Radio frequency Identification(RFID): You must have seen black and white stripes with a 12 digit unique code, called a Barcode, on the label of any daily use product. Have you ever wondered what is hidden in these black and white stripes? And, the answer is that it contains some basic information like price, weight, expiry, and manufacturer of the product. I will go into details of it later in this article. There is another code, similar to a barcode, which you must have also observed earlier on the entry ticket of a show/ movie or while doing online payments in a grocery store. It is a 2D form of a barcode, also called a matrix barcode or more commonly as QR (Quick Response) code. It also information in the same way as the barcode. Differences between both will be covered later in this article.
Now, let’s talk about the main topic of this article- RFID. RFID can be seen as further advancement of barcode and QR code technology. But, these three technologies are not competing with each other, or in other words, each of them has a particular domain of application. You might have noticed RFID tags on the front mirror of a vehicle, being used for collecting toll tax, referred to as FASTag.
What is Radio Frequency Identification(RFID):
Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) is a type of wireless technology that uses electromagnetic fields or more specifically radio waves to passively identify and track tags attached to objects. Here, passively means tags are powered by energy from RFID reader’s interrogating radio waves and are not powered by a battery. There are active RFID tags also but are less popular. For inactive RFID tags, a battery is required to power the RFID tags. The biggest advantage of RFID tags is that they can be read outside the line-of-sight from the reader. Because of this advantage, an RFID reader can extract information from more than one RFID tag, which in turn increases productivity.
How Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) Works:
An Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) system basically consists of three components: a radio receiver or tags, a radio transmitter or readers, and an antenna. The reader sends radio waves to trigger the RFID tags and gets a signal back from the RFID tag. This signal contains information like a unique identity number, cost of the product, weight, manufacturer’s name. Information transmitted from RFID tags varies according to the application it is being used for. Information collected by the reader is transmitted through a communication interface to a database center, where useful information is extracted from that signal.
Barcode vs QR Code vs RFID
| Barcode | QR Code | RFID | |
 |  |  | |
| Read/Write Capability | Read only | Read only | Read and write both |
| Storage capacity | Can store only up to 20 characters | Can store upto 1000 characters and numbers | Store more information up to several thousands characters |
| Cost | Very low cost | Low cost | Quite expensive |
| Security | Easy to replicate | Easy to replicate | More secure |
| Reliability | Susceptible to damage in working environment | Susceptible to damage in working environment | Hidden inside the card, very low chances of damage |
| Reader position | Line of sight | Line of sight | Line of sight not required |
| Range of reading | Under 1 feet | Several inches to 1 feet | Upto 30 feet |
| Common Application | In daily use products | Entry tickets | Automation industry |
Applications:
The use of Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) technology is increasing rapidly in various industries. Some of the applications for which RFID is being utilised in different industries are –
- Inventory management,
- Personnel tracking,
- Pet tracking or recognition,
- Asset tracking,
- Tool tracking
Conclusion:
Though Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) technology has many advantages over Barcode and QR code, still these three are going to stay in the market. These three are being used for different applications according to the requirements. In coming years, if the cost of RFID technology decreases, as it usually happens with every new technology, we might see Barcodes being replaced by RFID tags in shopping malls and wholesale stores. It’s just a prediction, let’s see what happens. Stay tune with TechAwareness for interesting fact about technology.
This article has been written by Sachin Singh. You can follow him on Twitter and Linkedin.
