Radio Frequency Identification Technology

Questions: Evaluate the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.Your evaluative report should include the following: a) Briefly explain how the technology works. b) Explain the business or technical problem the technology is designed to solve. c) Identify the technologys limitations. Does it create any new problems? d) Evaluate at least one organizations implementation of the technology. e) Assessment of the technologys prospects for success in the marketplace. Answers: 1. Introduction RFID or say Radio Frequency Identification Technology is somewhat similar to a technology of bar codes. The name is a representation of a small electronic device which is fitted along with antennae and a chip. The chip stores information up to 2,000 bytes or less than that. Now when we say that bar codes and RFID are similar, the speaker is trying to say that the functioning of both is somewhat as similar as both are required to be scanned for extracting the data. Both provide information for an exclusive identifier for that particular chip (LLC, 2012). But then, RFID system has some modifications tweaked in it which allows it to do the work of necessary atm cards or bar codes in a much less sophisticated manner. That is, in a bar code of an ID card, visa or debit card and the grocery store bar codes need to be scanned at a particular scanner and in a specific manner. The RFID technology allows the user at a grocery store just to keep his bag within a range of 20 Ft near the high-frequency devices, and all the items will be scanned without even removing each and every item from the bag and scanning it individually. The technology has been around the corner for more than 50years, but we have been able to reach the threshold for producing this technology as a control device quite recently. 2. Working of the technology- RFID Well, the working of RFID does not consist of any high-level science rather it is an innovative and modernized version of our day to day devices which will make our lives much easier and the process of a bill making much easier (There are many other advantages of RFID). Now let us discuss in detail about the constituent parts of the RFID namely Transceiver is required for interpreting the data, and it consists of a decoder, Antennae is needed for scanning signals, Transponder- it consists of the RFID tag which includes the encrypted information. The antennae which are used for scanning emits RF signals at a rather small range; this radio-frequency does two thing. Firstly, it acts as a medium for contacting with the transponder (i.e. the RFID tag) and secondly, it gives the RFIA required energy for talking (only in case of the passive RFID) This is one of the biggest advantages of the RFID tags i.e. they do not need any external agent for providing them with the essential energy required for working properly. Hence, they can be used for a very long time and maybe decades (Cunning, 2010). The antennas used for scanning can be fixed anywhere, or they can even be handheld. Moreover, these antennas can be molded into any shape as per the convenience of the user. For, e.g., these antennas can be used by fixing them as a door frame, and they can monitor what and who passes through the doors. So as soon as a RFID passes through individual antennas field, the RFID chip gets activated, and it sends the information on to its microchips from where the antenna can read and interpret the information accordingly. As priorly stated bout passive RFID chips, there are two types of chips which can be used for different purposes. These are:- Active RFID chips- the main advantage of these chips is that they can be utilized by the user from a much further distance. Although, they have a limited lifespan. These chips are said to have a lifespan of 10 years, but it has been noticed that the chips tend not to last for these many years. Passive RFID chips- these tags do not have the problem of lifespan, and moreover, these chips are much smaller in size. (corporate.target.com) 3. The technical and business field related problems which can be solved by RFID There are a lot of challenges which can be solved and are being solved with the help of the RFID technology. Some of the most significant benefits of the RFID technology are that it is not essential for the tag to be on the surface of the object (hence, it cannot wear), the reading duration for these cards is below 100 milliseconds, it reduces the time which is a waste by reading one item at a time by the bar code readers. Making the entire procedure much more fluid and quicker, these can be used for tracking activities of animals specifically the sniffer dogs by security agencies, these tags are rice-sized and are inserted beneath the skin, one of the instrument-making companies started fixing RFID in the custom made guitars and has added these tags to more than 30,000 guitars already. This helps in minimizing the theft ratio for these expensive hand-made guitars. (www.techweekeurope.co.in) 4. Limitations of the technology Some of the problems with the RFID technology (Lopez, 2011) are that there are no common grounds for the standard set for RFID, the RFID system can be disrupted very easily, the Readers signal overlap happens when two or three readers overlap each other, Tag collision- this happens when a lot of tags are present in a minuscule area Security, ethical and privacy problems:- This section will talk about the security and privacy issues and some of these are that the tags can be read even after the items have left the supply chain, these cards are tough to remove hence; they remain on the product all the time, these tags can be read without any knowledge of the owner or user of the product, the unique serial numbers can be linked to individual credit cards, hence, making the credentials vulnerable. 5. Case example- a company using RFID (Amazon) Amazon Although the entire process is in early stages, Amazon has certainly taken forward steps for embedding the RFID technology in its system. The company has somewhat got hold of the bull (RFID) by both its horns and has approached theAuburn Universitys RFID Lab for helping the company in embedding the technology in their system.The students of the University are helping the business to design, deploy and integerate the RFID technology within their facilities. The company is hoping that the teachers and the students primarily focus on the Amazons the most prime delivery location in the state of Atlanta along with the new automatic fulfilment centres situated in New Jersey and Dallas (Smiley, 2016). As the senior VP of the Amazon, Mr. Clark said that Amazon focuses on delivering products in quickly, lower costs and give the customers an opportunity for more rich selection. As per Clark, RFID technology is a medium through which Amazon will be able to improve all the operations above. RFID also provides them with the ability to store up goods into their storehouses at a brisk pace. Moreover, it will provide Amazon to track the shipments to their customers in a much better way. Hence, it can be said that Amazon is going to reap the benefits of RFID technology and more than that, they have kick-started this procedure much earlier than many other competitors. 6. Analysing the prospects of technology for success in the market The last few years have seen an increased bond between the sensor technology and the RFID. Few of the standardization bodies like the IEEE and the ISO/IEC are developing modified and better specifications as well as updating the pre-existing rules to reflect this interest (Smiley, 2015). There has been an avid and eager attention given to minimizing various standardization documents as well as bodies which have emerged in order to avoid the efforts of duplication and speed up the entire normalization process. In this world of complex standardization, this interconnection of several standards has made the process much more complicated to understand. This has been more complex because many of these documents are in production and development and getting updated regularly. Conclusion Anyhow, it is evident that more and more innovations are coming up for RFID and companies can be seen playing around with this technology to extract the maximum from its potential and in the next 10years, we will see a lot of typical life things operated through RFID (Roberti, 2008). Amazon has been doing really well with this technology and many other organizations have also come up to take this challenge of inculcating RFID in to their systems. References Cunning, M. (2010).How RFID works. Retrieved June 11, 2016, Journal, R. (2015, May 29).Amazon announces a program with Auburn RFID lab. LLC, T. (2012).What is RFID?Retrieved June 11, 2016, Lpez, T. S. (2011). RFID and sensor integration standards: State and prospects. Computer Standards Interfaces,33(3), 207213. doi:10.1016/j.csi.2010.09.002 Roberti, M. (2008, December ). The future of RFID: Whats in store for the next generation of RFID. Retrieved June 11, 2016, Smiley, S. (2015, October 28).Four companies using RFID for supply chain management - RFID insider.