RFID - Radio Frequency Identification

Welcome to the RFID - Radio Frequency Identification resource center !

According to Gartner, RFID will change the course of business over the next 20 years, by reducing the excess inventory in the product-goods and retail supply chain.

Where can you find more information ?

NFC Forum: Promoting the Near-Field Communication Industry - The Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum is a non-profit industry association that promotes the use of NFC short-range wireless interaction in consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs. The NFC Forum supports implementation and standardization of NFC technology to make it easier to get information, easier to pay for goods and services, easier to use public transport, and easier to share data between devices.
RFID Solutions Center Dayton - The RFID Solutions Center Dayton is the most advanced facility devoted entirely to the application of RFID technology. It is open to enterprises, government agencies and their partners.
RFID Gazette - The blog-based RFID Gazette reviews RFID products and implementations.
RFID Special Report (Computerworld) - A special report with an RFID reality check, comments on Wal-Mart, RFID pilot tips and advice for managing a pilot project, some golden rules, more on your return on RFID investments, an inside look at Gillette and the trouble with tags.
RFID Learning Guide - This guide will take you through the history of RFID, from its definition, technical specifications and application, to the future of RFID, from retail to transportation to the public sector. We've collected the best RFID articles, tips, white papers, expert advice and more to help you get up to speed quickly.
CSC: In Search of the Glass Pipe: Transforming Track and Trace Through RFID - Whitepaper on RFID and SCM
Special Report: Tracking RFID--it's everywhere - There's no question retailers love RFID. It promises big savings through better inventory control and reduced theft. But will unreliability and threats to privacy become roadblocks?
Frequently Asked Questions on RFID and Auto-ID - Answers to frequently questions about the Auto-ID Center and its technology
AIM - The global trade assocation for automatic identification - RFID overview sponsored by AIM.
Analyst Views Hot Topic on RFID - Analystviews compilation of what the industry analysts are writing about RFID.
RFID - a searchNetworking definition - see also: DSRC, radio frequency identification, dedicated short range communication - RFID definition and related reading.
The RFID Toolkit Manager Tools for Enterprise Projects - blueprints, plans, documents - A package of 12 documents, fully revised and updated to include all the latest information on industry standards and applications, this new edition provides a standard reference for people working with RFID technology. Designed to help organizations delivering successful RFID projects.
RFID Journal - Online daily for educating business people about radio frequency identification and its business applications.
Resources for RFID - Links to books, white papers, articles and presentations
RFID Tribe - International forum with members in over 25 countries.
Demo: METRO Group Future Store Initiative - Jointly with Intel, SAP and IBM as well as numerous other companies, the METRO Group is developing the store of the future within the scope of the Future Store Initiative. A market of the Extra sales division located in Rheinberg, North-Rhine Westphalia, is serving as "future workshop". There the application and acceptance of new technologies in retailing will be tested under real conditions. The objective is to find benefit-oriented solutions entailing real advantages for both the retail industry and the consumers. This is a virtual tour through the "store of the future".
Emerce Rfid Weblog (in Dutch) - Dutch weblog devoted to RFID. Daily updates with the most important news.
RFID on Television (in Dutch) - RTL4 television showed a short report about the use of RFID chips for protection against shoplifting. (in Dutch, WMV file)
RFID on Television - 2 (in Dutch) - Another RTL4 short report on television about RFID chips: usage, privacy, ... (in Dutch, WMV file)
Philips Semiconductors - Identification - Identification & Smart Cards Home Page - Collection of news, articles, whitepapers and products in the field of Semiconductors for identification in general and RFID in particular.
RFID Society | Home - RFID portal/weblog.
RFID-Handbook - Accompanying website of this "RFID Bible".

How do you stay up to date ?

