Convenience

RFID-enabled services or applications designed to bring greater convenience for the consumer usually create a more efficient process for the provider of the service or application, thereby helping to reduce cost. In other words, providing the benefit of convenience to the consumer provides an eventual cost reduction to the provider, thus answering the "Why use it?" question, which we posed separately in the previous sections. To avoid redundancy, we have eliminated the structural division between "What is it?" and "Why use it?" in this section.

Payment and Loyalty

RFID payment and loyalty cards represent a convenient means for consumers to pay for purchased goods. Obtaining and placing an electronic toll collection payment tag on a vehicle's dashboard enables a customer to navigate toll roads, bridges, and tunnels more efficiently.

An RFID enabled key chain at a gas station speeds up the fuel purchasing process by facilitating a "contact-less" billing transaction. Payment tags also provide additional convenience benefits when used, invisibly, to pay for public transportation services or for vending machine products. The primary source of convenience is the contactless feature of RFID, thus eliminating difficulties with finding change or credit cards and reducing, if not eliminating, inconvenient waiting lines.

Crowd Control

Use of RFID tags to ensure that patrons have paid for and are entitled to certain services and privileges is quite common. Examples include RFID tagged tickets at ski resorts or sports stadiums that do not require physical (that is, barcode) or visual inspection. Such tags can usually be combined with the payment tag feature that allows the consumer to also buy food or other goods through a pre-paid account in a convenient, contact-less manner.

These consumer benefits not only bring more accuracy and efficiency for a business, but they also build loyalty. Additionally, the convenience factor may also lead consumers to purchase more goods and services than they might have otherwise.

Recently, some VIP members at the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona have reportedly taken RFID technology to a sub-dermal level. Instead of carrying a typical card, members may opt to "get chipped"a procedure involving a local anesthetic followed immediately with a chip injection under the skin of one's upper left arm, near the triceps. Not only does the chip enable VIPs to jump entrance lines more quickly, but it also functions as an in-house debit card, which enables paperless tallying and payment of one's tab.

Sports Timing

RFID tags provide a very convenient and accurate way to measure participants' time in sporting events. This application has gained popularity in only a few years and will likely continue the momentum as the cost of RFID components goes down and the technology becomes more economically viable.

Golf Ball Tracking

Because golf is one of our favorite hobbies, we discuss it briefly. There are two handy applications, one for the golf course and one for the driving range. The first, illustrated in Figure 1.5, involves tracking lost golf balls. An RFID tag, embedded inside a golf ball, can be tracked and found using a handheld reader. This not only has the benefit of speeding up play and minimizing stroke penalties, but it also saves money by reducing the number of lost golf balls. The second application offers the capability to measure the distance that a golf ball has traveled at the driving range by using RFID tagged golf balls. These tagged balls are detected by strategically located readers around the range.

Figure 1.5. Tracking a Lost Golf Ball Using RFID