Video can’t kill this radio star. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is on the rise both here and overseas, with predictions that up to 34 percent of [US] IT spending during 2004 will be focused on RFID, wireless and mobile technologies. So what is RFID? Essentially, it is a technology used in place of barcodes to identify items, people or animals and track them.

RFID is not expected to replace barcodes because barcode technology is cheaper; however RFID is valuable for environments where a barcode (or other optical technology) cannot be read. Examples include snow, fog or ice, under paint, grime, cardboard, plastic, animal hair, and on vehicles travelling at speed.

As such, RFID technology is commonly used to identify and track individual weapons, retail goods, plants and trees, moving vehicles and animals. RFID is also used in the anti-theft tags on clothing in apparel stores and in credit card size devices for identifying an individual before allowing them through a door. An RFID system requires three parts to work; an antenna, a transceiver and a RFID tag. Sometimes the antenna and transceiver are packaged together and called a reader.

The antenna or reader emits radio waves in high or low frequencies and when an RFID tag passes through this electromagnetic zone it detects and passes its data to the reader, which in turn passes it to a host computer for processing with core business applications. RFID tags can be active or passive. On active tags, the data can be written and rewritten because the tag has a memory capacity and is internally powered by a battery.

Passive tags are usually read-only and along with being cheaper and lighter, they last almost indefinitely. But they require a stronger reader. The main appeal of RFID technology is that it allows businesses and governments to track things they would otherwise have had difficulty tracking – and track them more accurately. That knowledge delivers the RFID user greater control as well as reducing expensive tracking and identification mistakes. Understandably, some of the biggest names in information technology have begun to develop RFID devices.

And software specialists like Microsoft, SAP, Intel and Oracle have been developing their applications to accommodate data gathered via RFID. Earlier this year at the Oracle AppsWorld show in San Diego, Oracle announced its 10G database and application server now had the architecture to interpret RFID data and its warehouse management system had tracking capabilities which would let the user know the locations of (RFID) tagged pallets and cases.

Like all evolving technologies, RFID is not without its problems. These include the slow development of a common standard; meaning RFID equipment purchased from different manufacturers can’t always be used interchangeably. RFID tags embedded in liquid, metallic packaging or large sacks can also be hard to read.

These challenges have not stopped one of the largest companies in the world, Wal-Mart, from insisting its top 100 suppliers use RFID technology in cases and pallets. While this puts Wal-Mart suppliers under considerable pressure to invest in RFID (and find RFID tags and readers that work with their products) analysts say Wal-Mart’s decision will be the beginning of RFID becoming a mainstream technology. And it seems people are becoming more aware of it.

Research firm SmartRevenue reports that 77 percent of US consumers had at least heard of RFID. While 41 percent were concerned it would raise the cost of goods, 42 percent had a favourable perception of its potential uses. New Zealand consumers may have seen RFID technology at work in apparel security tags and vehicle tracking; however few will have given the technology much thought.

One company that has, is Hastings-based Richmond Meats, which exports 97 percent of its produce and has 11 processing plants across New Zealand. Richmond Meats has been evaluating RFID technology for animal tracking, a move which would make sense given the importance the meat export industry places on being able to track livestock.

The website of Richmond Meats has this to say: “As an added assurance to customers Richmond has developed a unique traceability system which enables the company to identify not only where and when a particular product was processed, but where it was grown.” In New Zealand, as well as the world, RFID technology is obviously tracking.

April 2004

Richmond's Ian Bell wants tracebility