RFID Times - Daily Blog on RFID - Blog of Clay McCarter, editor of the RFID Times.
RFID Technology - Special Coverage by Computerworld - RFID Technology Headlines
Securing RFID information - Computerworld - Industry standards are being strengthened to protect information stored on RFID chips and to prevent hackers from using sensitive data stored there in nefarious exploits.
RFID News - RFID News is an established leader in the delivery of high-quality, hard-hitting news and insight into this important and often controversial, topic. A worldwide network of more than 3000 readers, including manufacturers, logistics professionals, and policymakers rely on the RFID News monthly e-magazine and the constantly changing editorials at the rfidnews.org web site.
InfoWorld - RFID TechIndex - InfoWorld's newest articles and news stories on RFID
Daily news - RFID (radio frequency identification), tracking technology, and RFID chipping daily news and information - free, unbiased news for the executive, technologist, developer, vendor, and potential or current user of RFID applications. - The latest news about RFID
The long road to RFID interoperability - Gen2 -- officially known as the EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 UHF RFID Protocol for Communications -- is the new standard protocol for EPC (Electronic Product Code) tag transmissions.
RFID tags vulnerable to viruses, study says - Computerworld - Attacks could soon come in the form of a SQL injection or a buffer overflow attack.
RFID: What to watch in 2005 - An aggressive push by Wal-Mart to implement RFID tags as a critical part of its supply-chain management strategy, and the drive to replace the ubiquitous bar code standard with the new Electronic Product Code (EPC) - carried by RFID tags embedded in merchandise packaging - made radio-frequency identification one the major technology stories of 2004.
Press Release - Use of RFID Technology by Pharmaceutical Industry to Rapidly Increase During Next 18 Months, Says META Group
Emerce Rfid - (Dutch) Emerce weblog die helemaal gewijd is aan RFID. De dagelijkse updates bevatten een greep uit het belansgijkste nieuws en columns van toonaangevende personen.
UPS pilots an RFID rollout (April 09, 2004) - How is UPS, one of the world's largest logistics companies, approaching RFID? Like many companies, it's launching pilot deployments to better understand the business case for a wider rollout.
Wal-Mart promises RFID will benefit suppliers (June 17, 2004) - Wal-Mart wrapped up its three-day RFID event for suppliers this week in Springdale, Ark., with additional RFID product tag compliance dates for tier one and tier two suppliers and some optimistic words about the benefits of RFID for its supplier network.
Article: Standards spat threatens RFID roll-out - Different European and US radio frequency identification (RFID) standards could add complexity and cost to the roll-out of the technology, analysts have warned.
VNUnet.com's Articles on RFID tags - Articles about RFID at the UK-based vnunet.com site
Emerce - Dossiers: RFID - Collection on articles on RFID in Dutch from Emerce.nl

Who are the market players ?

Sun Microsystems - Auto ID - Sun's Auto-ID/RFID pages
Etilux Labeling and Identification - Their RFid Department develops and integrates both standard and tailor-made RF solutions.
Artikel: RFID: Technologie en Marktoverzicht - Barcodes lijken over hun hoogtepunt heen te zijn, de opvolger dient zich tenminste al aan: RFID. Maar wat is RFID eigenlijk voor technologie?
ThingMagic welcome - start-up company that makes RFID readers
RFID Platform Nederland (in Dutch) - Community platform to group, inform and exchange experiences among vendors of RFID products and services in the Netherlands. Very expensive community to become part of. (in Dutch)
Checkpoint Systems - EPC/RFID Solutions - Checkpoint Systems capitalizes on its RF engineering expertise, bar coding/auto-ID capability, full-color printing facilities, product development resources, and its extensive market experience.
Texas Instruments RFID and EPC Global Solutions - Texas Instruments Radio Frequency Identification Systems is an industry leader in RFID technology and the world's largest integrated manufacturer of RFID tags, smart labels and reader systems. With more than 300 million tags manufactured, TI's technology is used in a broad range of applications worldwide including access control, automotive, document tracking, livestock, product authentication, retail, sports timing, supply chain, ticketing and wireless payment.
Printronix - RFID Products - Printronix has developed RFID products that help users create and deploy RFID technology applications within their own environments: the Printronix Smart Label Developer's Kit and the Smart Label Pilot Printers.
ZETES Group - Leading integrator of Auto-ID and e-ID solutions - Pan European integrator of solutions for Automatic Identification of goods- Auto-ID -, authentication of people - e-ID - and wireless computing.
Phi Data Benelux - Specialists in automatic identification, data capture and professional print systems
PRESA (Wavre, Belgium) - The coding & scanning company, offers the Accu-Sort Sentient RFID solutions.
Zebra Technologies - Zebra Technologies offers RFID capabilities to users in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, retail, security, and warehousing.
Clarity Advisers - strategy, solutions, tracking - A company run by Edwin Birnbaum that provides consulting on supply chain solutions, RFID, tracking imaging technology, packaging and pooling. Clarity management experience was gained in many companies and industries.

