Summary

Historians and technology pundits generally agree that it takes twenty to thirty years for a technology to become commercialized and often 40 to 50 years before it becomes fully mature. As with radio, television, the transistor, and the computer, RFID saw only modest use for the first thirty years after its inception. Then, after an extended incubation period, a groundswell occurred, which culminated in the fullblown commercialization of RFID and a corresponding change to the lives of millions of people around the globe. RFID is now at the precipice of another major evolution that will change and improve the lives of businesses and individuals everywhere.

History also illustrates that creative new uses of technologies such as RFID will continue to spring up as long as the demand or the economics of an implementation make sense. During wartime, IFF was indispensable after it became possible. Twenty years later, similar technologies were used in air traffic control systems. Today, convenience, economics, and the promise of interoperability will be the governing forces that drive the development and adoption of new RFID applications.

Although the underlying technology for RFID has existed since Marconi invented the radio at the turn of the twentieth century, we have only recently begun to tap into the full potential of RFID. The beginning of the twenty-first century marked a significant inflection point for RFID systems. We are now embarking on a new wave of innovation in the use of RFID systems that will drive it even further into the fabric of our everyday lives.

The remainder of the book discusses all the elements necessary to design and implement RFID-enabled applications successfully. In the next chapter, we start by providing a detailed description of the most common components used in all RFID implementations.