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Article Excerpt
After watching Tom Cruise get his retinas scanned as he maneuvers through security facilities in the 2002 thriller Minority Report, you laugh about the Jet sonian technology on your way out of the theater. That kind of personal identification won't happen in your lifetime.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
You unlock the Zipcar you rented by waving the key card near the windshield, use an EZ Pass to whiz through the highway tollbooth as you drive your friend home, and watch as she waves her purse containing a key card at the apartment building's front door, which opens after reading the information through the bag. You top off the tank before returning the car, flipping an ExxonMobil Speedpass in the general direction of the gas pump.
Each of those everyday actions uses radio-frequency waves to verify your identity and even access your bank account. Welcome to your lifetime.
Radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) technology is used in retail businesses to improve shipping and stocking, in libraries and schools to track books and supplies, and in the health care field to track drugs and equipment, boost efficiency and accuracy, and even monitor patient movement in hospitals. In June 2006, Consumer Reports estimated that $1.3 billion would be spent on RFID tags that year, and a business research firm found RFID technology revenue may exceed $7 billion by the end of this year.
An RFID "tag" contains a transponder with an integrated circuit and antenna that emit a short-range radio signal picked up by a transceiver (or reader), which reads the radio frequency conraining at least a chip's unique number and possibly other information. The number can then be used to access a database of detailed information about the tagged item.
There are two types of RFID: passive systems, in which the reader sends a signal to the...
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