Pervasive-Rfid
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Applications Editor: Vince Stanford ■ [email protected] Pervasive Computing Goes the Last Hundred Feet with RFID Systems Vince Stanford EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION • Carry more data, letting us identify individual items • Can store new data from readers Previously, I have discussed pervasive computing’s business benefits and applications that • Can interface with environmental pay their own way. These applications transport the enterprise database’s benefits the “last sensors and digital data sources hundred feet” directly to the point of work, sale, or service. Many are PDA-based, offering point-of-service terminals in clinical medicine, package delivery, and even restaurant ordering. Make no mistake about it—at the In this issue, I examine a different class of pervasive computers: Radio Frequency Identifica- high end, RFID tags are wireless, net- tion tags. RFID tags turn everyday objects into network nodes that uplink IDs and status data worked, pervasive computers, success- to enterprise databases, storing new information as needed. They literally vanish into fully integrated into their environment. commonplace objects such as library books, shipping containers, car keys, luggage tags, They are easily attached, often of negli- clothing, or even pets, offering efficiencies in handling, location, and condition tracking. How- gible weight and bulk, and offer many ever, some people caution that we must implement privacy and security features from the benefits for business, manufacturing, ground up to avoid covert reuse of the tags. —Vince Stanford and tracking processes. Applications also exist at the retail level for individ- ual consumers and shoppers, with many already deployed in real-world systems. hat if networked computers were tags of varying capabilities (see the These systems’ benefits are best under- W as cheap as paper clips and could “RFID Resources and Companies” stood in a full-system context, because be attached to things as easily as a yellow sidebar). Broadly speaking, the RFID isolated tags—such as scanners at the sticky? We are about to find out, because market is segmented into low-end and doors of retail stores—have limited uses such computers are being deployed high-end tags. Low-end passive tags until they connect to enterprise data- across the world as you read this. They have approximately 32 bytes of local bases. Some currently used applications are, of course, Radio Frequency Identifi- storage and are powered by the RF field include cation tags—low-power, short-range generated by the readers. High-end tags communication devices that we can can have full-blown microcontrollers • Access control: RFID tags embedded embed into everyday objects to track and multiple interfaces to the environ- into personal ID cards. location, monitor security, and record the ment, with local batteries to power • Baggage ID: Passive tags embedded status of events or even environmental them. in paper luggage tags. conditions. Conceptualizing them simply People often think of RFID tags as • Automotive systems: Keyless entry as ID tags greatly underestimates their simply an updated replacement for the and immobilization systems. capabilities, considering some have local familiar bar code, but they differ in sev- • Document tracking: Passive tags computing power, persistent storage, and eral important ways. Specifically, they affixed to documents. communication capabilities. • Express-parcel tracking: FedEx tags • Do not need line-of-sight access to be drivers and packages for various pur- RFID APPLICATIONS read poses. This industry is very active, with •Can be read simultaneously when • Library checkout and check-in: Pas- numerous companies developing RFID many are present sive tags in books. 1536-1268/03/$17.00 © 2003 IEEE ■ Published by the IEEE CS and IEEE ComSoc PERVASIVEcomputing 9 APPLICATIONS APPLICATIONS (b) (c) (a) Figure 1. Existing RFID tag applications: (a) keyless entry for a FedEx driver; (b) personal identification badges; and (c) a Speedpass used for gasoline purchases. (photos courtesy of Texas Instruments) • Livestock or pet tracking: Tags E-ZPass pay tolls and gasoline pur- RFID capabilities. One example includes injected into pets, aiding recovery chases. recalling tainted food or medicine lots, when they are lost. perhaps even blocking them from sale in • Logistics and supply chain: Con- Figure 1 illustrates three examples. the first place using the point-of-sale ter- tainer and product tracking. Furthermore, there are many areas in minals used in most stores. This is because • Wireless commerce: Speedpass and which we have not yet capitalized on even low-end RFID tags can identify the individual item or lot on which it is installed—and