If the RFID industry can lower prices, it will move towards a ubiquitous network that can intelligently track the entire supply chain. The store shelves will be filled with RFID labeled products, which can be traced from being purchased to being thrown into the trash can. The shelves themselves will communicate wirelessly with the network. And labels will only be a component of this large product tracking network.
The other two parts of the network are readers that communicate with tags and the internet that provides communication lines for the network.
Let's take a look at a practical scenario of this system:
At the grocery store, you bought a box of milk. The RFID label on the milk container stores the expiration date and price of the milk. When you pick up the milk from the shelf, the shelf will display the expiration date or information of the milk, which can be sent to your personal digital assistant or mobile phone through wireless network.
When you walk out of the store and pass through the door with an embedded RFID reader. The reader will list the prices of all items in your shopping cart and send the bill to your bank, which will deduct the corresponding amount from your account. Product manufacturers will know that you have purchased their products, and the computers in stock will also know how much more each product needs to be prepared.
When you get home, put your milk in the refrigerator that is also equipped with an RFID reader. This smart refrigerator can track all the food stored inside. It can track the food you use, record the frequency of your use of the refrigerator, and let you know when milk and other foods spoil.
Products can also be traced to being thrown into the trash can or recycling bin. At this point, your refrigerator can add milk to your shopping list, or you can also set the refrigerator to automatically order these items.
Based on the products you purchase, your grocery store can know your unique preferences.
No longer will you receive weekly general grocery store special offers,
perhaps you will receive a special presentation specifically designed
for you.
If you have two children of school age and a puppy, your grocery store
will send you coupons for items you will like, such as juice and dog
food.
In order for this system to be implemented, each product must have a unique product number. The MIT Auto-ID Center is working on developing Electronic Product Code (EPC) identifiers that can replace barcodes. Each smart tag may store 96bit information, including product manufacturer, product name, and 40bit serial number. In this system, smart tags communicate with a network called the target naming service. This database will retrieve information and then directly deliver it to the manufacturer's computer.
The
information stored in smart tags is written in Product Markup Language
(PML), which is mainly based on Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Using PML language, all computers can communicate with any computer
system, similar to how web servers read Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
- the language used to create web pages.
RFID has not yet reached this stage, but RFID tags play a more important role in your life than you may imagine. Wal Mart and Best Buy only use RFID tags to manage inventory and market sales. An automated system called an intelligent software agent can process all data entering and exiting RFID tags and perform specific actions like organizing items.
The US retail market mainly implements RFID technology in a bundled manner through the use of near-field communication payment systems. These will become future credit cards
