RFID Possibilities

RFID Information

Summary

How relevant: somewhat relevant; the drawback is that none of these products seem to be very programmable on the tag end. This may be in part due to the severe power constraints involved, i.e. customizations might tend to cause them to use more power? The good thing about them is that they are cheap, wireless, and accessible. It may be a good way to learn about RF or get a feel for how it works. I also think it is important that our demo be designed such that it is not cheaper and better implemented with RFID tags, so for that reason alone we should be aware of them...

Industry information, magazines, etc.

ID Systems Magazine: Provides general information relating to tags, primarily bar codes and RF tags.
Auto-ID News: Another trade magazine focused on bar codes and wireless technologies.
Transponder News: Has a "home-made" look but has a list of tag-related companies.

Information about how RFID works

Microchip: provides a document that gives a lot of technical information about how RFID works.
RFID.org: Includes useful information about how RFID works. Provided as a service of AIM, and international Auto-ID standards body.

Interesting technologies we might be able to afford

Texas Instruments

TI sells a new type of disposable RF tag, called "Tag-it". ID Systems wrote an article on this product.

Range: about 12 inches
Frequency: 13.56MHz
Special power: Supports a mode where a group of tags can be read simultaneously, which is normally difficult because they all respond at once.

Tag-it is part of a full line of RFID devices known as TIRIS, with a wide variety of ranges.

Microchip

Microchip Technologies is best known for making a popular series of 8 bit RISC microcontrollers. They have recently started a line of RFID tags. These may be interesting to look at because they provide a lot of information about how they work, how to build readers, etc.

Range: depends on reader
Frequency: 125 KHz
Special power: Anticollision protocol, passive (no battery)

Micron Inc.

Their web site is not very developed yet but the products seem interesting. Data sheets available

Range: 20cm/10m
Frequency: 125KHz/2.4GHz
Special power: Seem to be passive devices, 2.4GHz model uses DSSS

Motorola

I didn't look at these that much yet: "Indala"

Rockwell

Allen-bradley, subsidiary of Rockwell, may have a product line called "IntelliTrak".

Range: 2-19 inches
Special power: Makes a good press release

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