Radio-frequency identification (RFID) can speed up sales, stocktaking and asset tracking and do it securely and cheaply. Placing unique tags on articles lets their identification be found by reading the signal from the tag and using the data to trace the asset and also to streamline and improve the process.

Active tags require a small battery and are therefore about the size of a coin, but have a range of about 25 meters and can transmit a considerable amount of data. Passive tags can be smaller than a grain of sand but can only store a small amount of identifying data and rely on a database behind the scanner to make sense of it, rather like a barcode. Passive tags are energized by incoming radio waves and send out their signal at a different frequency; this signal is weaker and therefore the detection range is much smaller. The choice of system depends on the application.

The technology has been around for the best part of a century, but only recently has miniaturization and mass-production made RFID realistic for business. Because it could well take over from bar coding as a means of identification, BuyToughPC’s hardware partners have taken the technology very seriously and have applied it to a variety of solutions.

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