What can you read about this (books, white papers, articles, ...) ?

Article: A Great Guide to Understanding RFID - RFID might seem simple at first, but it can be complex and difficult to deploy successfully. Here's an easy-to-understand guide to understanding the technology and how it can deliver business value.
Special Report on RFID at Infoworld - Infoworld explains the impact of those tiny ID chips for supply-chain management, business intelligence and logistics.
Booklet: RFID voor Managers (in Dutch) - In dit boekje wordt u in heldere taal uitgelegd wat de mogelijkheden en onmogelijkheden van RFID zijn, waardoor u kan bepalen of, en zo ja hoe, RFID binnen uw bedrijfsvoering past.
Article: Will NFC become a killer technology? - While contactless credit card is still a hot issue in the island-country of Singapore, several vendors in the region have started to buzz the concept of contactless mobile payment during a seminar last week. The keyword is: NFC or Near-Field Communication. The question is: Will it be a killer technology?
Report: RFID.BOMB? (heaveyrf.com) - Given that bar-coding still hasn't been fully deployed after 40 years in the supply chain, I find it hard to accept that this much more expensive, infinitely more complicated and not yet mature technology is going to be any different. History is littered with large technical blunders and RFID in the supply chain could be one of the biggest.
Article: Get ready to chip in on RFID - RFID is a brilliant idea for business -- but a lousy one for people. Using the wireless chips the wrong way will just slow down the growth of the market, argues Business 2.0's Chris Taylor.
White Paper: the ROI in RFID - Achieving positive ROI in an RFID initiative depends greatly on the business problem, the approach taken, the commitment of the organization to leveraging the technology, and the ability of the enterprise to turn RFID data into business intelligence. Aberdeen research shows that the overall, cross-industry average time it takes a best-in-class organization to recover an RFID investment is about 30 months and falling, with the low being 18 months and high estimated at about 4 years
Article: Debunking 10 myths about RFID technology - An RFID project is more than just buying a reader and some tags. Here are 10 myths about RFID.
Article: IBM alphaWorks Helps Developers Ramp Up RFID Skills - Developers interested in getting up to speed on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology have a new resource: IBM's alphaWorks Web site. IBM is using its online, emerging technology showcase to provide free downloads of new tools and training on the development, testing, deployment, and management of RFID solutions.
Article: RFID Programming Made Simple and Cheap - Using RFID hardware and incorporating RFID tag information into your applications can really be quite simple. See what can be done with less than $100 and no more than a few dozen lines of code.
Article: Gen 2 EPC Protocol Approved as ISO 18000-6C - RFID - ISO has approved the EPC Gen 2 Class 1 UHF standard, publishing it as an amendment (Type C) to its 18000-6 standard RFID air interface for item management using devices operating in the 860 MHz to 960 MHz ISM band.
Article: RFID: Start Now or Wait: A Checklist... - Based on interviews with RFID vendors, analysts, trade groups and enterprise users, the checklist of questions below should help determine whether it's time to begin planning an RFID implementation -- or whether it's best, for now, to remain on the sidelines.
Article: Next-gen RFID tools expand the market - Middleware revisions from key vendors have pushed RFID back onto the table for many companies. This new generation of products allows companies to move beyond general asset management and inventory tracking and blend this newfound event stream into actual business processes.
Article: An Introduction to RFID Development (DevX.com) - RFID gives computers the capability to track not only what but also where an item or person is. Here's what you need to know to understand the technology so you can develop solutions that rely on RFID data.
Article: Ten biggest RFID myths debunked - An honest look at the untold truths behind the promise of RFID technology.
Article: RFID 101 - A Beginner's Guide to RFID
