I copied this from a post on the stockhouse board. I think it gives a good idea of where rfid is going.
Taken from RFID news...
Top five "advantages" of RFID:
It's all about efficiencies in time and motion
I recently asked a group of people what are their top five advantages of
RFID. I have taken their comments and distilled them down into a
collection of similar attributes that may help you with your decision to
adopt RFID as the technology for your project.
The largest benefit of RFID is that it will reduce the "cost of doing
business" by increasing efficiencies and decreasing human intervention.
RFID offers the ability to speed data collection (up to 50x compared to
today's technology) and the transfer of information--making a wider
variety and larger volume of up-to-date, real-time information available
to users in today's decentralized (global) item management market.
* Customer requires ID solution that cannot be met by other
technologies.
* Data capacity of a 2-D symbol or more.... especially when
coupled with #1
* Marketing advantage
* Cost efficiency
* Reduce wasted efforts in tracking collecting and monitoring.
* Be a part of the new age.
* Gear up to technology that has become affordable.
* Competitors are doing it.
* Adds value to the company and a return for the investors.
* Improve profit. Improve profit. Improve profit. Whether that is
by increasing revenues or decreasing costs.
* Eliminate human error, clean databases so they are accurate,
provide better service to customers, automatic data capture where bar
codes can't go.
* Fully integrated solutions: RFID is finally complementary to
today's current AIDC/bar code systems-providing flexibility for the
multiple entities in a supply chain to CHOOSE when to upgrade to RFID
(without changing their GUI interfaces or affecting today's business
partners or practices).
User Convenience
Optimization of processes and convenience for the user (like e.g.
sortation, identification,...) by:
* higher level of automation
* higher reliability of identification
* decentralized data storage
* removing the restrictions given by currently used technologies
(dirt, line of sight,...)
* Decrease in labor cost due to #1.
* Multiple-use in one tag (inventory control, EAS, POS etc.)
* Increase in throughput and productivity
* Ease of use
* Reduced labor costs
Multiple Reads
Customer desires ID solution that requires multiple simultaneous tag
reading.
* High-speed efficiency, increased throughput: RFID offers the
ability to perform multiple tag id/read at extended ranges. Readers can
read and discriminate over 50 tags per second and communicate to
multiple tags in its field of view.
* Ability to read multiple objects and differentiate them...
simplifies tracking and accounting
* Group select: Users can choose to communicate with or identify
all or only a subgroup of tags in the field. The user can also write
information on all or a subgroup of tags simultaneously with a single
command (instantaneously).
Position
No line of sight required (so less human intervention): Multiple
(literally thousands) of RFID labels/tags can be rapidly scanned in a
large volume of space without regard to orientation of the tag.
* Customer desires passive ID tag with long read range
* Customer requires a covert ID technology.
* Auto-location feature... allows you to "find" objects with out
seeing a symbol
Writeable
Customer needs to add data to a tagged item during its use.
* Ability to add and modify all or part of the data on the fly...
more effective process control, avoids relabeling
* Ability to update information in real-time, store and change
information in a tag or database. The business reason for doing this
varies with the application, but it usually comes down to optimizing or
saving time and money in another facet of the end-user's operation based
on information gathered.
* Read/write memory: RFID offers read/write memory which can be
optionally permanently locked (at the byte level). Bytes left unlocked
can be written and rewritten over a 100,000 times.
Rugged
Better survivability than barcodes... for especially in long-term frozen
(ex: plasma) or outdoor storage (ex: Hazardous waste)
* Reliability of information and speed of the read compared to
human reading or barcode reading (humans err; barcodes, or even the item
to which it is attached, can be damaged, bent, covered with paint,
dirt,).
enjoy,
danny
