From this article, we will look at the awesome application of wireless technology, the RFID. We will be looking at what it is, the basic principle behind its functionality and its excellent application for the human race’s boosted productivity.
What is it all about?
Radio Frequency Identification or RFID in short, is a technology that can scan or recognize an object’s identity. While QR code needs the object’s QR surface to be in the line of sight of the Receiver, the RFID does it hassle-free way. You need to tag an item with RFID, and it will be recognized by the Receiver right away.
RFID has three significant components. Transmitter, Receiver, and electromagnetic waves. The transmitter is tagged on the object of interest. When this is kept closer to the Receiver, it radiates radio wave transmitting digital data. The Receiver recognizes the data and confirms on display for the presence of the known object. However, this is the oversimplified overview of the technology, but it’s more than that, of course.
Two types of RFID devices are available in the market. The tags which are powered by a battery itself are known as active RFID tags. They have large range transmission. These are mostly used in warehouses and other extensive facilities. The tags which are powered by the energy emitted from the Receiver are called as passive RFID tags. They can work in a short-range, but they are indestructible. We will now look into a few test cases briefly where the technology is currently employed in retail.
Livestock management.
Counting and managing animals might become overwhelming as business scale increases, and RFID is here to solve the issue. RFID tags can be injected into the body or tagged on the outer surface of the body. Applications can include the detection of the animal and making some action. For example, a machine scans the RFID tag of the animal and feeds it appropriately. If the tag detects a dog, it dispenses dog food, and if it detects a cow, it dispenses cow food. RFID can also be used in dairy farming, for knowing which cow has already been milked and which cow is left. A computer will store and manage all animals’ data, their milk quality and quantity, and analyze the health of the animal from its behavior if programmed correctly.
Prisons Management
RFID can be used to track humans too. It becomes very easy to know when the inmates try to escape the limited radio frequency range area’s perimeter. If programmed, it may also track the inmates’ health, how aggressive they are, what they talk about, and how they behave. It helps prisons understand the nature of inmates and the data can be used at hearing for deciding whether to reduce the punishment period or increase it.
RFID in healthcare
In the the past decade, there was an increase in medical care errors due to the increasing population and count in patients per doctor. In some developing countries, we may hear news that sounds funny but indicates serious issues like “a doctor with 20+ years of experience forgot which side of brain was to be operated, resulting in death of the patient.” The RFID system can solve all these issues, but needs to be configured beforehand of establishing the medical facility.
According to this idea, the patient must be identified with the tags. The computer stores all the necessary information for patients, indexed with that RFID tag itself. So whether the doctor knows him/her personally doesn’t matter anymore, they will be able to scan the tag and will be able to follow up on previous treatments and causes easily. This makes it easier to manage and treat many patients by a small number of doctors or staff. No need to remember the details, no need to be afraid of changing doctors, just the treatment that should be done in it’s purest form.
Just like the one we mentioned ago, there are also errors in medicines delivery. Patient get delivered something else compared to what they were descripted. This error can be easily solved by RFID tags on medicine boxes. We can easily employ passive RFID tags on the boxes, associate it with the RFID of the needy patient, and ensure that the right medicine goes to the right patients.
The huge organization has huge demands
Guessing a company including 5000 people in a site, using paper and pen isn’t a viable solution for their attendance. This is already being used, the RFID enabled ID cards, which includes unique identity number for each employee. They scan it while entry and exit, and computer scans for their work hours per day. It can also be used for analyzing the employee performance to reward or demote him/her.
On the same side RFID cards can be used for wireless transactions at the café or restaurant of the same organization, helping in billing of the food employees consume. It can be stored in database and later deducted directly from the salary of the employee.
In some high-end products with long term warranties, the machine or product has embedded RFID tag within it. The technician or the company warehouse can scan it and identify all relevant information for that device or object. It improves productivity further and reduces the amount of non-technical management errors due to a lack of memorizing power in key people.
Banking sector
As we already see, the new debit/credit cards have embedded NFC chip, which can be used for contactless transactions. In the new era of the pandemic, such technology really helps stop viruses that infect people by contact.
