nullify this respect of readers' privacy. Further, another non-library agency could potentially record the RFID tags of every person leaving the library without the library administrator's knowledge or consent. One simple option is to let the book transmit a code that has meaning only in conjunction with the library's database. Another step further is to give the book a new code every time it is returned. And if in the future readers become ubiquitous (and possibly networked), then stolen books could be traced even outside the library. Tag removal could be made difficult if the tags are so small that they fit invisibly inside a (random) page, possibly put there by the publisher.
Passports
The first RFID passports ("E-passportBiometric passport
A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport or ePassport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers...
") were issued by Malaysia in 1998. In addition to information also contained on the visual data page of the passport, Malaysian e-passports record the travel history (time, date, and place) of entries and exits from the country.
Other countries that insert RFID in passports include Norway (2005), Japan (March 1, 2006), most EU countries (around 2006) including Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Ireland and the UK, Australia, Hong Kong and the United States (2007), Serbia (July 2008), Republic of Korea (August 2008), Taiwan (December 2008), Albania (January 2009), The Philippines (August 2009), Republic of Macedonia (2010).
Standards for RFID passports are determined by the International Civil Aviation Organization
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization , pronounced , , is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth...
(ICAO), and are contained in ICAO Document 9303, Part 1, Volumes 1 and 2 (6th edition, 2006). ICAO refers to the ISO/IEC 14443 RFID chips in e-passports as "contactless integrated circuits". ICAO standards provide for e-passports to be identifiable by a standard e-passport logo on the front cover.
In 2006, RFID tags were included in new US passports. The US produced 10 million passports in 2005, and it has been estimated that 13 million will be produced in 2006. The chips inlays produced by Smartrac
Smartrac
Smartrac N.V. is a Dutch manufacturer of high security RFID inlays. It is the world's largest supplier for inlays for ePassports. Since 2006 its shares are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange....
will store the same information that is printed within the passport and will also include a digital picture of the owner. The US State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
initially stated the chips could only be read from a distance of 10 cm (4 in), but after widespread criticism and a clear demonstration that special equipment can read the test passports from 10 meters (33 ft) away, the passports were designed to incorporate a thin metal lining to make it more difficult for unauthorized readers to "skim" information when the passport is closed. The department will also implement Basic Access Control
Basic Access Control
Basic Access Control is a mechanism specified to ensure only authorized parties can wirelessly read personal information from passports with an RFID chip. It uses data such as the passport number, date of birth and expiration date to negotiate a session key. This key can then be used to encrypt...
(BAC), which functions as a Personal Identification Number (PIN) in the form of characters printed on the passport data page. Before a passport's tag can be read, this PIN must be entered into an RFID reader. The BAC also enables the encryption of any communication between the chip and interrogator.
Security expert Bruce Schneier
Bruce Schneier
Bruce Schneier is an American cryptographer, computer security specialist, and writer. He is the author of several books on general security topics, computer security and cryptography, and is the founder and chief technology officer of BT Managed Security Solutions, formerly Counterpane Internet...
has suggested that a mugger operating near an airport could target victims who have arrived from wealthy countries, or a terrorist could design an improvised explosive device
Improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
which functioned when approached by persons from a particular country if passengers did not put their cards in an area close to their body (high liquid and saline content) or in a foil-lined wallet.
Some other European Union countries are also planning to add fingerprints and other biometric data, while some have already done so.
Schools and universities
School authorities in the Japanese city of OsakaOsaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
are now chipping children's clothing, back packs, and student IDs in a primary school. A school in Doncaster
Doncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
is piloting a monitoring system designed to keep tabs on pupils by tracking radio chips in their uniforms. St Charles Sixth Form College in west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England, started September, 2008, is using an RFID card system to check in and out of the main gate, to both track attendance and prevent unauthorized entrance. Similarly, Whitcliffe Mount School in Cleckheaton
Cleckheaton
Cleckheaton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated south of Bradford, east of Brighouse, west of Batley and south-west of Leeds...
, England uses RFID to track pupils and staff in and out of the building via a specially designed card. In the Philippines, some schools already use RFID in IDs for borrowing books and also gates in those particular schools have RFID ID scanners for buying items at a school shop and canteen, library and also to sign in and sign out for student and teacher's attendance.
Museums
RFID technologies are now also implemented in end-user applications in museums. An example was the custom-designed temporary research application, "eXspot," at the ExploratoriumExploratorium
The Exploratorium is a museum in San Francisco with over 475 participatory exhibits, all of them made onsite, that mix science and art. It also aims to promote museums as informal education centers....
, a science museum in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. A visitor entering the museum received an RF Tag that could be carried as a card. The eXspot system enabled the visitor to receive information about specific exhibits. Aside from the exhibit information, the visitor could take photographs of themselves at the exhibit. It was also intended to allow the visitor to take data for later analysis. The collected information could be retrieved at home from a "personalized" website keyed to the RFID tag.
Social retailing
When customers enter a dressing room, the mirror reflects their image and also images of the apparel item being worn by celebrities on an interactive display. A webcam also projects an image of the consumer wearing the item on the website for everyone to see. This creates an interaction between the consumers inside the store and their social network outside the store. The technology in this system is an RFID interrogator antenna in the dressing room and Electronic Product CodeElectronic Product Code
The Electronic Product Code is designed as a universal identifier that provides a unique identity for every physical object anywhere in the world, for all time. Its structure is defined in the EPCglobal Tag Data Standard , which is an open standard freely available for download from the website...
RFID tags on the apparel item.
Race timing
Many forms of RFID race timing have been in use for timing races of different types since the early 1990s. The practice began with pigeon racing, introduced by a company called deister electronic GmbhDeister Electronics
Deister Electronics is the name generally used to refer to Deister Electronic GmbH Barsinghausen, Germany, and its subsidiaries in North America. Deister Electronic is an industrial enterprise specialised on electronic non-contact identification and security systems founded in 1977. In North...
of Barsinghausen, Germany. It is used for registering race start and end timings for animals or individuals in large running races or multi-sport races where it is impossible to get accurate stopwatch readings for every entrant.
