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Preeti Pandey

Radio frequency identification is catching on. Here are a few instances where it touches everyday life.

WALK into the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) outlet at the Bandra-Kurla complex in Mumbai and you'll find something different happening. At this retail outlet for fuel, customers can buy petrol without using cash or credit cards. All a customer has to do is wave an RFID key fob near the petrol pump. A transponder recognises the customer's dedicated ID code and then automatically charges purchases to an existing credit or debit card.

Wait, you say, what's RFID? It's short for radio frequency identification technology. But before plunging into technical details, let's look up instances where RFID works.

In the case of the HPCL exercise cited above, it is a pilot the company has undertaken and more such outlets will soon be visible across India. In its Web site, HPCL has tendered bids from companies for supply and implementation of end-to-end retail outlet automation solutions. It proposes to automate fuel disbursal at 300 retail outlets across India.

Allied Digital, a systems integrator, is working with Mountain Technologies, a South African firm, to deploy fuel automation systems using RFID at over 1,200 petrol pumps across the country. "Using RFID will enable a (petrol) outlet to monitor its stock levels and have a centralised control system in the forecourt to manage daily operations," explains Bimal Raj, Chief Executive Officer, Allied Digital.

Take another instance of RFID application as envisioned by SAP's R. Ramakrishnan, Director-Solutions Architect Team, at SAP India Pvt Ltd. "Imagine a smart library which will automatically record the books taken off the shelf, tell you which is the most popular pick and even recommend the best reads. This will be possible because the shelves and books will have chips that will capture information as to how long the book was off the shelf and the reader will track this movement."

So what is RFID? In simple terms, RFID is an analog-to-digital conversion technology that uses radio frequency waves to transfer data between a movable item and a reader to identify, track or locate that item. RFID tags are small integrated circuits connected to an antenna, which can respond to an interrogating RF signal with simple identifying information, or with more complex signals depending on the size of the IC.

An RFID system consists of two major components — a reader and a transponder (or tag). They work together to provide a non-contact solution to uniquely identify people, objects or vehicles. RFID does not require line-of-sight between the tag and the reader. The tag is basically an RF transmitter that contains an antenna, a microchip and a battery to power the microchip. Information stored in the tag can range from as little as an identification number to kilobytes. The encoded data is converted to electromagnetic field by the microchip circuitry and radiated at pre-defined intervals using an antenna. The reader consists of an antenna, a RF receiver and processing circuitry. The antenna couples the electromagnetic energy transmitted by the tag to the reader. The processing circuitry of the reader decodes the received information and sends the data to a host computer or a control device/panel. The reader's `read ranges' could be programmed using dedicated software. Different types of antenna can be connected to the reader to alter the field of reception.

SAP has already announced the launch of the first packaged RFID solution for supply chain management to help companies manage the `data reads' from and `writes' to RFID tags. Companies can leverage data captured through RFID tags in their business processes by integrating enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) functionalities with RFID-enabled applications. Examples include packing and unpacking, shipping and receiving and tracking and tracing across the supply chain. The RFID packaged solution from SAP is expected to be more widely available to customers by mid-2004.

According to R. Ramakrishnan, SAP is working with the RFID Open Standards Group to incorporate RFID in its various offerings including customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence and data warehousing applications. On the technology part, SAP plans to integrate RFID into NetWeaver, its integration application platform.

The company is also working with vendors of RFID readers to develop ready-made interfaces between RFID readers and SAP applications.

As such RFID technology is making inroads. Super market and retail giants such as the Metro Group and Tesco have opened futuristic stores using RFID. However, what could deter largescale deployment of RFID for now is the high cost involved, be it of the chip or the reader which could range from a few thousands to a few lakhs of rupees depending on the complexities involved.

If companies driving the deployment of RFID applications are able to bring the cost down, then the next time you walk into a shopping mall to pick that delicious bar of chocolate, you just might get an alert on the fattening calories you are likely to gain, thanks to something called RFID.

preetim@thehindu.co.in

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