Customer Reviews

RFID Applied

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When you see hardcover book like this, it at first might appear as a college textbook with deep, dense reading. That's not really the case here. Having some previous experience with RFID working in a library, I thought I'd learn a bit more. As other reviewers have suggested, the book at times gets very technical but yet explains itself. By no means must one have an engineering degree to understand the principles presented, but you must truly have somewhat of a math and science background to understand what's going on in the world of RFID. This edition was written in 2007; I wouldn't be too surprised if in a couple years many parts of the book are out of date.

The first half of the book is ten chapters, going from a useful roadmap to implementation of RFID in a business sense, the history of RFID, readers and tags all the way to specific business cases (and long discussions of ROI calculations for business.) For me, the book began to shine at the end of the first half and in the applications section (the second half.) The privacy and security issues segue well during the last chapter, though I wish a larger section would be dedicated to this important debate. Ten use cases are then evaluated in the second half (covering auto, shipping, warehousing, etc.) as well as 10 countries (AU, CN, FR, DE, JP, SG, KR, ES, UK, and US) by external reviewers -- providing an outside perspective into today's use of RFID. Lastly, the appendix provides some unique vignettes of RFID use and application (let's pay for drinks by waving our hands!)

Well recommended if you want a good, medium-technical, monograph on RFID in the 20th century. But be prepared for some dense chapters if RFID is more of a hobby than a business or engineering project!

This really is a top-to-bottom overview of RFID technology, uses limitations. I have never seen a book about any technological topic offer such a wide range of information, not just about the technology itself, but on how it relates to different subject areas. For example, in the same book, you can get:

- An overview of the technology's history
- Details about the technical standards that govern it. Any reader with even minimal technology experience can understand it at the level discussed.
- An explanation of the concept of Return on Investment so that you can make the business case for implementing it. Seriously - they even go over how to do the math and present the case to the bean counters.
- Multiple industry-specific sections with ideas for uses with corresponding case study examples.
-Country specific applications

Basically, if you're a techie you will get a lot of in-depth technical stuff (though not to the level of wiring schematics and production planning), but you'll also get exposure to stuff that will help with communicating about topics that the people with the cash and ability to sign-off on projects.

Non-techies will get a great overview, that will require minimal use of Google to search for definitions, and will be able to hold your own in discussions with technical people - unless they REALLY want to show you up and start talking wavelengths and capacitor specs.

I would happily recommend this book to college professors teaching classes on new topics in computer networking and supply chain management. RFID isn't exactly new per se, but this book's treatment of the subject is far more useful than other books and sources I was forced to use in the past... Perhaps this group of authors can turn their attention to other technologies and applications such as ERP, Supply Chain Management, Data Warehousing, Network Essentials, etc, where the existing books are mostly either too technical for common folk, or not technical enough for the geeks among us.

Around sixteen years ago, I was asked to contribute to an RFID development project. We did not have the web or a book like RFID Applied to explain it to us. We had to figure it out for ourselves and make it up as we went along. Today, there are dozens of books on the subject of RFID. We have the web and publications like the RFID Journal to fill in the details.

Mark Roberti, editor of the RFID Journal, explains in the book's forward that RFID is both simple and complex. I would add that for any answer to a question on RFID, there is always an exception to be explained. The authors of RFID Applied have done an excellent job of covering the basic subject matter, RFID systems, examples of applications, and RFID coverage in different countries.

This book is aimed at the professional who is planning on setting up an RFID system. The authors write in plain language that is easy to understand, although I have to admit that I have some degree of expertise in the subject area. I did find myself thinking as I read that this is just what I have said in my own presentations. I was pleasantly surprised to find one of my own PowerPoint drawings, Fig. 10-2, illustrating the Clipped Tag. (Don't worry guys, you will not be sued. We gave these out to the press, but maybe you could add an attribution in the next addition.)

There is one concept that I think does need further explanation. That is the ability of liquids to block RFID signals. Actually, it is not liquids as such, but conducting liquids like water that block electromagnetic (EM) radiation. The penetration depth or skin depth of the medium, water for instance, for EM waves is inversely proportional to the square root of the frequency of the EM radiation multiplied by the conductivity of the medium. Water, especially salt water, conducts electricity well enough that the penetration depth is very small for RFID 915 MHz UHF propagation. This is important for communicating with submarines, for example. It takes a real radio geek to think that the whole point of the movie "Crimson Tide" was to illustrate the problem of propagating radio waves through sea water.

