The State of RFID: Heading Toward a Wireless Internet of Artifacts

By Rajit Gadh

August 11, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Ever since the announcement of mandates to suppliers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the U.S. Department of Defense to use radio frequency identification (RFID) to track pallets and cartons in the supply chain, RFID has garnered major interest in all corners of the high-tech industry.
These mandates are rapidly driving the technology forward, and I believe they will lead to a wireless Internet of artifacts that allows any artifact -- even human beings -- to become part of the Internet and to eventually be tracked.
While initially Wal-Mart and others were interested in tracking each retail item, pushback from the suppliers on the economic feasibility of placing tags costing 20 to 25 cents on every item resulted in relaxation of this requirement to tagging only pallets and cartons.
Tracking shipments as they move through the supply chain could improve the supply chain by doing the following:

Reducing the time taken to reorder shipments once they move from a particular warehouse.

Reducing product shrinkage/theft.

Improving authentication of shipments.

Optimizing inventory.

By embedding tags in cartons and pallets, it's possible to track them, read information about their contents and write onto their tags information about their location with appropriate time-stamps of when they passed through the location. Subsequently, companies can better plan and track shipments through warehouses and transportation systems.

While the first application touted to benefit from this technology is the supply chain, other related industrial applications that are being investigated today include asset tracking within an enterprise and border security. Pilot studies are under way in industries such as retail, shipping, warehousing, medical and defense/government.
To help suppliers satisfy the Wal-Mart and Defense Department mandates, systems integrators and IT companies are rapidly offering pilot projects to these suppliers, supply chain software companies are developing RFID extensions to their existing platforms, hardware start-up companies are offering specialized and vertical-industry specific RFID readers and tags, and venture capitalists are funding RFID technology start-ups. While the mandate-driven technologies focus on supply chain and retail areas, this is the start of what I believe to be the wireless Internet of artifacts.
A typical RFID system consists of tags and readers, application software, computing hardware and middleware.
RFID Tag
An RFID tag is a small radio frequency chip coupled to a microprocessor, which can communicate with an RFID reader. The tag has an ID that it can broadcast upon receiving a request wirelessly from a reader operating with the same frequency and protocol of the tag. If the tag has no battery -- called a passive tag -- it

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