Comparative Article Report: Uses, Benefits and Risks of RFID Technology - Essay Example

Thus, RFID is a means of collecting, storing and retrieving data through electromagnetic radio transmission from and to a radio-frequency compatible integrated circuit. The components of the RFID system include the RFID readers, the RFID tags and the communication between them (Lionel et al, 2004, p.702). The reader and the tags use a defined radio frequency and protocol to transmit and receive data. The RFID readers, also known as the transceiver, can send query to and receive data reflected or transmitted from the tags, depending on the tag type, on objects (Lionel et al, 2004, p.702). The RFID tags, also called transponders, are composed of small integrated circuit attached to a tiny antennae embedded in the tag.

The antennae is capable of transmitting a unique serial ID number, over a distance of several meters, depending on the range capacity of the tag, to a reader, in most cases, in response to a query from the reader (Juels et al, 2003, p.103; Molnar et al 2005, p.31). RFID tags are categorized as Passive or Active, based on their mode of action. Passive tags are batteryless and do not transmit data on their own. They receive their power from the energy in the signal sent from a reader. They can only reflect back query or RF signal sent from a reader, but by modulating the reflected signal, passive tags add the necessary information to the reflected signal.

Passive tags are much lighter and far less expensive and offers virtually unlimited operational lifetime. For this reason, they seem to be the most widely used RFID tags. The limitation of passive tags lies mainly in the very limited range from which transmitted data can be read.Active tags can do much more than passive tags, but they come with the limitations of cost and size and are thus restricted in use, to special cases, like in high unit value products that have to go through a tough assembly process.

Active tags come with both a radio transceiver and a button cell-battery to power the transceiver. Therefore, active tags can transmit and receive signals from a wider range than passive tags (Lionel et al, 2004, p.702; Juels et al, 2003, p.103; Karjoth and Paul, 2005, p.27).History of RFIDAccording to an article from the RFID Journal, titled 'History of RFID Technology', the technology has its origin in the discovery of radar in 1935 by the Scottish physicist - Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt.

This was used during World War II, by several countries, to