In the race, the racers wear passive or active tags that are read by antennae placed alongside the track or on mats across the track. UHF based tags instead of low or high frequency last-generation tags provide accurate readings with specially designed antennas. Rush error, lap count errors and accidents at start time are avoided since anyone can start and finish any time without being in a batch mode.
Lap scoring
Passive and active RFID systems are used in off-road events such as OrienteeringOrienteering
Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain, and normally moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they...
, Enduro
Enduro
Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on courses that are predominantly off-road. Enduro consists of many different obstacles and challenges...
and Hare and Hounds racing. Riders have a transponder on their person, normally on their arm. When they complete a lap they swipe or touch the receiver which is connected to a computer and log their lap time. The Casimo Group Ltd sells such a system, as does Sweden's SportIdent and Japan's Micro Talk Systems Corp. which sells the J-Chip system shown in the photo left.
RFID is being adapted by many recruitment agencies which have a PET (Physical Endurance Test) as their qualifying procedure especially in cases where the candidate volumes may run into millions (Indian Railway Recruitment Cells, Police and Power sector).
Ski resorts
A number of ski resortSki resort
A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing and other winter sports. In Europe a ski resort is a town or village in a ski area - a mountainous area, where there are ski trails and supporting services such as hotels and other accommodation, restaurants, equipment rental and a ski lift system...
s, particularly in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, the French Alps
French Alps
The French Alps are those portions of the Alps mountain range which stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions....
and in the Spanish and French Pyrenees, have adopted RFID tags to provide skiers hands-free access to ski lift
Ski lift
The term ski lift generally refers to any transport device that carries skiers up a hill. A ski lift may fall into one of the following three main classes:-Lift systems and networks:...
s. Skiers do not have to take their passes out of their pockets. Early on skiers were forced to use systems that required nearly contact - bending over to touch the turnstyles. These systems were based on high frequency (HF) at 13.56 megahertz. While effective at tracking the skiers they were difficult to use and expensive to deploy. However the bulk of ski areas in Europe, from Verbier to Chamonix use these systems.
The Vail ResortsVail ResortsVail Resorts, Inc. runs four ski resorts in Colorado, as well as two in Lake Tahoe and a summer resort in Wyoming. They also own luxury resort hotels throughout the United States. The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange, symbol MTN...
in Colorado introduced Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID equipped season passes in 2009. In 2010, Vail announced that it would incorporate data from the season pass holders into a game like program skiers could opt-into called EpicMix. The system collects data and displays – vertical feet skied, number of runs taken, lifts used, etc – and all the information will be available to the user online where they can compete with other skiers and earn virtual badges. They are calling this new system EpicMix.. In 2011 they announced that they would expand the EpicMix program to every skier at all seven of their mountains. This will allow skiers to re-use a day pass multiple times, eliminating paper tickets and waste associated with them. Vail also announced they will deploy a photographer that will take free pictures for social media sites like Facebook or Twitter and upload to the EpicMix site, all for free with an EpicMix account. Vail is using UHF readers from Sirit and RFID Software from ODIN technologiesODIN technologiesODIN provides RFID software and solutions for the Aerospace, Government, Healthcare, Financial Services and Social Media markets.ODIN provides RFID services and RFID software....
as the operating system on the readers and to monitor and manage the RFID network. RFID and Social Media have since become a prime line of business for ODIN.
Human implants
Implantable RFID chips designed for animal tagging are now being used in humans. An early experiment with RFID implants was conducted by British professor of cybernetics
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
Kevin Warwick
Kevin Warwick
Kevin Warwick is a British scientist and professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom...
, who implanted a chip in his arm in 1998. In 2004 Conrad Chase
Conrad Chase
Conrad Keven Chase is an Actor, Singer/Song-writer and Public Speaker.-History:Conrad is well known for his participation in Spain's "Gran Hermano" . He was also a member of a Dutch boy band known as the Baja Boys...
offered implanted chips in his night clubs in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
and Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
to identify their VIP customers, who in turn use it to pay for drinks.
In 2004, the Mexican Attorney General's office implanted 18 of its staff members with the Verichip
VeriChip
VeriChip was the only Food and Drug Administration -approved human-implantable radio-frequency identification microchip. It was marketed by PositiveID, a subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions, and it received United States FDA approval in 2004. Its manufacture and marketing were discontinued in...
to control access to a secure data room.
Security experts have warned against using RFID for authenticating people due to the risk of identity theft
Identity theft
Identity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name...
. For instance, a man-in-the-middle attack
Man-in-the-middle attack
In cryptography, the man-in-the-middle attack , bucket-brigade attack, or sometimes Janus attack, is a form of active eavesdropping in which the attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages between them, making them believe that they are talking directly to each other...
would make it possible for an attacker to steal the identity of a person in real-time. Due to the resource constraints of RFIDs, it is virtually impossible to protect against such attack models as this would require complex distance-binding protocols.
Privacy advocates have protested against implantable RFID chips, warning of potential abuse and denouncing these types of RFID devices as "spychips
Spychips
Spychips is a term privacy advocates use to refer to radio-frequency identification microchips because it conveys what they see as the potential downsides of the technology.- Origin :...
", and that use by governments could lead to an increased loss of civil liberties and would lend itself too easily to abuse. One such case of this abuse would be in the microchip's dual use as a tracking device. Such concerns were justified in the United States, when the FBI program COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological...
was revealed to have tracked the activities of high profile political activist and dissident figures. There is also the possibility that the chip's information will be available to those other than governments, such as private business, thus giving employers highly personal information about employees. In addition, privacy advocates state that the information contained in this chip could easily be stolen, so that storing anything private in it would be to risk identity theft.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
(FDA), implantation of an RFID chip poses potential medical downsides. Electrical hazards, MRI incompatibility, adverse tissue reaction, and migration of the implanted transponder are just a few of the potential risks associated with the Verichip ID implant device, according to an October 12, 2004 letter issued by the FDA.