not just classes. Also, they RFID RESOURCES AND COMPANIES can record the status of objects to which they are attached in important ways. For A large and vibrant RFID industry exists, offering Web sites that document, explain, and sell example, if a tagged hospital patient has related product lines. The following list is only representative (space does not permit a com- received the morning dose of antibiotic, prehensive listing): the tag could later upload the informa- tion to the clinical documentation system. •Alien Technology (www.alientechnology.com) is developing self-assembly techniques that RFID tags can monitor tamper seals, ther- promise to drive the cost per tag to a few cents. mometers, or accelerometers to audit • Phillips Semiconductors (www.philips.com) offers a fairly extensive Web site describing its heat, shock, and vibration levels encoun- I-Code product line. tered by products in transit. They can also • RFID Journal (www.rfidjournal.com) contains numerous articles on RFID technology. You log accesses to shipping containers. can obtain premium reports for a price, but a lot of useful material is free. •Texas Instruments (www.ti.com) has lines of RFID tag and reader technologies, at both low- RFID MARKET SEGMENTS frequency (134.2 kHz) and mid- frequency (13.56 MHz) ranges. Its Web site is a particularly Passive tags, often used for retail theft comprehensive resource with white papers, design notes, press releases, detailed product control or library checkout desks, receive descriptions, and even an image library. power through inductive coupling of low- • Radio-Frequency-Identification (www.rfid-handbook.com) provides a useful, and free, frequency broadcasts by readers. These overview of a book by the same name. There are editions in German, English, Chinese, and can have indefinitely long life cycles Japanese. because they do not require batteries to maintain the wake-and-query cycle that 10 PERVASIVEcomputing http://computer.org/pervasive APPLICATIONS THE ISO 15693 STANDARD FOR INTEROPERABLE RFID TAGS Appropriate standards allowing numerous companies to create inter- and Philips Semiconductors in 1998, defining data exchange between operable products are a key prerequisite to widespread use of RFID tags. RF tags and readers, and collision mediation when multiple tags are in a ISO 15693, accepted in 2000, is one such standard (see www.iso.org). It reader’s RF field. Compliance guarantees that RF tags and readers using is titled “Identification Cards—Contactless Integrated Circuit(s) Cards— the ISO 15693-2 protocol will be compatible across companies and Vicinity Cards” and has three parts: physical characteristics, air interface geographies. These are typically passive tags powered only by the and initialization, and anticollision and transmission protocol. It specifies reader’s RF field, making them easy to manufacture and free of battery a 13.56-MHz RFID protocol, originally proposed by Texas Instruments life limitations. active tags use. However, they cannot end onboard capabilities and can inte- ture, shock, and vibration levels. Also, observe their environment independently grate analog and digital interfaces to the Chipcon can digitize internal sensors to of a reader’s power broadcast field. outside world. These go well beyond the record conditions inside containers to High-end active tags, on the other basic functions of passive tags, moving indicate if potentially toxic volatiles have hand, are usually battery powered and into functions of small wireless net- leaked from the individual packaging. have a greater range than passive tags worked nodes. Furthermore, they have Chipcon can also equip the CC1010 because they are not limited to reflect- greater computing capability in an tag with an 8051 microcontroller to ing the energy from the reader, with an onboard 8051 8-bit microcontroller manage 32K nonvolatile flash memory inverse fourth-power signal diminution than first-generation desktop personal containing programs and data, and 2K as a function of distance. computers did in the early 1980’s. of static RAM for scratch purposes. The Chipcon CC1010 can be read Passive tags and written from distances in excess of Early passive RFID tags were limited 100 meters. This lets companies use to simple fixed replies to an interrogat- them in loading docks to track the loca- ing reader through reflected energy tion of trucks, or on large cargo ships from resonant circuits. However, even with many containers, which Evjen said passive RFID tags now have limited is a major application (see the “US Cus- onboard read/write memory. toms Service Container Security Initia- Figure 2 shows a variety of Texas tive” sidebar). Figure 3 shows a CC1010 Instruments passive mid-frequency, tag and a tag programmer, used to 13.56-MHz tags, with a 256-bit