Article: The real returns of RFID - Tags and readers push Gillette to the cutting edge of supply chain management - Despite the hype associated with RFID, when you hear success stories from a very large organization, you have to believe there really is something there.
Article: Sun's New RFID Software Allows Edge Devices to Process Info - The RFID revolution may have a price: network data overload: the information generated by RFID readers threatens to clog the corporate net. One solution according to Sun's RFID group, is to move some of the data processing to the RFID readers, by using Java technology-enabled RFID devices to intelligently process and filter the data they collect, instead of relying on external middleware.
White Paper: The True Cost of RFID (PDF) - This groundbreaking report explores the benefits of RFID versus bar codes, the real costs of tags, and how to use RFID to drive ROI. (PDF)
Article: RFIDs: Technology Friend or Foe? - David Gulbransen takes a look at the technology behind RFIDs, what advances will mean in terms of convenience to consumers, and the potential threats to privacy that have many industry leaders concerned about the technology getting out of hand.
Article: Who Gains, Who Loses, from RFID's Growing Presence in the Marketplace? - In April 2004, Wal-Mart announced a pilot program that would require its top 100 suppliers to be RFID compliant -- attaching Radio Frequency Identification tags on cases and pallets destined for Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Club locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area -- by January 2005. Showing just how much clout Wal-Mart has, the retailer is boasting 100% compliance. So, is RFID here to stay? Can suppliers benefit from it? How worried should consumers be about invasion-of-privacy issues? A recent Wharton Emerging Technologies conference looked at these issues.
Document: EDRI Working document on data protection issues related to RFID technology - The document points out that the privacy implications of RFID chips are not limited to cases where unique serial numbers are linked to an identity. The Working Party concludes that unwanted individual tracking, without a link to the identity of the data subject, also falls within the scope of the data protection Directive. This means that data protection rules will apply to a very broad spectrum of RFID applications.
Article: The inside story on RFID tags - This in-depth overview of RFID technology looks at the differences between active and passive tags, how they work, and the types of applications -- from retail inventory management to personal tracking -- that are stirring the debate over consumer privacy and security.
Special Report on RFID (Computerworld) - An in-depth look at RFID, ranging from what you need to know for an RFID pilot to an analysis of the reliability issues. A case study of how RFID is transforming the supply chain at Gillette shows that Wal-Mart isn't the only RFID game in town.
Report: RF-tags voor intelligente logistiek - De RFID handleiding voor de opbouw van een intelligente logistiek en de implementatie van RF-tag projecten, gericht naar bedrijfsleiders, supply chain managers, operationele managers en ICT managers die RFID overwegen bij de verdere professionele uitbouw van hun logistieke activiteiten. (in Dutch)
Article: Coming to a Store Near You - RFID technology is gradually expanding beyond the retail world into other areas. But those seeking to adopt RFID solutions can learn much from what retailers have accomplished—-and what they plan to unveil.
Article: RFID Primer - Software Perspective - Incorporating RFID technology to your organization's business can represent a fundamental transformation, more like the decision to use computers in the first place. Here's a crib sheet of available SDKs, service providers and other resources to get you on your way.
Article: Securing RFID information - RFID data is vulnerable under certain circumstances, but tougher standards have been developed to protect information stored on RFID chips and to prevent hackers from using sensitive data stored there in malicious exploits.
Article: Transforming Business with RFID - Intel's overview of RFID technology, its business value, and the ways to deploy RFID Technology. Includes white papers, case studies and strategic advice.