It has been argued that RFID chipping of sex offenders in the US could be politically feasible, and allowable under the U.S. Constitution.
Potential uses
RFID can be used in a variety of applications, such as:- Access management
- Tracking of goods and RFID in retail
- Tracking of persons and animals
- Toll collection and contactless payment
- Machine readable travel documents
- SmartdustSmartdustSmartdust is a hypothetical system of many tiny microelectromechanical systems such as sensors, robots, or other devices, that can detect, for example, light, temperature, vibration, magnetism or chemicals; are usually networked wirelessly; and are distributed over some area to perform tasks,...
(for massively distributed sensorSensorA sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. For example, a mercury-in-glass thermometer converts the measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid which can be read on a calibrated...
networks) - Tracking sports memorabilia to verify authenticity
- Airport baggage tracking logistics
Complement to barcode
RFID tags are often a complement, but not a substitute, for UPCUniversal Product Code
The Universal Product Code is a barcode symbology , that is widely used in North America, and in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item...
or EAN
European Article Number
An EAN-13 barcode is a 13 digit barcoding standard which is a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code system developed in the United States...
barcodes. They may not ever completely replace barcodes, due in part to their higher cost and the advantage of multiple data sources on the same object. Also, unlike RFID labels, barcodes can be generated and distributed electronically, e.g. via e-mail or mobile phone, for printing and/or display by the recipient. An example is airline boarding passes. The new EPC
Electronic Product Code
The Electronic Product Code is designed as a universal identifier that provides a unique identity for every physical object anywhere in the world, for all time. Its structure is defined in the EPCglobal Tag Data Standard , which is an open standard freely available for download from the website...
, along with several other schemes, is widely available at reasonable cost.
The storage of data associated with tracking items will require many terabytes. Filtering and categorizing RFID data is needed to create useful information. It is likely that goods will be tracked by the pallet using RFID tags, and at package level with Universal Product Code (UPC
Universal Product Code
The Universal Product Code is a barcode symbology , that is widely used in North America, and in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item...
) or EAN
European Article Number
An EAN-13 barcode is a 13 digit barcoding standard which is a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code system developed in the United States...
from unique barcodes.
The unique identity is a mandatory requirement for RFID tags, despite special choice of the numbering scheme. RFID tag data capacity is large enough that each individual tag will have a unique code, while current bar codes are limited to a single type code for a particular product. The uniqueness of RFID tags means that a product may be tracked as it moves from location to location, finally ending up in the consumer's hands. This may help to combat theft and other forms of product loss. The tracing of products is an important feature that gets well supported with RFID tags containing a unique identity of the tag and also the serial number of the object. This may help companies to cope with quality deficiencies and resulting recall campaigns, but also contributes to concern about tracking and profiling of consumers after the sale.
It has also been proposed to use RFID for POS
Point of sale
Point of sale or checkout is the location where a transaction occurs...
store checkout to replace the cashier
Cashier
Cashier is an occupation focused on the handling of cash money.- Retail :In a shop, a cashier is a person who scans the goods through a machine called a cash register that the consumer wishes to purchase at the retail store. After all of the goods have been scanned, the cashier then collects...
with an automatic system which needs no barcode scanning. In the past this was not possible due to the higher cost of tags and existing POS process technologies. However, Industry Standard, a couture shop and recording studio in Ohio has successfully implemented a POS procedure that allows faster transaction throughput.
An FDA-nominated task force concluded, after studying the various technologies currently commercially available, which of those technologies could meet the pedigree requirements. Amongst all technologies studied including bar coding, RFID seemed to be the most promising and the committee felt that the pedigree requirement could be met by easily leveraging something that is readily available. (More details see RFID-FDA-Regulations)
Telemetry
Active RFID tags also have the potential to function as low-cost remote sensors that broadcast telemetryTelemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...
back to a base station. Applications of tagometry data could include sensing of road conditions by implanted beacons, weather reports, and noise level monitoring.
Passive RFID tags can also report sensor data. For example, the Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform
Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform
A wireless identification and sensing platform is an RFID device that supports sensing and computing: a microcontroller powered by radio-frequency energy....
is a passive tag that reports temperature, acceleration and capacitance to commercial Gen2 RFID readers.
It is possible that active or semi-passive RFID tags used with or in place of barcodes could broadcast a signal to an in-store receiver to determine whether the RFID tag (product) is in the store.
Identification of patients and hospital staff
In July 2004, the US Food and Drug AdministrationFood and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
issued a ruling that essentially begins a final review process that will determine whether hospitals can use RFID systems to identify patients and/or permit relevant hospital staff to access medical records. Since then, a number of U.S. hospitals have begun implanting patients with RFID tags and using RFID systems, usually for workflow and inventory management. There is some evidence, as well, that nurses and other hospital staff may be subjected to increased surveillance of their activities or to labor intensification as a result of the implementation of RFID systems in hospitals.
The use of RFID to prevent mixups between sperm
Spermatozoon
A spermatozoon is a motile sperm cell, or moving form of the haploid cell that is the male gamete. A spermatozoon joins an ovum to form a zygote...
and ova
Ovum
An ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization...
in IVF clinics is also being considered.
In October 2004, the FDA approved USA's first RFID chips that can be implanted in humans. The 134 kHz RFID chips, from VeriChip Corp. can incorporate personal medical information and could save lives and limit injuries from errors in medical treatments, according to the company. The FDA approval was disclosed during a conference call with investors. Shortly after the approval, authors and anti-RFID activists Katherine Albrecht
Katherine Albrecht
Katherine Albrecht, EdD is the founder of CASPIAN , a national consumer organization created in 1999 to educate consumer-citizens about shopper surveillance. She is a consumer privacy advocate and anti-RFID spokesperson...
and Liz McIntyre discovered an FDA Warning Letter
FDA Warning Letter
The United States Food and Drug Adminstration defines a Warning Letter as "...a correspondence that notifies regulated industry about violations that FDA has documented during its inspections or investigations...
that spelled out serious health risks associated with the VeriChip. According to the FDA, these include "adverse tissue reaction", "migration of the implanted transponder", "failure of implanted transponder", "electrical hazards" and "magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] incompatibility."
