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RFID: OPPORTUNITIES and CHALLENGES. Yize Chen. History. In 1969, Mario Cardullo presented a RFID business plan to investors. The application areas include: Transportation: automotive vehicle identification, automatic toll system, electronic license plate, …
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RFID: OPPORTUNITIES and CHALLENGES Yize Chen
History • In 1969, Mario Cardullo presented a RFID business plan to investors. The application areas include: • Transportation: automotive vehicle identification, automatic toll system, electronic license plate, … • Banking: electronic check book, electronic credit card • Security: personnel identification, automatic gates • Medical: identification, patient history
History • In 1971, Mario Cardullo built a first passive device and demonstrated it to potential users. • In 1973, Mario Cardullo invented the first true modern RFID system with his U.S patent 3,713,148
History • In 1973, Steven Depp, Alfred Koelle and Robert Freyman demonstrated early RFID tags at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. • The portable systems, both passive and semi-passive, detected the modulated reflect power and operated at 915 MHz. • This technique is used by majority of today’s RFID tags.
Operating Mechanism • A RFID system is composed of readers and tags. • Readers send out signals that provid power for a passive tag. • A tag captures the signals from a reader to generate its own power, and send back an unique digital ID
Operating Mechanism • There are two fundamentally different RFID design approaches: • Near-field RFID: based on magnetic induction • working distance is inversely proportional to the frequency(d = c/2πf). • Works well at low frequency.
Operating Mechanism Figure 1. Near-field power/communication mechanism for RFID tags operating at less that 100 MHz. [1]
Operating Mechanism • Far-field RFID: based on electromagnetic wave capture • Worked on higher frequency greater than 100 MHz. • Higher data transfer rate.
Operating Mechanism Figure 2. Far-field power/communication mechanism for RFID tags operating at greater that 100 MHz. [1]
Current Users • Passports • In 1998, the first RFID passports were issued by Malaysia. -- personal information. -- travel history: time, date, and place. • In 2006, RFID tags were included in new US passports. -- the same information as on the passport. -- digital picture of the owner.
Current Users • Transportation Payments • In 1999, the SmarTrip card was introduced for urban mass-transit system in the Washington D.C. • In 1995, The RFID passes were used for public transport systems throughout Europe. • In 1997, the Octopus Card was used for mass transit payment in Hong Kong • The EZ-Link cards are used for bus’ and train’s toll system in Singapore.
Current Users • Libraries • Singapore was one of the first to introduce RFID in libraries. • Rockefeller University in New York is the first academic library in the United States to utilize this technology. • Farmington Community Library in Michigan is the first public institution.
Opportunity • Barcode • There are five billion bar codes being scanned every day. • It becomes an essential part of modern life.
Opportunity • RFID’s advantages over the barcode • Combines ID recognition with supply chain management applications. - Unique code.
Challenges • Orientation - The alignment between reader’s and tag’s antenna is critical for an effective communication. • Solution • multiple readers in different angles • one reader with many antennas (cost effective)
Challenge • Reader Coordination • more than one reader operates in a close range, signal “collision” could happen that generate noisy data. • Solution - Define a protocol to allow these systems to share the available bandwidth. • Enhanced signal processing to intelligently filter out noise.
Challenges • Multiple Standards - Several frequencies and standards have been used for current RFID. • Solution - the RFID reader can be built for multiple standards
Challenges • Manufacturing Costs - Current tag’s manufacturing costs are still too high • Solution - Technological innovations and new process development will reduce the manufacturing cost.
Challenges • Privacy and Consumer Concerns • Leaking personal information • Tracking the consumer’s activities. • Solution • Kill function: disable the tag after purchases. • Smart tags: rewritable memory in the tag circuit.
Conclusion • The technical issues mentioned above will be resolved as more R&D is spent in this field. • The next major barrier is software system. Powerful software system is needed to do sophisticated real-time data processing. • With advances in all these fields, RFID will one day significantly change our modern life.