Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. There are several methods of identification, but the most common is to store a unique serial number that identifies a person or object, and perhaps some other additional information.
The information is stored on a microchip that is attached to an antenna (the chip and the antenna together are called an RFID transponder or an RFID tag). The antenna enables the chip to transmit the identification information to an RFID reader. The reader converts the radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag into digital information that can then be passed on to computers that can make use of it.
History of RFID
It’s generally said that the history of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and Auto-ID technology can be traced back to World War II. The Germans, Japanese, Americans and British were all using radar—which had been discovered in 1935 by Scottish physicist Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt—to warn of approaching planes while they were still miles away. The problem was there was no way to identify which planes belonged to the enemy and which were a country’s own pilots returning from a mission. The Germans discovered that if pilots rolled their planes as they returned to base, it would change the radio signal reflected back. This crude method alerted the radar crew on the ground that these were German planes and not Allied aircraft (this is, essentially, the first passive RFID system).
Since that time, the capabilities of Radio Frequency Identification have expanded exponentially. RFID technology has now been developed to the point where it can provide many types of businesses with precise information regarding the status of their valuable components and products. Such information can be utilized in terms of supply chain management, asset management, inventory control, as well as increasing safety and security. In addition, RFID technology has matured to the point where such systems can be implemented in a scalable and cost-effective manner, therefore ensuring significant return on our client’s investment.
Future of RFID
The future of RFID is becoming increasingly prevalent as the price of the technology decreases. Recent developments include increased read ranges and accuracy, better anti-collision techniques, and increased performance in demanding environments. Declining hardware and infrastructure costs and greater abilities to integrate systems seamlessly make now a great time to invest in RFID.
With rapid breakthroughs in active real time locating systems, both Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi based, the ROI from RFID has never been higher, more immediate, and available to more industries. All across the world, Radio Frequency Identification is helping businesses improve their processes and increase their efficiency.
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to enable it to achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure.
Big Data
Big data is a broad term for data sets so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. Challenges include analysis, capture, data curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, and information privacy. The term often refers simply to the use of predictive analytics or other certain advanced methods to extract value from data, and seldom to a particular size of data set. Accuracy in big data may lead to more confident decision making. And better decisions can mean greater operational efficiency, cost reductions and reduced risk.
Analysis of data sets can find new correlations, to "spot business trends, prevent diseases, and combat crime and so on. Scientists, practitioners of media and advertising and governments alike regularly meet difficulties with large data sets in areas including Internet search, finance and business informatics. Scientists encounter limitations in e-Science work, including meteorology, genomics, connectomics, complex physics simulations, and biological and environmental research.
Data sets grow in size in part because they are increasingly being gathered by cheap and numerous information-sensing mobile devices, aerial (remote sensing), software logs, cameras, microphones, radio-frequency identification(RFID) readers, and wireless sensor networks. The world's technological per-capita capacity to store information has roughly doubled every 40 months since the 1980s, as of 2012, every day 2.5 exabytes of data were created. The challenge for large enterprises is determining who should own big data initiatives that straddle the entire organization.
Industrial Revolution 4.0
Intelligent Automated Connectivity - The first Industrial Revolution is accredited to of started in the late 18th century with the move from service and an agricultural economy to the automation of production, with the introduction of such as looms in hosiery manufacture.
The next wave of industrial production at the start of the 20th century, commonly accepted as the start of the second Industrial Revolution welcomed mass consumer goods production that was affordable by wider populations previously only being available to the privileged few. The late 1960’s saw the growth of the ‘digital age’ electronics and Information Technology, facilitated by new advanced in Industrial processes heralded a new era of automated production; the third Industrial Revolution. The pace of change and advance seeming to grow exponentially.
Digital Convergence
The term 'digital convergence' means the ability to view the same multimedia content from different types of devices and thanks to the digitisation of content (movies, pictures, music, voice, text) and the development of connections methods. Reading emails on your TV via a connected smartphone, watch a streaming movie on the home theatre connected to the internet..... digital convergence simplifies our life into our living room.
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Formerly, each unit operated independently and networks were not interconnected. Today, information flows on the same network and are stored, read, viewed or listened via same types of equipment. Networks, technologies and content converge on a single device. Result: it saves time and simplifies life.
TV- Smartphone-PC: The Right Combination
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Now your tv can provide access to all information on a single screen. For example, a LED TV Easily connects to a game console, a computer, Blu-ray players and also internet router, allowing you to access your mail directly from your living room.
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Now even your smartphone can be connected to your screen. This is the case of Apple, with the I-Cloud application that connects TV-PC smartphone. You can share videos, photos and applications wirelessly.