St. Clair Hospital in Pittsburgh has deployed an RFID and barcode based bedside medication verification system that improves patient safety by reducing medication errors. Nurses use a PDA equipped with a portable RFID reader and barcode scanner to check patient ID and medications before administering any drugs, including drugs delivered through IV pumps.
To combat home health fraud, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced heightened scrutiny of the home health care industry. In March, 2009, Elite Medical Supply, a durable medical equipment supplier in New York were one of the first to sign on to combat Medical fraud. They selected CYBRA
CYBRA
- History :CYBRA Corporation was founded as a New York corporation in 1985. The Company is a software developer, publisher, and systems integrator in the IBM midrange market...
's EdgeMagic RFID and Bar Code Software to rollout the process.
Regulation and standardization
There is no global public body that governs the frequencies used for RFID. In principle, every country can set its own rules for this. The main bodies governing frequency allocation for RFID are:- USA: FCC (Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
) - Canada: Industry Canada - Spectrum Management Branch
- Europe: ERO, CEPTEuropean Conference of Postal and Telecommunications AdministrationsThe European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations was established on June 26, 1959, as a coordinating body for European state telecommunications and postal organizations...
, ETSI, and national administrations (note that the national administrations must ratify the usage of a specific frequency before it can be used in that country) - Malaysia: Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC)
- Japan: MIC (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)
- China: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
- Taiwan: NCC (National Communications Commission)
- South Africa: ICASA
- South Korea: Ministry of Knowledge Economy
- Australia: Australian Communications and Media AuthorityAustralian Communications and Media AuthorityThe Australian Communications and Media Authority is an Australian government statutory authority within the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy portfolio...
. - New Zealand: Ministry of Economic DevelopmentNew Zealand Ministry of Economic DevelopmentThe Ministry of Economic Development is a New Zealand public sector organisation tasked with promoting development of New Zealand's economy....
- Singapore: Infocomm Development Authority of SingaporeInfocomm Development Authority of SingaporeThe Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore is a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts .-History:...
- Brazil: Anatel (Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações)
Low-frequency (LF: 125–134.2 kHz and 140–148.5 kHz) (LowFID) tags and high-frequency (HF: 13.56 MHz) (HighFID) tags can be used globally without a license. Ultra-high-frequency (UHF: 868–928 MHz) (Ultra-HighFID or UHFID) tags cannot be used globally as there is no single global standard. In North America, UHF can be used unlicensed for 902–928& MHz (±13 MHz from the 915 MHz center frequency), but restrictions exist for transmission power. In Europe, RFID and other low-power radio applications are regulated by ETSI recommendations EN 300 220 and EN 302 208, and ERO recommendation 70 03, allowing RFID operation with somewhat complex band restrictions from 865–868 MHz. Readers are required to monitor a channel before transmitting ("Listen Before Talk"); this requirement has led to some restrictions on performance, the resolution of which is a subject of current research. The North American UHF standard is not accepted in France as it interferes with its military bands. For China and Japan, there is no regulation for the use of UHF. Each application for UHF in these countries needs a site license, which needs to be applied for at the local authorities, and can be revoked. For Australia and New Zealand, 918–926 MHz are unlicensed, but restrictions exist for transmission power.
These frequencies are known as the ISM band
ISM band
The industrial, scientific and medical radio bands are radio bands reserved internationally for the use of radio frequency energy for industrial, scientific and medical purposes other than communications....
s (Industrial Scientific and Medical bands). The return signal of the tag may still cause interference
Interference (communication)
In communications and electronics, especially in telecommunications, interference is anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a signal as it travels along a channel between a source and a receiver. The term typically refers to the addition of unwanted signals to a useful signal...
for other radio users.
standards that have been made regarding RFID technology include:
- ISO 14223 – Radiofrequency identification of animals – Advanced transponders
- ISO/IEC 14443: This standard is a popular HF (13.56 MHz) standard for HighFIDs which is being used as the basis of RFID-enabled passports under ICAO 9303. The Near Field CommunicationNear Field CommunicationNear field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States...
standard that lets mobile devices act as RFID readers/transponders is also based on ISO/IEC 14443. - ISO/IEC 15693: This is also a popular HF (13.56 MHz) standard for HighFIDs widely used for non-contact smart payment and credit cards.
- ISO/IEC 18000ISO/IEC 18000ISO/IEC 18000 is an international standard that describes a series of diverse RFID technologies, each utilizing a unique frequency range.ISO/IEC 18000 consists of the following parts, under the general title Information technology — Radio frequency identification for item management:* Part 1:...
: Information technology—Radio frequency identification for item management:- Part 1: Reference architecture and definition of parameters to be standardized
- Part 2: Parameters for air interface communications below 135 kHz
- Part 3: Parameters for air interface communications at 13.56 MHz
- Part 4: Parameters for air interface communications at 2.45 GHz
- Part 6: Parameters for air interface communications at 860–960 MHz
- Part 7: Parameters for active air interface communications at 433 MHz
- ISO/IEC 18092 Information technology—Telecommunications and information exchange between systems—Near Field Communication—Interface and Protocol (NFCIP-1)
- ISO 18185: This is the industry standard for electronic seals or "e-seals" for tracking cargo containers using the 433 MHz and 2.4 GHz frequencies.
- ISO/IEC 21481 Information technology—Telecommunications and information exchange between systems—Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol -2 (NFCIP-2)
- ASTM D7434, Standard Test Method for Determining the Performance of Passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Transponders on Palletized or Unitized Loads
- ASTM D7435, Standard Test Method for Determining the Performance of Passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Transponders on Loaded Containers
- ASTM D7580 Standard Test Method for Rotary Stretch Wrapper Method for Determining the Readability of Passive RFID Transponders on Homogenous Palletized or Unitized Loads
In order to ensure global interoperability of products several organizations have setup additional standards for RFID testing
RFID testing
RFID is a wireless technology supported by many different vendors for tags and readers . In order to ensure global operability of the products multiple test standards have been developed...
