Radio-frequency identification chips (often called RFID tags) are passive, inductively powered chips that are used for some applications, from replacing bar codes on supermarket products to identifying lost dogs and cats. It is a small, battery-powered electronic device that can be taken around to advice its proprietor that a new RFID tag has been placed in his or her locality or that his or her tags are presently being scanned. One of the introductory RFID TAG development companies, Alien Technology leads the industry in creating high-quality compliant RFID tags, readers and printers for companies worldwide. Once the RFID tag is active, the tag decodes the inbound query and creates an appropriate response by using the energy of the entering radio wave to power the chip long enough to reply.
Some other companies are using RFID for a good variety of applications. Some of these applications include: supply chain management, automated payment, physical access control, counterfeit prevention, airline luggage management, and smart households and offices. The following are the most common forms of tags: Label: The tag is a flat, thin, flexible form. Ticket: A flat, thin, flexible tag on paper .Card: A flat, thin tag embedded in tough plastic for long life. Glass bead: A small tag in a cylindrical glass bead, used for applications such as animal tagging (e. Assorted frequencies have different features that make them more useful for several applications.)
RFID TAGS add value and accuracy to many applications such as: Compliance labeling in retail distribution centers. High-speed operations in postal and parcel distribution. Manufacturing process control and confirmation, material tracking, Airline luggage identification and routing systems, and Single-pass multiple item identification. RFID technology can be used to enhance productiveness and tracking in discrete and process manufacturing. For RFID applications such as toll collection and vehicle and container tracking, the tags are used over and over for many years. The most popular applications are payment systems (Mobil Speedpass and toll collection systems, for example ), access control and asset tracking. Active and semi-passive rfid tags are useful for tracking high-value items that need to be read over long ranges, such as railroad cars on a track, but they cost more than passive tags, which means they can’t be used on low-cost merchandise.
However, the ease with which RFID tags can be tracked opens the door to invading people’s privacy. The rapid acceptance of RFID technology has grown fears with many groups involved with privacy such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union . Civil liberties groups are afraid about RFID technology being used to invade people’s privacy; RFID tags enable unethical individuals to snoop on people and sneakily collect data on them without their approval or even knowledge.
RFID tag technology, a successor to bar code technology, identifies tagged items over wireless communication between an electronic reader and tags carrying data on microprocessor chips. The major disadvantages of a passive rfid tag are: The tag can be read only at very close distances, typically a few feet at most. Passive RFID tags are more suitable for warehousing surroundings where there is not a lot of interference, and relatively short distances (typically ranging anywhere from a few inches to a few yards).

