What is an RFID tag?
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology uses small electronic tags as wireless identification devices. Passive RFID tags require no standard power source, but rather use an antenna to pick up just a little bit of power and transmit a response back to a receiver. The technology dates back to at least 1945, but it has only begun to achieve popularity and financial feasibility in the first years of the 21st century. An RFID tag has just a little bit of information about the object it is attached to. If you tagged everything in your home with RFID, you could walk around your house with an RFID receiver and point it at any object, and the receiver would tell you what you’re pointing at. The technology works even if there is an intervening medium between the tag and the receiver. RFID tags are on the edge of breaking into the shipping industry. It has been proposed that every crate be tagged with RFID to permit easy and automated identification. If made ubiquitous, the technology wo
RFID chips are also being used as personal identifiers. These chips are embedded in some drivers licenses, passports, credit cards, and other forms of identification. For the ultimate in convenience and security, some people have them embedded in their bodies. In the not too distant future RFID chips will be required to do business (buy and sell) in the cashless society. At first everyone will have a card with an RFID chip that allows them access to their “money”. The problem with cards though, is they can be lost, stolen, or used by other people. To solve these problems people will be required to have an RFID device implanted in their right hand or forehead. This will also mean that the individual can be tracked wherever thy go.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are used in a wide range of applications such as: identifying animals, tracking goods through the supply chain, tracking assets such as gas bottles and beer kegs, and controlling access into buildings. RFID tags include a chip that typically stores a static number (an ID) and an antenna that enables the chip to transmit the stored number to a reader. Some RFID tags contain read/write memory to store data that can be written to the tag. When the tag comes within range of the appropriate RF reader, the tag is powered by the reader’s RF field and transmits its ID to the reader. Examples include RFID package tracking, pharmaceuticals labeling, inventory management, automatic door locks and more. RFID tags are simple, low-cost and commonly disposable, although this is not always the case such as reusable laundry tags. Generally speaking, there is little to no security on the RFID tag or during communication with the reader. Any reader using the app