. These standards include conformance, performance and interoperability tests.
Groups concerned with standardization are:
- DASH7 AllianceDASH7 AllianceOverviewThe DASH7 Alliance is the body responsible for overseeing the development of the ISO 18000-7 standard for wireless sensor networking, as well as interoperability certification of DASH7 devices and the licensing of DASH7 trademarks...
: international industry group formed in 2009 to promote standards and interoperability among extensions to ISO/IEC 18000-7 technologies
- EPCglobalEPCglobalEPCglobal is a joint venture between GS1 and GS1 US .It is an organization set up to achieve worldwide adoption and standardization of Electronic Product Code technology....
– this is the standardization framework that is most likely to undergo International Standardisation according to ISO rules as with all sound standards in the world, unless residing with limited scope, as customs regulations, air-traffic regulations and others. Currently the big distributors and governmental customers are pushing EPC heavily as a standard well-accepted in their community, but not yet regarded as for salvation to the rest of the world.
EPC Gen2
EPC Gen2 is short for EPCglobal UHF Class 1 Generation 2.EPCglobal
EPCglobal
EPCglobal is a joint venture between GS1 and GS1 US .It is an organization set up to achieve worldwide adoption and standardization of Electronic Product Code technology....
(a joint venture between GS1
GS1
Founded in 1977, GS1 is an international not-for-profit association dedicated to the development and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across multiple sectors...
and GS1 US
GS1 US
GS1 US is the GS1 Member Organization in the United States of America. It was formerly the Uniform Code Council, Inc.GS1 US is responsible for managing the GS1 System in the USA. GS1 US assigns GS1 Company Prefixes to companies/organizations in the USA...
) is working on international standards for the use of mostly passive RFID and the EPC
Electronic Product Code
The Electronic Product Code is designed as a universal identifier that provides a unique identity for every physical object anywhere in the world, for all time. Its structure is defined in the EPCglobal Tag Data Standard , which is an open standard freely available for download from the website...
in the identification of many items in the supply chain
Supply chain
A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to...
for companies worldwide.
One of the missions of EPCglobal was to simplify the Babel of protocols prevalent in the RFID world in the 1990s. Two tag air interfaces (the protocol for exchanging information between a tag and a reader) were defined (but not ratified) by EPCglobal prior to 2003. These protocols, commonly known as Class 0 and Class 1, saw significant commercial implementation in 2002–2005.
In 2004 the Hardware Action Group created a new protocol, the Class 1 Generation 2 interface, which addressed a number of problems that had been experienced with Class 0 and Class 1 tags. The EPC Gen2 standard was approved in December 2004. This was approved after a contention from Intermec
Intermec
Intermec Inc. is a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of Automated identification and data capture equipment, including barcode scanners, barcode printers, mobile computers and RFID systems....
that the standard may infringe a number of their RFID-related patents. It was decided that the standard itself does not infringe their patents, making the standard royalty free. The EPC Gen2 standard was adopted with minor modifications as ISO 18000-6C in 2006.
The lowest cost of Gen2 EPC inlay was offered by the now-defunct company SmartCode, at a price of $0.05 apiece in volumes of 100 million or more. Nevertheless, further conversion (including additional label stock or encapsulation processing/insertion and freight costs to a given facility or DC) and of the inlays into usable RFID labels and the design of current Gen 2 protocol standard will increase the total end-cost, especially with the added security feature extensions for RFID Supply Chain item-level tagging.
Here is the full list of the update on UHF Gen2 Regulation around the world. The list is updated at 2009 January.
The EPC standards are available from EPCglobal at http://www.gs1.org/gsmp/kc/epcglobal
Data flooding
Each tag generating a message each time when passing a reader may be a desired outcome. However, event filtering is required to reduce this data inflow to a meaningful depiction of moving goods passing a threshold. Various concepts have been designed, mainly offered as middlewareMiddleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
performing the filtering from noisy and redundant raw data to significant processed data.
Global standardization
The frequencies used for RFID in the USA are currently incompatible with those of Europe or Japan. Furthermore, no emerging standard has yet become as universal as the barcodeBarcode
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
. To address international trade concerns, it is necessary to use a tag that is operational within all of the international frequency domains.
Security concerns
A primary RFID security concern is the illicit tracking of RFID tags. Tags, which are world-readable, pose a risk to both personal location privacy and corporate/military security. Such concerns have been raised with respect to the United States Department of DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
's recent adoption of RFID tags for supply chain management
Supply chain management
Supply chain management is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers...
. More generally, privacy organizations have expressed concerns in the context of ongoing efforts to embed electronic product code (EPC) RFID tags in consumer products.
EPCglobal Network, by design, is also susceptible to DoS attacks
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
. Using similar mechanism with DNS
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
in resolving EPC data requests, the ONS Root servers become vulnerable to DoS attacks. Any organization planning to embark on EPCglobal Network may cringe upon discovering that the EPCglobal Network infrastructure inherits security weaknesses similar to DNS's.
A second class of defense uses cryptography to prevent tag cloning. Some tags use a form of "rolling code
Rolling code
A rolling code is used in keyless entry systems to prevent replay attacks, where an eavesdropper records the transmission and replays it at a later time to cause the receiver to 'unlock'....
" scheme, wherein the tag identifier information changes after each scan, thus reducing the usefulness of observed responses. More sophisticated devices engage in Challenge-response authentication
Challenge-response authentication
In computer security, challenge-response authentication is a family of protocols in which one party presents a question and another party must provide a valid answer to be authenticated....
s where the tag interacts with the reader. In these protocols, secret tag information is never sent over the insecure communication channel between tag and reader. Rather, the reader issues a challenge to the tag, which responds with a result computed using a cryptographic circuit keyed with some secret value. Such protocols may be based on symmetric or public key cryptography. Cryptographically-enabled tags typically have dramatically higher cost and power requirements than simpler equivalents, and as a result, deployment of these tags is much more limited. This cost/power limitation has led some manufacturers to implement cryptographic tags using substantially weakened, or proprietary encryption schemes, which do not necessarily resist sophisticated attack.
