What Is RFID? NFC?
The acronym RFID stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification. The technology has its origins in the microchips that have been used to tag both wild animals and household pets. Since this use, RFID has been used in many more industries, including animal husbandry and supply chain management. Items tagged with an RFID chip might also contain information about the object, what it is supposed to be, where it came from, where it’s going, etc. - especially in supply chain management.
The acronym NFC stands for Near Field Communication. It’s a two-way communication technology based on RFID, but it is sometimes called “contactless” technology. NFC technology is used in a wide array of applications including “fast-lane” payment at gas stations and supermarkets, for transit payments, and more.
There are also other applications of RFID that some people feel are more sinister, but which some governments insist are a necessity. These include “smart” passports and a variety of other digital identification cards that use RFID chips. Some people have even gone so far as to have RFID chips inserted into the fleshy area of their hand, between thumb and forefinger.
RFID usage is spreading rapidly, and will affect the way we do business and pay for things or collect information. As with most new hardware based technologies, a supporting infrastructure of databases and special software is necessary. In actual fact, RFID systems are based on any one of a set of closely related technologies. However, such a discussion is beyond the scope of this article. I will discuss RFID applications and the nuances of the related technologies in a series of future articles, with each article targeted to a specific industry. As always, if you have a question, please feel free to drop a comment, and I’ll do my best to answer in a timely fashion.
(c) Copyright 2006-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com/
Technorati Tags: technobabble, techno babble, RFID, NFC, near field communication, contactless technology, smartcards, touchless payment
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May 25th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
[…] As a person who’s thrown many dinner parties in my youth and cooked in various restaurants the last 4 years, between computer contracts, it always surprises me to meet someone who doesn’t know how to cook. It’s not hard to learn, but there are some people who just feel that they cannot do it. Fair enough. Watch a few cooking shows, grab a few cookbooks, get a friend to give you a few pointers, and go visit a few cooking websites. Or you could throw an RFID-enabled recipe card into special RFID-enabled cookware made by US-based Vita Craft Corp, and the cookware will aid you in the process. (Source: Would you like some robotic cookware?; Network World Canada, free registration may be required.) [RFID = Radio Frequency IDentification.] […]
May 27th, 2006 at 12:34 am
[…] [Warning: Sensitive material ahead.] For over 20 years now, there has been a loose group of people in the United States who, if they have their way, will influence the government into using RFID (Radio Frequency IDentificaton) technology to track human beings. The little I know of this group comes from one of my college professors in the mid-1980s. According to him, this group’s agenda is to have all newborn babies in the USA given a subcutaneous tracking chip, similar to the ones now commonplace for household pets. […]
June 7th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
[…] A number of jewelry stores in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are using a technology called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) to monitor individual pieces of jewelry and their movement. [via RFID Journal] This is the same type of technology that is used to monitor wild animals and identify household pets. RFID is used for a vast array of applications including: Inventory Management; the movement of raw goods and parts (SCM - Supply Chain Management); and even to track the whereabouts of RFID-enabled golf balls. […]
July 6th, 2007 at 9:59 am
[…] technology is more secure than the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) that is used for some wireless payments (like tolls) today. […]
April 14th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Please send me more articles about the beneficial uses of RFID technology, and more about the range of frequency for the tags as well as the suggested readers to go with it.