However, there is a solution to the water problem for UHF RFID. You can use near-field magnetic coupling for UHF tag-to-reader communications. In the near field, generally less than one wavelength, it works amazingly well. You can put the tag in a glass of water and still talk to it. I first saw Chris Diorio, co-chair of the EPCglobal Hardware Action Group, demonstrate this at a group meeting.

RFID is an elegant technology. At the recent RFID Journal Live in Orlando, I observed that the technology continues to improve, there are new ways of using RFID, the tag and reader infrastructure is increasing in reliability while coming down in cost. However, the biggest potential application, the universal tagging of retail items is yet to come about. This may be the result of a combination of factors: the hurdle to overcome before any new technology is implemented; barcodes are inexpensive and universally accepted; and the status of the economy does not encourage businesses to try new things even if there is the potential for added efficiency and cost savings.

On the other hand maybe supermarket checkout with RFID may not be quite ready. While near-field magnetic coupling can solve the problem of reading tags through water-containing objects, there is still the question of metal or steel-containing objects. Back when Hillary Clinton was only the junior senator from New York, I did an RFID checkout demo for her using a basket of plastic fruit. She wanted to know when it would be in supermarkets. I had to admit that the answer was "not yet."

Although, there are many RFID books available, this is a good one for the serious professional. The authors cover the subject well and are up-to-date on the technology, with the exception of the new near-field UHF systems.

A few years ago while in grad school I did some research into RFID, and I really wish this book had existed then. I read plenty on the subject, but not a single resource that I found went into the level of depth and explanation of all the technologies and issues surrounding RFID that this book does. Admittedly from the title I expected this to be a high level overview of RFID that covered only its current uses and would be out of date in a few years. Boy was I wrong - while this book does cover the applications, it covers _everything_ and will be a fantastic reference for years to come. The book is divided into three parts, each of which covers a different area of the technology.

The first part talks about the technology itself, and does get into all the nitty-gritty details that I hadn't thought about since my electrical engineering courses in college. It talks about RF properties, frequencies, data encoding, sensor placement, data standards, and more.

The second part of the book goes into 10 specific industries and explains how RFID is being used in those industries. From outside experience I happen to know that some of the applications they mention are not being used widely, but are only being used by a few cutting edge players in those industries. That should not concern the reader unduly though as the overall intention of the authors is clearly to give a broad look at some of the things RFID can do and make you start thinking about your industry or situation.

The third part of the book goes through 10 countries and shows how RFID is being used in those countries. Things covered include the French library system, US passports, anti-counterfeiting efforts, fare cards in many areas, etc. They also talk about some of the differing standards and governance practices in differing countries.

The book ends with 10 unique applications and 10 web sites for more information (they do seem to like the number 10 don't they?).

My initial fear that this book would become out of date very quickly was largely unfounded. While some applications (the second and third parts of the book) may become out of date eventually, they spend most of their time discussing fundamental issues rather than application specific issues and therefore ensure that this book will be a valuable reference for years to come.

I'm a network engineer. I started this book and was quite eager to get into it but within the first 2 chapters I got a bit miffed that some jargon introduced that wasn't defined. I found myself being lost until I went to the computer to look things up. Still, I was learning a lot.

Then the book said that Marconi invented the radio and did all the early work on it. As a Tesla fan, I just put the book down and steamed for a week before I picked it back up.

So that's what I found wrong with the book. That said, there's a lot right about it - it not only explains the how to's of RFID, but the whys, and gives good information to prepare you in MEETINGS about implementation - the managerial, cost benefit, boring stuff. If you read the book, you'll certainly be prepared for a roll out or change in your inventory systems.

The book is a good size, very well organized, and the text is well spaced, a good size, and easy to read. A lot of technical books fail in this area, and it makes the books hard to read. This book has been very well laid out. You can look up JUST what you need in the table of contents, and find what you need without feeling too lost (if vocabulary isn't an issue for you) or, if you've got time, read it through.

Unlike most other reviewers for this book, I acquired this book purely for research purposes. It serves beautifully.

I'm a novelist and lack the technical gene that I need badly to write about some of my favorite subjects. To understand them, I turn to books like this in the hope I'll be able to get the technical concepts firmly enough ingrained in my brain to be able to write my story without constantly stopping and scratching my head.

I've been interested in RFID from a conspiracy standpoint for years but hadn't found a book that looked good enough to purchase. When writing fiction, you need more than a true conspiracist's viewpoint, or a true believer in the good of something like this. You need facts that you can understand so that you can let the imagination take off in your own mind and create what you want, not what others suggest.