Still other cryptographic protocols attempt to achieve privacy against unauthorized readers, though these protocols are largely in the research stage. One major challenge in securing RFID tags is a shortage of computational resources within the tag. Standard cryptographic techniques require more resources than are available in most low cost RFID devices. RSA Security
RSA Security
RSA, the security division of EMC Corporation, is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, and maintains offices in Australia, Ireland, Israel, the United Kingdom, Singapore, India, China, Hong Kong and Japan....
has patented a prototype device that locally jams RFID signals by interrupting a standard collision avoidance protocol, allowing the user to prevent identification if desired. Various policy measures have also been proposed, such as marking RFID-tagged objects with an industry standard label. RFID security has been an active research field for the past decade, with more than 400 scientific papers published since 2002. An extensive list of references in this field can be found at the RFID Security and Privacy Lounge .
Exploitation
Ars TechnicaArs Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
reported in March 2006 an RFID buffer overflow
Buffer overflow
In computer security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is an anomaly where a program, while writing data to a buffer, overruns the buffer's boundary and overwrites adjacent memory. This is a special case of violation of memory safety....
bug that could infect airport terminal RFID databases for baggage, and also passport databases to obtain confidential information on the passport holder.
Passports
In an effort to make passports more secure, several countries have implemented RFID in passports. However, the encryption on UK chips was broken in under 48 hours. Since that incident, further efforts have allowed researchers to clone passport data while the passport is being mailed to its owner. Where a criminal used to need to secretly open and then reseal the envelope, now it can be done without detection, adding some degree of insecurity to the passport system.Shielding
A number of products are available on the market that will allow a concerned carrier of RFID-enabled cards or passports to shield their data. In fact the United States government requires their new employee ID cards to be delivered with an approved shielding sleeve or holder. There are contradicting opinions as to whether aluminum can prevent reading of RFID chips. Some people claim that aluminum shielding, essentially creating a Faraday cageFaraday cage
A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure formed by conducting material or by a mesh of such material. Such an enclosure blocks out external static and non-static electric fields...
, does work. Others claim that simply wrapping an RFID card in aluminum foil only makes transmission more difficult and is not completely effective at preventing it.
Shielding is again a function of the frequency being used. Low-frequency
Low frequency
Low frequency or low freq or LF refers to radio frequencies in the range of 30 kHz–300 kHz. In Europe, and parts of Northern Africa and of Asia, part of the LF spectrum is used for AM broadcasting as the longwave band. In the western hemisphere, its main use is for aircraft beacon,...
LowFID tags, like those used in implantable devices for humans and pets, are relatively resistant to shielding, though thick metal foil will prevent most reads. High frequency
High frequency
High frequency radio frequencies are between 3 and 30 MHz. Also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decameters . Frequencies immediately below HF are denoted Medium-frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Very high frequency...
HighFID tags (13.56 MHz—smart cards and access badges) are sensitive to shielding and are difficult to read when within a few centimetres of a metal surface. UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
Ultra-HighFID tags (pallets and cartons) are difficult to read when placed within a few millimetres of a metal surface, although their read range is actually increased when they are spaced 2–4 cm from a metal surface due to positive reinforcement of the reflected wave and the incident wave at the tag. UHFID tags can be successfully shielded from most reads by being placed within an anti-static plastic bag
Plastic bag
A plastic bag, polybag, or pouch is a type of packaging made of thin, flexible, plastic film, nonwoven fabric, or plastic textile. Plastic bags are used for containing and transporting goods such as foods, produce, powders, ice, magazines, comic books, chemicals and waste.Most plastic bags are...
.
Temperature exposure
Currently, RFID tags are created by gluing an integrated circuit (IC) to an inlay. This poses a problem as vibration and high temperatures will loosen the connection. If the IC loses connection with the inlay, the RFID tag will no longer transmit. A new design was filed for patent (currently pending approval) where the IC is soldered to a circuit board and the circuit board is then soldered to the inlay. This process replaces the adhesive with solder which is much more durable and temperature resistant.Controversies
Privacy
The use of RFID technology has engendered considerable controversy and even product boycottBoycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
s by consumer privacy advocates. Consumer privacy experts Katherine Albrecht
Katherine Albrecht
Katherine Albrecht, EdD is the founder of CASPIAN , a national consumer organization created in 1999 to educate consumer-citizens about shopper surveillance. She is a consumer privacy advocate and anti-RFID spokesperson...
and Liz McIntyre are two prominent critics of the technology. The two main privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
concerns regarding RFID are:
- Since the owner of an item will not necessarily be aware of the presence of an RFID tag and the tag can be read at a distance without the knowledge of the individual, it becomes possible to gather sensitive data about an individual without consent.
- If a tagged item is paid for by credit card or in conjunction with use of a loyalty card, then it would be possible to indirectly deduce the identity of the purchaser by reading the globally unique ID of that item (contained in the RFID tag). This is only true if the person doing the watching also had access to the loyalty card data and the credit card data, and the person with the equipment knows where you are going to be.
Most concerns revolve around the fact that RFID tags affixed to products remain functional even after the products have been purchased and taken home and thus can be used for surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
and other purposes unrelated to their supply chain inventory functions.
The RFID Network proved these fears to be unfounded in the premier episode of their syndicated cable TV series by having RF engineers show how RFID technology really works. RF engineers drove an RFID-enabled van around a building and tried to take an inventory of items inside. They also explored if a passive RFID tag can be tracked from satellite.
The concerns raised by the above may be addressed in part by use of the Clipped Tag
Clipped Tag
The Clipped Tag is a radio frequency identification tag designed to enhance consumer privacy. Radio frequency identification or RFID is an identification technology in which information stored in semiconductor chips contained in RFID tags is communicated by means of radio waves to RFID readers. The...
