Radio-Frequency Identification Devices

[Page 847]Radio-frequency identification devices (RFID), often called tags or chips, utilize radio waves to identify or locate an object, product, animal, or person through integrated circuitry that combines transistors, transponders, microprocessors, and a tiny silicon computer chip that is usually the size of a grain of sand. The integrated circuit is coupled with a flat, metallic microcoil that serves as an antenna to transmit and receive radio wave signals over short or long distances either to or from an RFID reader, and the circuitry stores and processes the data in the computer chip. Unlike Universal Product Codes, RFID technology does not require line of sight for a reader to communicate information from a distance because it functions via electromagnetic energy. The efficiency, convenience, and practicality ...