Can a Transponder Be Put Into Something Removable, Such as a Watch or Glove?

Is this a feasible and practical application of radio frequency identification?

—Name withheld

———


Yes, very much so. Passive RFID transponders come in all shapes and sizes. Small low-frequency (LF), high-frequency (HF) or ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) transponders can be made small enough to be embedded in a watchband, or in the lining of a glove.

Just keep in mind that as tag size shrinks, read range also decreases, because the antenna is used to harvest energy from the reader in order to power the device, and a smaller antenna can harvest less energy—which means the tag has less energy to send back a signal to a reader.

—Mark Roberti, Editor, RFID Journal