What You Need to Know About RFID Sensors
By marrying sensors to RFID's ability to identify objects and communicate via radio waves, businesses can monitor the conditions of items and environments over long distances cost-effectively.
By Mary Catherine O'Connor
Jan. 16, 2012—As radio frequency identification technologies gain acceptance worldwide, many companies are realizing they want to go beyond just identifying an object or location—they want to know about conditions. The RFID industry has responded with a variety of solutions that automate the collection of data on humidity, light, sound, temperature, vibrations and more.
In general, RFID sensors fall into two broad categories. There are devices based on conventional RFID systems, in which a tag responds to a reader. The sensor can be incorporated into active or semipassive tags, such as those used for asset tracking, container security or personal identification.
There are also more sophisticated wireless sensors (sometimes called motes) that can form "mesh," or "ad hoc," networks, in which data regarding an object's condition is passed from one sensor to another until it reaches a reader that serves as a gateway to a local- or wide-area network. The information is then forwarded to a back-end system for analysis or action. Mesh networks reduce installation costs by allowing a company to collect data from sensors using fewer dedicated readers than it would require with a conventional RFID system.
Jan. 16, 2012—As radio frequency identification technologies gain acceptance worldwide, many companies are realizing they want to go beyond just identifying an object or location—they want to know about conditions. The RFID industry has responded with a variety of solutions that automate the collection of data on humidity, light, sound, temperature, vibrations and more.
In general, RFID sensors fall into two broad categories. There are devices based on conventional RFID systems, in which a tag responds to a reader. The sensor can be incorporated into active or semipassive tags, such as those used for asset tracking, container security or personal identification.
|
| Illustration: John Hull | iStockphoto |
There are also more sophisticated wireless sensors (sometimes called motes) that can form "mesh," or "ad hoc," networks, in which data regarding an object's condition is passed from one sensor to another until it reaches a reader that serves as a gateway to a local- or wide-area network. The information is then forwarded to a back-end system for analysis or action. Mesh networks reduce installation costs by allowing a company to collect data from sensors using fewer dedicated readers than it would require with a conventional RFID system.
To continue reading this article, please log in or choose a purchase option.
Option 1: Become a Premium Member.
| One-year subscription, unlimited access to Premium Content: $189 |
Option 2: Purchase this article.
| Pages: 5 | Word Count: 1,677 | Purchase Price: $19.99 |
