For the past decade, the business world has anxiously awaited the day when radio frequency identification (RFID) would step up to the throne and replace the venerable barcode on billions of everyday products.
While the world has been waiting, however, RFID has taken a detour. Today, RFID tags are popping up in places where no one ever dreamed of using barcodes. Take, for example, Coca-Cola's new Freestyle drink vending machine. Freestyle uses RFID to identify drink cartridges, help with inventory, and manage its huge number of flavor variations.
Or take the New York City Marathon. There, RFID tags routinely identify 40,000 runners and help record their race times. Or consider the now common practice of affixing RFID tags to cattle to monitor their dietary needs. Imagine a barcode doing that.
"When people started thinking of RFID in terms of first principles, rather than in terms of barcode replacement, the number of applications exploded," notes Scot Stelter, senior director of product marketing for Impinj Inc., a provider of RFID solutions. "As soon as they realized that the technology could do other things, the creative juices started flowing."
Indeed, the business world's creative juices are now flowing when it comes to RFID. Companies are using the tiny electronic chips, tags, and readers in a mindboggling assortment of un-barcode-like applications, including self-serve beer machines, medical cabinets, crime scene equipment, and tool management, as well as for tracking wine bottles, hiking boots, medicine bottles, hotel bed sheets, and Kindles, among hundreds of other products.
An RFID system works by sending an RF signal from a reader to a tag's antenna. The tag, which has no independent power of its own, scavenges energy from the signal. When the RFID chip turns on, it modulates and reflects the signal, thus communicating its stored information with the reader.
"The tendency was to look for barcode applications and then ask whether it could be done better," Stelter says. "But now it turns out that RFID is different from barcodes in many fundamental respects."
"We still see it being applied to pallets in warehouses," adds Neil Mitchell, director of product marketing for Alien Technology, a maker of RFID chips, tags, and readers. "But we also see it being applied to markets that no one had thought of before, even as recently as three years ago."
Read-write RFID tags used as checklist in automobile manufacturing process, now that's intelligent , creative, and purposeful use of the technology. Impressive.
Sadly, I cannot say the same thing for the wiz-bang Coke machine. I find the following truly puzzling:
"By employing RFID, Freestyle is able to perform functions unlike any previous beverage machine. Using RFID tags and a permanent reader, it immediately "knows" each cartridge and recalls when it was plugged in. It can track the amount of liquid dispensed and can predict usage rates and inventory needs."
Really? Without RFID there was no way to know this? Call me when I can order and pay for my drink with my phone via NFC :-)
You're exactly right. A great idea can quickly get minimized if it's too closely related to something that it just replaces. As opposed to RFID which is starting to be used in these other applications. There are so many other opportunities for RFID to be used. To me I love to see it used in agricultural applications.
It's great to see companies finally recognizing the unique advantages of RFID and applying the technology to new applications as opposed to be stuck trying to use it as a bigger/better substitute for bar codes. This illustrates the larger problem that often impedes technology progress: Being pigeonholed as a replacement for something that still works as opposed to exploring what's possible thanks to new innovations.
Great article. In my previous position, I was looking into industrial strength read-write RFID tags as a means of identifying the serial number and specs of large AC motors that were installed and noting if/when changes occurred. Unfortunately, I was unable to use a single reader that would tell me the location of the tag (i.e, whether it was motor 1, 2, 3 or 4). It could tell me the 4 serial numbers that were in use, but not where, which at that time was an important issue in that we wanted no human involvement in the system.
I suspect the internet of things will have a huge impact on society in general. Imagine if the changes that have been noted for manufacturing are carried over to consumers. In the case of my car, now it needs an oil change or perhaps the operating conditions need to be monitoried by something like onstar. Or toll booths need to collect data on what just went by. Law enforcement is going to experience a big change once the accessibility of data is established.
Lots of changes are coming in our increasingly digital civilization.
Thanks for such a great overview of the RFID sector. I've been teaching a college course in technology for the last 13 years that centers around Barcode technology, its component electronics, software and utility in supply chain management. We have been discussing the future of RFID each year and watching its progress as a barcode "Upgrade". You are right on target... The Barcode is alive and well and serving its purpose admirably. It's the special applications that RFID can do that Barcodes can't that make the technology so exciting. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Internet of Things -- it has the chance to become a huge source of employment for our graduates.
Another cool RFID application is in automotive production. They're using read-write tags to keep track of what has happened as a vehicle moves through production. The tag is programmed with all of the specific requirements for the individual vehicle (paint color, features, type of tires, etc.). As the vehicle moves through production the tag is read to see what it needs. As these items are put into the vehicle, they are checked off on the tag. This cuts down on mistakes considerably while supporting mass customization.
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