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Abstract
Although radio frequency identification (RFID) has been around more than 50 years, ithas only recently received widespread attention, due in large part to its use by large retailers,such as Wal-Mart, and their subsequent requests for suppliers to use it. The resurgence inattention and the increased interest in RFID have spawned many articles and much speculationabout its use. Unfortunately, much of what has been written and speculated is misleading orsimply not true. It is not uncommon for new technologies (or in this case, rejuvenatedtechnologies) to receive a tremendous amount of hype. Hype can be good, as it draws attentionto an important technology. However, hype can also be damaging as people set theirexpectations based upon exaggerations of reality. These false expectations may lead one toexpect the technology to perform at a level to which it is not capable or they may lead people tofear the technology because of what it may do. History would suggest that over-hype leads todisillusionment and disappointment with the technology and can delay or derail its adoption(some examples of hyped technologies include artificial intelligence and electric-powered cars).In an effort to keep the hype in check for RFID, this article examines 10 common myths of RFIDand, accordingly, presents the realities of the technology.
Summary
Much of what’s been written about RFID has been wrong, so this 2005 paper sets out to correct 10 myths about RFID.
- RFID is thought to be a new technology, but early versions of RFID have been in use since WWII, in aircraft transponders. Passive UHF RFID in specific is relatively new.
- RFID is thought to be able to continuously track anyone and anything, anywhere. But RFID only has tracking capability within restrictive conditions, using readers that will only have ranges from 10 to 30 feet.
- There are fears that someone could drive by your house and, using an RFID reader, scan all the items in your home to case it for a burglary. However, with the low range of available readers and the inability for RFID to read through metal and water, it’s highly unlikely that any tags could be read. And, on any tag that was read, it’s unlikely that important information is contained in that tag’s information. This segues into Myth #4.
- Concerns over how RFID tags may hold sensitive personal information came about due to the tag’s ability to hold data. In reality, RFID Tags can hold very little data which can’t contain much personal information about anyone, so they're used primarily for containing short codes in supply chain instead.
- The 5th myth is that RFID tags will produce terabytes of data daily in Walmart’s databases, but RFID tags contain so little information that even high estimates don’t calculate even a gigabyte of data being generated per day.
- It’s thought that for RFID to be useful in the retail or supply chain space, 100% reads of every tagged unit in a space must be possible. Practically, this won’t happen, but RFID is still useful because it’s far more accurate than manual inventory counting.
- It’s been thought that all major retailers mandated all suppliers tag all products, but as of 2005, only a small group of suppliers have been required to tag items.
- It was estimated by AMR Research that the implementation of RFID was costing Walmart’s top suppliers $23 million annually each. But a survey performed after the fact by Incuomm showed that implementation only cost a median $200,000 to an average of $500,000.
- On the other hand, some believe that RFID will solve all supply chain problems. Supply chains are complex systems which don’t have a magic bullet solution, but RFID will improve the processes.
- Lastly, claims that RFID would rapidly replace barcodes are unlikely. RFID and barcodes will be used in tandem, and RFID may, but not necessarily, replace barcodes further in the future.
