Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID for short and also called dedicated short range communication (DSRC), is one of the newest emerging technologies and is starting to become popular in today’s society. A simple definition for Radio Frequency Identification is would be a tag that can be read at a distance by a radio transmitter/receiver. Alien Technology is currently the primary producer of RFID chips, and their technology has caused several companies to invest greatly in RFID. For example, Walmart is the top consumer of RFID chips, and they want to use Alien Technology innovation to develop a system of internal tracking. But, the development of this technology has led many people to be skeptical about it. The idea of constantly tracking products or individuals has led to paranoia of “The Big Brother Theory”.
The idea behind Radio Frequency Identification is similar to barcode technology, however the procedure behind an RFID system is not as simple. For example, an RFID system consists of a tag made up of a microchip with an antenna, and an interrogator or reader with an antenna. The reader sends out electromagnetic waves. The tag antenna is tuned to receive these waves. A passive RFID tag draws power from the field created by the reader and uses it to power the microchip's circuits. The chip then modulates the waves that the tag sends back to the reader, which converts the new waves into digital data.
This networking between the receiver and antenna has been attractive to many companies for a couple of reasons. For example, with RFID’s we could reduce time spent paying in a store. You could simply walk out of a supermarket with your items and have them charged on your RFID chip. This would be very convenient for the customer because they won’t have to wait in line or go through the lengthy and tiresome process of self-checkout or waiting in line at a checkout counter. Also, companies will benefit from RFID technology because they can increase their...