. The Clipped Tag is an RFID tag designed to increase consumer privacy. The Clipped Tag has been suggested by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
researchers Paul Moskowitz
Paul Moskowitz
Dr. Paul A. Moskowitz works at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York. Moskowitz is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in New York City, received a Ph.D. in Physics from New York University, and has held research and teaching positions at the University of Grenoble, France, the...
and Guenter Karjoth. After the point of sale, a consumer may tear off a portion of the tag. This allows the transformation of a long-range tag into a proximity tag that still may be read, but only at short range – less than a few inches or centimeters. The modification of the tag may be confirmed visually. The tag may still be used later for returns, recalls, or recycling.
However, read range is both a function of the reader and the tag itself. Improvements in technology may increase read ranges for tags. Having readers very close to the tags makes short range tags readable. Generally, the read range of a tag is limited to the distance from the reader over which the tag can draw enough energy from the reader field to power the tag. Tags may be read at longer ranges than they are designed for by increasing reader power. The limit on read distance then becomes the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal reflected from the tag back to the reader. Researchers at two security conferences have demonstrated that passive Ultra-HighFID tags normally read at ranges of up to 30 feet, can be read at ranges of 50 to 69 feet using suitable equipment.
CASPIAN
Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering is a USA grass-roots consumer group dedicated to fighting supermarket "loyalty" or frequent shopper cards. CASPIAN's efforts are directed at educating consumers, condemning marketing strategies that invade shoppers' privacy, and...
and the German privacy group FoeBuD were invited to the METRO Future Store in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where an RFID pilot project was implemented. It was uncovered by accident that METRO "Payback" customer loyalty cards contained RFID tags with customer IDs, a fact that was disclosed neither to customers receiving the cards, nor to this group of privacy advocates. This happened despite assurances by METRO that no customer identification data was tracked and all RFID usage was clearly disclosed.
During the UN World Summit on the Information Society
World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
(WSIS) between the 16th to 18 November 2005, founder of the free software movement
Free software movement
The free software movement is a social and political movement with the goal of ensuring software users' four basic freedoms: the freedom to run their software, to study and change their software, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. The alternative terms "software libre", "open...
, Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
, protested the use of RFID security cards. During the first meeting, it was agreed that future meetings would no longer use RFID cards, and upon finding out this assurance was broken, he covered his card with aluminum foil, and would only uncover it at the security stations. This protest caused the security personnel considerable concern, with some not allowing him to leave a conference room in which he had been the main speaker, and the prevention of him entering another conference room, where he was due to speak.
In 2004–2005 the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
Staff conducted a workshop and review of RFID privacy concerns and issued a report recommending best practices.
RFID was one of the main topics of 2006 Chaos Communication Congress
Chaos Communication Congress
The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual meeting of the international hacker scene, organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues....
(organized by the Chaos Computer Club
Chaos Computer Club
The Chaos Computer Club is an organization of hackers. The CCC is based in Germany and other German-speaking countries.The CCC describes itself as "a galactic community of life forms, independent of age, sex, race or societal orientation, which strives across borders for freedom of...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
) and triggered a big press debate. Topics included: electronic passports, Mifare cryptography and the tickets for the FIFA World Cup 2006. Talks showed how the first real world mass application of RFID technology at the 2006 FIFA Soccer World Cup worked. Group monochrom
Monochrom
monochrom is an international art-technology-philosophy group, founded in 1993. Its offices are located at Museumsquartier/Vienna ....
staged a special 'Hack RFID' song.
Zeitgeist The Movie presented RFID chips as a negative technology, theorizing that they will one day be used to track the world population and keep them under control.
Human implantation
The Food and Drug AdministrationFood and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
in the US has approved the use of RFID chips in humans.
Some business establishments give customers the option of using an RFID-based tab to pay for service, such as the Baja Beach nightclub in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. This has provoked concerns into privacy of individuals as they can potentially be tracked wherever they go by an identifier unique to them. There are concerns this could lead to abuse by an authoritarian government or lead to removal of freedoms.
On July 22, 2006, Reuters reported that two hackers, Newitz and Westhues, at a conference in New York City showed that they could clone the RFID signal from a human implanted RFID chip, showing that the chip is not hack-proof as was previously claimed.
Surgery, even on a small scale, comes with its risks. The RFID chip implantation is no exception. According to David B. Smith, the author of "Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology in Humans in the United States for Total Control," Smith gives the examples of health risks such as "…adverse tissues reaction migration of implanted transponder, compromised information security, failure of implanted transponder, failure of insertion, failure of electronic scanner, electromagnetic interference electrical hazards, magnetic resonance imaging incompatibility, and needle stick" (38). Such risks exist for anyone undergoing an implantation procedure.
Government control
With the rise of technology, some individuals have grown to fear the loss of rights due to RFID human implantation.By early 2007, Chris Paget of San Francisco, California, showed that RFID information can be pulled from individuals by using only $250 worth of equipment. This supports the claim that with the information captured, it would be relatively simple to make counterfeit passports.
According to ZDNet, critics believe that this technology will lead to tracking individuals every movement and will be an invasion of privacy. Some conceptualize a future where every movement is tracked by the government. In the book SpyChips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID by Katherine Albrecht
Katherine Albrecht
Katherine Albrecht, EdD is the founder of CASPIAN , a national consumer organization created in 1999 to educate consumer-citizens about shopper surveillance. She is a consumer privacy advocate and anti-RFID spokesperson...
and Liz McIntyre, one is encouraged to "imagine a world of no privacy. Where your every purchase is monitored and recorded in a database and your every belonging is numbered. Where someone many states away or perhaps in another country has a record of everything you have ever bought. What's more, they can be tracked and monitored remotely".
