BACKGROUND

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been around for some time now. Its origins date back to World War II, but it was officially invented by Charles Walton in 1983. Its adoption has been slow due to the early technology not being particularly reliable, and the cost of the RFID labels perceived to be too high compared to, for example, barcode labels.

RECENT ADOPTION

However, RFID has gained substantial momentum in recent times in the retail industry with other industries also beginning to adopt it. This has resulted in larger volumes of RFID labels being produced and therefore, the price becoming more affordable. This recent adoption has also caused drastic improvements in the hardware and software technology required to manage an RFID solution effectively.

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WHAT IS RFID

RFID is far more than a basic label. It is an intelligent, digital technology that uses electromagnetic fields to uniquely identify and track objects that have been tagged with an RFID label. As opposed to barcodes, where a direct line-of-sight is required to read the barcode label, RFID labels are identified using proximity-based RFID readers (fixed or handheld). This creates measurable improvements in the time and accuracy of identifying, counting and locating RFID-tagged objects, compared to manual, direct-line-of-sight methods, such as barcodes.

RFID VS. BARCODING

On average, only 1 barcode can be identified and counted per second with a large probability of double-counting and missed counts. RFID, on the other hand, can read up to 300 labels per second with no chance of double counts and an average of +99% accuracy.

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WHEN YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RFID

If you have large quantities of objects, such as inventory, assets and keys, that require accurate and quick identification, counting and locating, then RFID is the best technology for you.