Barcode labels are largely been used as a standard by retailers and logistics for the last 30 years. Since past decade, there are various other technologies been introduced like Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) that have greatly weakened the popularity of barcodes. There is much hype that RFID may take over barcode technology of automated data collection. However, both methods of data collection are effectual in collecting product information, but differ greatly with each other.
Barcodes
Barcodes are comprised of a sequence of parallel black bars that represents identification information. This barcode information is read through an optical device like scanner. The spaces between each bar and the varying widths of the bars encode information. Recent developments in barcode have introduced several other shapes other than traditional bars like two-dimensional shapes in rectangles and hexagons. These new shapes can also be read by larger range of devices. For example, today, there are number of smartphones and printers introduced with the technology to read barcodes.
Radio-Frequency Identification
Radio-Frequency Identification use radio waves to transfer information between a product and a system. RFID tags are affixed with the products that recognizes the product and track it via radio waves. These RFID tags are capable of carrying about 2,000 bytes of data. A standard RFID system contains RFID reader, at least one antenna, and tags (chips). The scanning antenna transmits radio-frequency signal that provides a medium for communication with the product affixed with the RFID tag. When RFID tag travels through the frequency field of the scanner or antenna, it determines an activation signal and transfers information data. These RFID tags can be either passive or active. Passive RFID tags use RFID readers to power electromagnetic induction. Active RFID tags comprise of a battery that continually transmit information up to larger ranges as compared to passive tags .
Strengths and Weaknesses of Barcodes
Strengths and Weaknesses of RFID
Applications of Barcodes
Barcode technology is now widely been used in different industries including, airline industry, automotive industry, defense, distribution, electronic industry, banking, libraries, manufacturing, pharmaceutical industry, departmental stores, and health agencies. Barcodes help in asset management, document tracking, finger print identification, and controlling inventory and warehousing.
In libraries, barcodes are developed and affixed with the books. The barcode comprise of different information including, book ID, document ID numbers and user ID. This information help users in instantly getting the information related to the borrower and the books.
Barcodes technology is used in the pharmaceutical industry to track products batch and verify information before sealing the package to ensure exact documentation is provided to the customer. It is also used at point of sale to get the product information and update on-hand inventory in warehouse .
Applications of RFID
RFID technology was first patented in 1983. Since then, the technology has seen a mass market. There are various applications released that used RFID technology, mainly including RFID enabled mobile devices released by Nokia and Google. When the cost of production fell down, RFID technology becomes available to the public. Since 2012, RFID technology has widely been introduced at different areas that includes travel, agriculture, retail, navigation systems, waste disposal, Facebook RFID, Clothes, Defense, and Smart Dust.
Agriculture is one among the first areas where RFID was introduced. RFID technology is used to track the movement of animals. By means of tracking movements of animals, RFID monitors the health of animals. It is nearly impossible to keep track of feed of each animal among the herd of hundreds. However, by means of RFID technology, information can easily be recorded and sent back to central database where healthy animals can be identified.
Retail market is excessively adopting RFID technology. Two big names of retail market Starbucks and McDonalds have already signed up with RFID technology. By using RFID technology, various operations of retail market have been improved. It includes real time assets management, supply chain, and warehouse management. The system improves the communication between the supplier, retailers and, customers. The stock is stored in the warehouse; however, the record is maintained in the system with RFID technology. When the stock reaches certain threshold level, the system informs manufacturer to produce more. Thus, whenever the customer demand for the product, it is available in the store.
Another important application of the RFID is BinBug. It monitors the total quantity of disposable waste from the households that have RFID embedded wheelie bin. The products waste are made to pass through the sensor on the junk truck where their IDs, location, and weight are recorded. The information is then sent to the central database to keep the record of the waste materials .
References
Sothcott, S. (2011, November 2). What is RFID? - 10 Examples of RFID Applications. Retrieved from Simonsothcott: http://www.simonsothcott.com/2011/11/what-is-rfid-10-examples-of-rfid.html
Thrasher, J. (2013, April 29). RFID vs. Barcodes .
Weedmark, D. (2014). What is the Difference Between RFID and Bar Code? Retrieved from Tech Channel: http://techchannel.radioshack.com/difference-between-rfid-bar-code-1060.html
Worth Data . (2013). A Barcode Primer. Retrieved from Worth Data: http://www.barcodehq.com/primer.html
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