Paolo Nepa, lecturer at Department of Information Engineering at University of Pisa, is explaining how the RFID technology changed our way of life and which is its future.
Interview with Paolo Nepa, University of Pisa – Second part
How has RFID changed the way we live?
People now use certain RFID applications without even realising it. I’m thinking of identification badges, those without a magnetic stripe precisely because the magnetic stripe has been replaced by a tag inside the badge — badges used to manage people entering and exiting company premises, or bus or train smart passes.
We can also consider anti-counterfeiting systems for medicines, or even small RFID chips hidden in clothes tags, again for anti-counterfeiting or anti-theft purposes.
Another possible application might be self-service management at libraries, for example, a fully automated library where users are recognised via RFID badges when picking up and dropping off books, and even these operations are managed via RFID labels. Then there are other applications that do not directly concern end users or citizens, but which are of interest to manufacturers and distributors.
I’m thinking of automated inventory or product traceability, from the moment the product is actually manufactured to when it reaches the shop and is purchased by the end user. In these cases, citizens benefit from RFID technology because more efficient systems are available and they also benefit from lower costs.
What will the evolution in this technology be?
I personally think that RFID technology as it is currently used for product traceability in logistics is mature enough.
In the future, and I mean the near future, the goal is to make increasingly smart, multifunctional tags to create a genuine node of the Internet of Things.
How can this be achieved?
For example, by implementing physical parameter sensing functions within tags. I would also like tags that can measure changes in the acceleration, temperature and humidity of products they are attached to. Or I would like to be able to do position sensing, that is, to know not only that I have an object in the warehouse, but also where it is located.
Lastly, I also think it is important to introduce a minimum of data-processing capability into these tags by adding micro-controllers with very low power consumption, and also possibly by adding wireless power-transfer systems or energy-harvesting systems to collect energy from the surrounding environment for tag auto-feeding.
This is especially important for avoiding the use of batteries, which would increase both the cost and size of the tag.
