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Closed-loop RFID Applications (Part 2)

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

by Adi Tedjasaputra

Closed-loop RFID applications are increasingly adopted by many organisations. Better risk management, higher ROI and less technical challenges are some of the reasons for their popularity. Health care is one of the vertical industries where closed-loop RFID applications can benefit most. The critical requirement of safety always comes first in this industry. It turns out that this may not always be the case, some researchers warn.

Many have learnt the hard way about the complexity of open-loop RFID applications. The latest was the Indonesian government finding out that contactless smart card application for fuel rationing programme in Indonesia is not as simple as implementing micropayment using similar technology in Singapore or Malaysia. Beside technology challenges, the social and political cost associated with the application was not well-anticipated and calculated by the Indonesian Government. Others may not have the privilege such as the Indonesian Government to mull over almost one year before finding out about the infeasibility of such application.

Compared to open-loop RFID applications, closed-loop RFID applications may have more benefits. One of the important benefits is the possibility to execute RFID technology adoption plans according to a time frame decided solely by an organisation.

Emergency Health Care.

Nevertheless, closed-loop RFID applications have their own challenges. The latest study on the a closed-loop RFID application in health care, for example, has shown that Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) from RFID may induce potentially hazardous incidents in critical care medical equipment.

The study tested two RFID systems, i.e. active and passive. The passive system consisted of (1) OBID UHF Reader from Feig Electronic working in 868 MHz frequency with maximum power output of 4 W and (2) EPC Gen 2 tags in the format of adhesive labels using Texas Instruments' inlays incorporating Impinj's Monza chips. The active RFID system consisted of (1) Avonwood's Eureka-iD Wakeup Unit and Antenna working in 125 kHz frequency with magnetic flux density of 68 x 10E-3 microtesla at 1 meter and (2) Eureka-iD Asset Tag working in 868 MHz frequency at 2 microwatt.

From all the medical devices submitted to EMI tests, the study found out that the passive UHF EPC Gen 2 compliant system working at 868 MHz seemed to cause more EMI compared with the active RFID system.

Emergency Health Care.

The study has attracted various reactions. One of the latest is a denial asserting that EMI in the study was caused solely by RFID readers or interrogators, but not RFID tags. The author has carelessly ignored the facts and basic working principles of RFID systems, in which operational RFID tags can emit electromagnetic radiation that may cause interference, in addition to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the readers.

The study serves as a timely reminder that safety should come first, especially when the organisation planning to adopt RFID technology is in the health care business, such as hospital.

The writer is the Founder of RFID Asia - The Prominent RFID Community in Asia.

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Labels: applications, care, hazard, health, healthcare, research, rfid, study, technology