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Abstract
RFID is not a new technology and has passed through many decades of use in military, airline, library, security, healthcare, sports, animal farms and other areas. Industries use RFID for various applications such as personal/vehicle access control, departmental store security, equipment tracking, baggage, fast food establishments, logistics, etc. The enhancement in RFID technology has brought advantages that are related to resource optimization, increased efficiency within business processes, and enhanced customer care, overall improvements in business operations and healthcare. Our research is part of a big project; its aim is to produce a model for mobile technology implementation of hospital patients' movement process. However, the focus of this paper is to explore the main RFID components, i.e. the tag, antenna and reader. The results of the investigations conducted on the three RFID components will be used to develop our research model.
Keywords: RFID technology, RFID discovery, RFID components, RFID applications, RFID in healthcare.
1. Introduction
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and is a term that describes a system of identification [1]. RFID is based on storing and remotely retrieving information or data as it consists of RFID tag, RFID reader and back-end Database [2]. RFID tags store unique identification information of objects and communicate the tags so as to allow remote retrieval of their ID. RFID technology depends on the communication between the RFID tags and RFID readers. The range of the reader is dependent upon its operational frequency. Usually the readers have their own software running on their ROM and also, communicate with other software to manipulate these unique identified tags [3]. Basically, the application which manipulates tag deduction information for the end user, communicates with the RFID reader to get the tag information through antennas. Many researchers have addressed issues that are related to RFID reliability and capability [2]. RFID is continuing to become popular because it increases efficiency and provides better service to stakeholders [1]. RFID technology has been realized as a performance differentiator for a variety of commercial applications, but its capability is yet to be fully utilised.
2. RFID Evolution
RFID technology has passed through many phases over the last few decades (see figure 1). The technology has been used in tracking delivery of goods, in courier services...