RFID | History
The History of RFID Technology
RFID is an automated data-capture technology that can be used to electronically identify, track, store, and analyze information associated with any physical object using a wireless tag. The roots of radio frequency identification technology can be traced back to World War II. The Germans, Japanese, Americans and British were all using radar—which had been discovered in 1935 by Scottish physicist Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt—to warn of approaching planes while they were still miles away.
Mario W. Cardullo received the first U.S. patent for an active RFID tag rewritable memory on January 23, 1973. That same year, Charles Walton, a California entrepreneur, received a patent for a passive transponder used to unlock a door without a key. A card with an embedded transponder communicated a signal to a reader near the door. When the reader detected a valid identity number stored within the RFID tag, the reader unlocked the door.
Today RFID systems have the ability to identify and track assets wirelessly. The wireless aspect allows the identity and location of an asset to be determined around corners and through walls. With an appropriately configured RFID system, asset movement and asset location can be determined automatically and instantaneously. Various RFID systems have unique features and constraints involving read range, read reliability, size, power, interference issues, material properties, and site geometries. You can read more about RFID history at the RFID Journal Web Site.
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