- Image via Wikipedia
If you’re the sort of person who loves building electronic things for yourself–an mp3 player, a home alarm system–you’re probably already familiar with RFID technology. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identifier, and the name is apt; RFID technology is used to identify things using radio signals. RFID systems include two parts, tags and devices that read those tags. Within every tag is a chip holding information, and an antennae to broadcast that information.
One of the first technologies widely used to identify things using radio signals was the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system, which the British used during World War II. This technology eventually developed into the RFID-based systems air traffic controllers use. Because its design was developed around radar signals, IFF was easy to integrate with aircraft track control technologies. IFF went through many generations, all centered around the same radar technology.
Since that time, RFID has slowly become more and more a part of our everyday technology. One of the most obvious ways to use modern RFID technology is to track inventory. RFID inventory tracking has a lot of security applications as well. Many anti-theft systems that guard store entryways and exits use RFID technology, and RFID technology is now used in most public libraries. These systems basically send out a scan asking, “are there RFID tags passing though this space that haven’t been turned off at the counter?” RFID is also used in the access badges people pass over sensors to get in and out of secure areas, running on a similar concept.
RFID technology is versatile, and as time passes, it becomes more and more available at the consumer level–and more creative ideas come up about how to make use of it. A hobbyist can use an RFID tag to make a pet door that won’t open for strays, or as an additional security measure guarding traffic in and out of their home. It can provide extra security for a safe, or inventory tracking in an environment as small as a home kitchen. Only the future will tell what we see RFID doing next.