Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is a method of wirelessly transferring data between transceiver and transponder, where the transponder (tag) is attached to any object one may need to identify. These objects may be either living or inanimate and via the attached transponder can carry customized data, an approach that is core to the functioning of these systems. This facilitates its ability to provide unique ID (serialization) to each individual item making RFID technology one of the most popular and widely adopted auto ID technologies to date.
RFID has been successfully used to track, trace, locate, and identify many objects and offers a new approach to asset traceability/visibility. RFID has been successfully integrated across a wide variety of industries including animal identification, pharmaceutical, building access control, toll collection, vehicle immobilization systems, aviation industry, waste management, and mining industries (C.‐C. Chao, J.‐M. Yang, and W.‐Y. Jen. Determining Technology Trends and Forecasts of RFID by a Historical Review and Bibliometric Analysis from 1991 to 2005.
Technovation
2007, 27, pp 268–279; E. Ngai and F. Riggins. RFID: Technology, Applications, and Impact on Business Operations.
Int. J. Prod. Econ
. 2008, 112, pp 507–509; C. M. Roberts. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).
Comput. Secur
. 2006, 25, pp 18–26). Its ability to wirelessly transfer data offers many operational advantages over the conventional barcode.