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Radio Frequency IDentification opens up a world of opportunities Imagine a library- without librarians. Singapore is now making that possible, as the first country to widely implement a library system utilizing Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags. To date, more than 5 million books in about 20 libraries have been tagged. The sticker tag, 4 cm by 4 cm in size, is embedded on the inner surface of the book, and can be detected to a distance of 1 m. One such RFID system is implemented in the Central Library of the National University of Singapore (NUS). On an international stage, RFID tags are finding their way into retail chain management. Mart Stores Inc. (Wal-Mart in USA) has announced that it requires its top 100 suppliers to put RFID tags on shipping crates and pallets by January 2005, a move that's likely to spur broader adoption of the technology. This articles aims to give an overview of the RFID technologies and the works done in I²R. Figure 1 shows a basic version of the RFID system. It consists of a reader and a set of tags. Each tag has a unique identification number (ID) stored, that identifies the object to which the tag is attached. Communication between the reader and tags begins when the tags enter the electromagnetic field of the reader. Compared to other identification technologies like barcodes and smart cards, RFID is gaining popularity due to its features. It is-
Embeddable The RFID system is divided into 2 categories, Nearfield RFID and Farfield RFID. In figure 2, the transmitter emits the RF wave by creating an electromagnetic field in the air. The transition boundary between the Nearfield and Farfield is dependent on the frequency of operation. The boundary is further away at a lower frequency. From as early as 1996, The Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R) has supported RFID research, exploring innovative ways to improve life. To date, it has filed a total of 9 patents in RFID, and will continue to file new ones. Some of the patents developed have been used to make conceptual prototypes, and they are expected to become commercial products for the industry. An example of this product is shown in figure 3, the educational toy, named "Kiddy World", which was among the first few patents filed utilising NearField RFID. The big yellow toy in the centre of the picture encloses a RFID reader that is battery operated. The smaller toys (dog, monkey and so on) are inserted with NearField RFID tags which do not require battery to operate. Whenever a small toy is brought near the big toy, the big toy will educate the child on the sound and name of the small toy animal. This highly interactive educational tool was awarded the Tan Kah Kee Young inventors Award (Commendation) in 2003. In Farfield RFID, our patent is licensed to a MNC to build a complete RFID system. Figure 4 shows the picture of the first version of the commercialised 2.45GHz Farfield RFID tag. As size is critical, I²R has worked closely with IME to condense the I²R hardware and software technology into a mini chip (about the size of an ant). The Farfield RFID antenna is a dipole and the tag measures about 3 cm by 1 cm in size. Another device that has benefited from I²R technology is the microwave oven. Figure 5 shows the microwave oven leakage detector, Microwave Guard, which has I²R patented technology embedded. The Microwave-Guard is a credit card sized device that works without batteries. It has 2 light indicators - green and red. During normal operations, the green light indicators will light up. When there is a hazardous leakage however, the red indicator will light up, sending out a warning signal. It is one of the world's most sensitive detectors. It can sense the energy from a new microwave oven, in order to turn its green light indicators on- even without batteries. This technology is currently applied in other RF detection devices for commercial use. More research in RFID is in the works, to increase RFID range and robustness. One of its weaknesses is its failure in accurately predicting how far away the tagged item is from the reader. However, the I²R team has built on its expertise and gained new knowledge in Ultra-WideBand (UWB) technology. With the implementation of UWB technology, the team looks forward to generating more IPs in an RFID-UWB system that can not only detect the presence of the tagged item, but also its exact location.
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