So, fellow writers, non-fiction and fiction, this book is a must-read if you need to grok the subject of RFID.

RFID Applied is a book along the same lines as TCP/IP Illustrated, Applied Cryptography, and Principles of Digital Audio. It contains more detail than the beginner will need, but enough detail that the well-acquainted will want.

Accessible on so many levels, it has information varying from basics, to equations for maximum transmission range, to pricing estimates for business owners to consider if thinking about install a comprehensive RFID system. This is contained in the first 300 pages of the book.

The second half of the book is a collection of example usage of RFID technology in various industries and countries, and as a section is very interesting in its own right.

Each chapter is appended with a detailed reference list. Overall, RFID Applied is a great resource I'm glad to have on my bookshelf.

The book presents a system level description of RFID and how it is and might be used in many applications. As the book relates, it is not meant for a low level physics or electrical engineering discourse. So there is a brief foray into examples of RFID tags, showing different antenna configurations. Qualitatively you can easily see two types. For tags used in far field detection, the metallic strips are straight. Because the electromagnetic waves in the far field are essentially parallel and thus can more easily excite straight conductors. Ah, you might say, but what if a strip is aligned at 90 degrees to the waves? Well, those tags have some of the strips at 90 degrees to each other. So that something will be excited and thus absorb energy from the wave.

In contrast, for tags excited by near field readers, the antennas have many curving sections. Since the nearby readers will emit very curving waves.

So at least qualitatively, without being a physicist, you can readily understand the basics of how RFID tags work.

The book also explains the simplest apparent objection to RFID tags. Why not just use barcodes? The latter are indeed much cheaper. Just ink sprayed onto a surface, like paper. But barcodes suffer from great drawbacks. The detectors much be very close and must be oriented correctly with respect to the barcode. RFID tags are not line of sight and are orientation independent, as explained earlier. Also, they allow for automated use, whereas barcodes invariably imply manual operation.

RFID Applied is an excellent desk manual which sufficiently dives into technical details necessary for professionals, yet still being accessible enough for students or those just learning the basics. The book is well written and has a tremendous number of examples, illustrations and diagrams to help put things in perspective.

2/3rd's of the book focuses on underlying technology; while the remaining sections apply RFID specific industries followed by countries. The `applied' aspect of the book is its greatest selling point, though the top 10 by country seems to be the weakest and has the most potential to become dated. I would have preferred folding these into a past, present and future with as many examples as necessary in each.

This book was written in 2006, so it will rapidly become dated (as print books are wont to do in this electronic age). That said, it is still a great book for someone who needs to have a detailed understanding of how to use and implement RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, like a manager or executive who is not an electronic engineer or person with an extensive electronic background.

It covers the entire gamut of RFID issues, including privacy and security, as well as business and technological considerations.

The first part is organized into chapters which deal with the various aspects of RFID today:

The Stage is Set (intro)

Past, Present, and Future of RFID

Basics of RFID

Beyond the Basics

Recent Advances in the Technology

The business case for RFID

Industry Standards

System Components

Integration

Issues of Privacy and Security

The next part has ten chapters which discuss applications in ten areas of industry in more depth; Auto, Cattle ranching, Health care, Manufacturing, Marine Terminal ops, Military, Payment transactions, Retailing, Transportation, and Wharehousing.

The last part details RFID activities in ten countries: Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, the UK, and the U. S. there are also two appendices with unique applications and useful web sites.

I found the book well written and easy to understand. Acronyms were all explained, which is something many authors of such technical books leave out, assuming that their audience already knows the terminology (always a serious mistake). The technical information was detailed enough to allow a person to understand the technology without having to already be into electronics.

It was also detailed enough for those (like myself) who are fairly well versed in electronics to learn a great deal about the nit-picky details of RFID technology in a painless manner. The authors cover the topic very well, including things like discussing ROI, Future Value of Money, and Cost of Capital in the business section. This book would fit into an MBA program's curriculum on technology very nicely.

The authors touch on the more sensitive issues of privacy and security, but more from a practical than idealogical standpoint. They are quite neutral in their approach to the technology, and don't deal with the controversies other than to note the importance of the issues in approaching one's use of RFID.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who needs more than a cursory knowledge of RFID, but less than an engineering text. It would be good for managers, CEOs, IT directors, etc., or anyone who will be dealing with any aspect of this technology. I don't know that I would recommend it for the casual reader or user of the technology, although it certainly wouldn't hurt the average person on the street to understand the material contained in this book.