Advertisement But there wasn't a way to identify if an approaching plane belonged to an ally or an enemy. The British developed a friend or foe system, placing a transmitter on all of their planes that communicated that the aircraft was friendly.
Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, research in the United States, Japan and Europe helped to advance RFID technology, and companies began selling antitheft systems in retail settings.
In the 1970s, the U.S. Energy Department asked Los Alamos National Laboratory to devise a technique to keep track of nuclear material. The lab also developed an RFID system to track cattle and prevent a farmer or veterinarian from accidentally giving two doses of medicine to one animal.
Types of RFID
There are two types of RFID tags: active and passive. Active tags are powered by an internal battery and are usually read/write capable, meaning that data can be rewritten and/or modified. Active tags, said UW RFID Lab Director Alfonso Gutierrez, cost between $35 and $40 each and are about the size of a cell phone.
Passive tags operate on power generated from the reader, are much lighter than active tags, and have an unlimited life. The drawback is that their read range is not as far as the range for active tags, so the reader must be of a higher intensity to capture information. The passive tags cost only about 15 cents each. "The leash cannot be more expensive than the dog," Gutierrez said.
Wisconsin connection
In September 2003, a group of potential RFID users, technology developers and UW researchers formed the UW RFID Industry Workgroup, which is part of the UW E-Business Consortium.
More than 40 companies in the group share lessons learned and best practices for RFID strategy and implementation.
Participating Madison area businesses include American Girl, Kraft Foods, Lands' End, Promega Corporation, Sargento Foods and Sub-Zero Freezer Co. Other participants include Brunswick Corp., 3M, ABC Computers, BEA Systems, Rockwell Automation and Zebra Technologies.
On the agenda at workgroup meetings are results from experiments conducted in the UW RFID Lab in the Engineering Centers Building. Wisconsin-based companies Autologik, Dorner Manufacturing, Rockwell Automation and Red Prairie are founding members of the lab and contributed $500,000 in software to use for research and education.
"The close coupling of the activities at the UW RFID Lab with Wisconsin manufacturers leads to better understanding and potentially wider use of the technology. The manufacturers get an opportunity to experiment with the technology, converse with experts and consider alternatives. We believed in the process enough to contribute a large amount of control equipment and engineering effort to help prime the pump," said Joe Owen, industry solutions marketing manager in the food and beverage department at Rockwell Automation.
Medical applications
UW Hospital and Clinics uses RFID as part of a patient safety system in the hospital.
"We've been using RFID bracelets for patients who are at risk for wandering — those with Alzheimer's or those who lose their orientation easily, so the unit staff can be alerted by the alarm that sounds if a patient gets to a perimeter door of the unit," said Ron Brefka, engineering manager at UW Hospital and Clinics.
Sarah Carlson, director of media relations for St. Mary's Hospital, said that on March 29, the Family Birth Center implemented the Hugs Infant System. Produced by Verichip Corp., the system uses a low-frequency radio ID tag attached around the infant's ankle. An alarm sounds if someone tries to leave the Family Birth Center with a protected infant without authorization.
BloodCenter of Wisconsin (BCW), based in Milwaukee, is working with UW-Madison's RFID Lab in an effort to monitor blood and blood products across the entire supply chain, said Rodeina Davis, vice president of information services.
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