We are creating a lab for technical school instruction. What tools and layout would deliver the best bang for the buck, and what should we focus our attention on?
—Name withheld
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That is a difficult question to answer, as there are many aspects of radio frequency identification on which a laboratory could focus. For instance, an entire lab could be dedicated to understanding the effects of common environmental conditions on the performance of RFID tags and readers. You could create a warehouse and manufacturing setting, and test a variety of factors that could interfere with RF signals.
My personal recommendation would be to build a mock factory, warehouse and retail setting; purchase tags, readers, middleware and enterprise software; and study the business benefits of RFID, as well as how and where software and read performance can be improved. There are many challenges that still need to be overcome in each area, in order to make RFID systems easier to user, more scalable and more reliable.
—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal