RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
"R-F-I-D" is short for Radio Frequency IDentification
RFID is a tagging technology which allows small amounts of information to be stored in tags which can be attached to the item they store information about. It is widely predicted that over the next 10 or 20 years RFID tags will replace bar-codes
An RFID tag is a 'dumb' device containing a small transponder, which distorts an electrical signal in a particular way. These tags can be scanned with an RFID reader, which generates a signal and reads the tag from it's interference with this signal
RFID tags can be used to store a tiny bit of information - just enough to identify an item - or more detail such as storage temperature
The main advantage of RFID tags is that you don't have to orientate the reader correctly to scan them, and you can scan lots of them in one sweep; if you have just received a delivery of many boxes on a pallet you can scan all of them as the pallet is pushed between two reader posts.