Article: Call for review of RFID's privacy impact - Privacy advocates have called for the US Federal Trade Commission or other government agencies to initiate a comprehensive assessment of the potential effects of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology.
White Paper: Profiting from Process: Using EPC/RFID to Create New Business Value - A white paper by Checkpoint on the business case for EPC and RFID. (in PDF)
White Paper: RFID: Just The Facts - The Bottom Line: RFID will have a dramatic impact on the operation of global supply chains over the next 10 years. (in PDF)
Article: What RFID Can Do for Consumers - The "Future Store" near Dusseldorf has deployed special touch-pad computers, mounted on a shopping cart, the display, for example, where you are in the store in relation to the products you want to buy. It can also target consumers with location-based marketing messages.
Article: A Technical Explanation of RFID - Answers some of the more technical questions about antenna's, transceivers and transponders that you may have about RFID.
Article: An RFID Briefing - Wal-Mart and eight product manufacturers began testing RFID (radio frequency identification) technology tags bearing electronic product codes (EPCs) at eight supercentres across the US. By early 2005 every one of the firm's top 100 suppliers will have adopted the technology, and new rules concerning traceability will be in force within the EU. Everyone involved in the food and pharmaceutical industries will therefore need to be RFID-literate.
White Paper: An Introduction to RFID and Tagging Technologies - There are a number of different RFID technologies which all overlap to some extent, and have various pros and cons making them suitable for some applications and not others. Applications are so diverse that there is a place for most of these different technologies. (in RFID)
Analyst Report: A.T. Kearney on RFID/EPC - An interesting 10-page report on what A.T. Kearney thinks and predicts about RFID and EPC. (in PDF)
Article: RFID Redux: Don't toss the bar-code reader yet - Gene Alvarez, VP of Meta Group Technology Research Services, sees 3 levels of progressive adoption, not unlike the general curve for the acceptance of previous new technologies. As well, in separating the hype from the pragmatic application, he sees 3 categories of users.
Article: RFID Ready (Yankee Group Research) - Companies preparing to spend billions on wireless supply chain initiatives.
White Paper: Five Points to Consider in your RFID Project Plan - As RFID wends its way towards mainstream adoption, lessons learned from early adopters provide guidance for improving the ROI on RFID implementations.
Article: RFID: Integration A Key To Widespread Adoption - Excitement over RFID is growing, even as the economy improves, presenting opportunities for technology vendors and buyers alike. In this report, The AlignIT Group looks at RFID%u2019s promise, examines the barriers to its uptake, and explains why the prevailing issue is: integration.
Article: The innovation of Radio Frequency Identification - Builder.com - In preparation for the inevitable increased need for qualified programmers and designers, let's take a look at what RFID is and what products are currently in use.
RFID: The Next Generation of AIDC - White Paper by Zebra Technologies
Article: Busting Myths about RFID Technology - There is a false sense of urgency surrounding RFID says Gartner: this is not a now-or-never situation. But big companies such as Wal-Mart and Metro will try it out in early adoption projects.
Article: The Coming RFID Revolution - RFID adoption can cost you $10 million to $30 million on just justifying the business case, building the business process, and doing process engineering. However, within the next ten to twenty years any company that wishes to stay competitive will have to build an RFID-centric supply chain. Both statements are from Gartner.
Reports from the RFID Journal - We think these reports on where to start and what to look for are interesting, but as we are not a subscriber of the journal, we can not access them.
InfoWorld: RFID for asset tracking - "In the future, tracking assets will pale in comparison to the longer-range benefits of RFID for SCM, manufacturing, and retailing."