RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a revolutionary technology being rapidly adopted worldwide for a wide variety of purposes including inventory management. In this article you will find an explanation of how does RFID work in a nutshell.

     With mass production of goods in modern industries and opening of retail chains all over the world, logistical management became increasingly difficult and the need for an automated labeling mechanism was felt, which could simplify inventory management. With bar code technology, that need was satisfied, but it is now rapidly being replaced by RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, which can do the same job faster.

     It''s an implementation of wireless communication, with wider applicability, that has been rapidly adopted as an effective substitute for bar code technology all over the world. You might have already seen RFID in action while shopping in retail stores like Walmart, where it is used to label almost every sold product. For those of you who are curious about this new technology, in this Buzzle article, I elucidate how does RFID work to provide identification and information about any tagged product.

      With roots in espionage technologies developed during the second world war, RFID technology has been evolving for many decades, while finding widespread acceptance only recently. The information about any product with an embedded RFID tag can be registered and stored in a database, through scanning of the object by an RFID reader. Most importantly, unlike bar code readers, there is no need for the product to be placed in line of sight for reading information. As long as the product is within the radio reception range of the reader, the encoded information in the tag can be easily read. More than one products can be scanned using RFID readers simultaneously. Let us see what is the underlying mechanism which makes this easy reading of RFID tags possible.