Smart Labels, identification labels with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags embedded, have become an emerging commodity that grows in demand along with the existing barcode labels. Different applications of smart labels in several vertical industries, such as retail and manufacturing, have started to complement the limitations of barcode labels that require a line of sight in an automatic identification process.

Ranging from textile and apparel labelling for garment tracking to case-level tracking throughout supply chain, smart labels being used in different applications can also vary. In the current market, there are passive, semi passive and active labels; passive labels rely on power from radio wave transmission of an RFID reader, semi-passive labels use battery only for running micro (or nano) electronic circuitry while still relying on the power from radio wave transmission of an RFID reader for communication and active labels operate entirely on battery.

A new type of smart label that potentially emerges in the near future is intelligent label that could include some additional data beside identification data and integrate micro and nanosensors, sensors in the scale of micrometer and nanometer, in its packaging. The current state of nanotechnology, nanopackaging and existing integrated circuit (IC) technologies has made the commercial availability of these labels closer to reality than science fiction.

Imagine cooking microwavable foods with a single no-brainy start button. Forget about the trouble of setting timer and some other microwave settings. Simply put a microwavable food tagged with an intelligent label that contains several sensors for detecting temperature, humidity and moisture level into a microwave oven equipped with an RFID reader. With a single press of start button, the oven could then read the cooking instructions embedded in the intelligent label and start cooking. During the cooking process, the oven could dynamically adjust the room temperature, humidity and moisture level based on the reading from the sensors for the best cooking result.

Even though, a demonstration of this kind of intelligent label and microwave oven during the exhibition of the Labelexpo Asia 2005 is unlikely, it is worth-noted that the third day of the seminar in the event will present several basic issues in smart labels and RFID.

Labels: circuit, label, reader, rfid, scm, tag, technology, tracking

 

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