Deliberate destruction of RFIDs in clothing and other items
According to an RSA laboratories FAQ, RFID tags can be destroyed by a standard microwave oven; however some types of RFID tags, particularly those constructed to radiate using large metallic antennas (in particular RF tags and EPCEPC
EPC may refer to:Business, science and technology:* Earnings Per Click, a revenue analysis for online advertising* Embedded PC* Exception Program Counter...
tags), may catch fire if subjected to this process for too long (as would any metallic item inside a microwave oven). This simple method cannot safely be used to deactivate RFID features in electronic devices, or those implanted in living tissue, because of the risk of damage to the "host". However the time required is extremely short (a second or two of radiation) and the method works in many other non-electronic and inanimate items, long before thermal buildup (fire) problems become of concern.
See also
- AS5678AS5678AS5678 is a requirements specification created by SAE International for the production and test of passive only Radio Frequency Identification tags for the Aerospace industry...
- BarcodeBarcodeA barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
- Bin bugBin bugThe term "bin bug" was coined in August 2006 by the British media to refer to the use of Radio Frequency Identification chips by some local councils to monitor the amount of domestic waste created by each household. If the pilot schemes are successful it is expected that most British cities will...
- BiometricsBiometricsBiometrics As Jain & Ross point out, "the term biometric authentication is perhaps more appropriate than biometrics since the latter has been historically used in the field of statistics to refer to the analysis of biological data [36]" . consists of methods...
- Contactless paymentContactless paymentContactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smartcards or other devices which use RFID for making secure payments. The embedded chip and antenna enable consumers to wave their card or fob over a reader at the point of sale. Some suppliers claim that transactions can be...
- DASH7DASH7DASH7 is an open source wireless sensor networking standard for wireless sensor networking, which operates in the 433 MHz unlicensed ISM band. DASH7 provides multi-year battery life, range of up to 2 km, low latency for connecting with moving things, a very small open source protocol...
- Electronic Product CodeElectronic Product CodeThe Electronic Product Code is designed as a universal identifier that provides a unique identity for every physical object anywhere in the world, for all time. Its structure is defined in the EPCglobal Tag Data Standard , which is an open standard freely available for download from the website...
- E-ZPassE-ZPassE-ZPass is an electronic toll-collection system used on most tolled roads, bridges, and tunnels in the northeastern US, south to Virginia and West Virginia, and west to Illinois. Currently, there are 25 agencies spread across 14 states that make up the . All member agencies use the same technology,...
- Identification friend or foeIdentification friend or foeIn telecommunications, identification, friend or foe is an identification system designed for command and control. It is a system that enables military and national interrogation systems to identify aircraft, vehicles, or forces as friendly and to determine their bearing and range from the...
- Local Positioning SystemsLocal Positioning SystemsA local positioning system is a navigation system that provides location information in all weather, anywhere within the coverage of the network, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to three or more signaling beacons of which the exact position on earth is known...
- High Capacity Color BarcodeHigh Capacity Color BarcodeHigh Capacity Color Barcode is the name coined by Microsoft for its technology of encoding data in a 2D "barcode" using clusters of colored triangles instead of the square pixels traditionally associated with 2D barcodes. Data density is increased by using a palette of 4 or 8 colors for the...
- List of emerging technologies
- Mass surveillanceMass surveillanceMass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire population, or a substantial fraction thereof.Modern governments today commonly perform mass surveillance of their citizens, explaining that they believe that it is necessary to protect them from dangerous groups such as terrorists,...
- Microchip implant (animal)Microchip implant (animal)A microchip implant is an identifying integrated circuit placed under the skin of a dog, cat, horse, parrot or other animal. The chips are about the size of a large grain of rice and are based on a passive RFID technology....
- Microchip implant (human)Microchip implant (human)A human microchip implant is an integrated circuit device or RFID transponder encased in silicate glass and implanted in the body of a human being...
- Mobile RFIDMobile RFIDMobile RFID can be defined as services that provide information on objects equipped with an RFID tag over a telecommunication network.”. The reader or interrogator can be installed in a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA....
- Near Field CommunicationNear Field CommunicationNear field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States...
- Pharmacy informatics
- Polymer electrolyte
- Proximity cardProximity cardProximity card is a generic name for contactless integrated circuit devices used for security access or payment systems. The standard can refer to the older 125 kHz devices or the newer 13.56 MHz contactless RFID cards, most commonly known as contactless smartcards.Modern proximity cards...
- RCD TechnologyRCD TechnologyRCD Technology is a Radio Frequency Identification solution provider located in Quakertown, PA. Founded in 2001 RCD Technology provides RFID solutions to businesses and governments to help them overcome problems associated with tracking, security and authentication...
- Real-time locating
- Resonant energy transferResonant energy transferResonant energy transfer may refer to:*Förster resonance energy transfer*Resonant inductive coupling...
- RFID Zapper
- RuBeeRuBeeRuBee is a two way, active wireless protocol designed for harsh environment, high security asset visibility applications. RuBee utilizes Long Wave magnetic signals to send and receive short data packets in a local regional network...
- Smart cards
- SupranetSupranetSupranet is a term coined at the turn of the 21st century by information technology analysis firm Gartner to describe the fusion of the physical and the digital worlds.-History:...
- Tracking systemTracking systemGenerally tracking is the observing of persons or objects on the move and supplying a timely ordered sequence of respective location data to a model e.g...
- Transponder timingTransponder timingTransponder timing is a technique for measuring performance in sport events. A transponder working on a radio-frequency identification basis is attached to the athlete and emits a unique code that is detected by radio receivers located at the strategic points in an event.Prior to the use of this...
- U-KeyU-KeyA U-Key is an implementation of the MIFARE RFID chip, encased in a plastic key style housing.It is used as a prepayment system on vending machines and for some self-service diving air compressors in Switzerland...
External links
- What is RFID? Educational video by The RFID Network
- Information Resource moderated by the RFID Industry Experts
- UK RFID - free RFID information and research
- RFID Radio – Educational RFID podcasts
- Privacy concerns and proposed privacy legislation
- NISO Recommendations RFID in US Libraries
- How RFID Works at RFID IN REGION
- Learn RFID RFID Informational Videos produced by ODIN Technologies
- What is RFID? - Animated Explanation
- RFID for hobbyists a $30 RFID reader for the ArduinoArduinoArduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR...
, with code.