**4. Challenges**

#### **4.1. Cost**

Today, based on the behavior of customers, the history or record of the production includ‐ ing the delivering is not the most important thing. Most consumers care about the price, ex‐ piration date, or packing of the goods. In other words, although the RFID can enhance the management of logistic, to embed the RFID technology into current system also cost a lot. For example, one RFID tag for paste once (non-reusable) may cost \$0.8. However, a bottle of water may also cost about \$1. Most consumers would not to pay almost twice payment to obtain the information which they do not care about. Comparing with barcode or 417-bar‐ code, the RFID tag costs more than barcode or 417-barcode which can be printed by a print‐ er. In other words, to identify an object via RFID tag costs more than using barcode.

In opposition to once-using RFID tag, to reuse the RFID tag may be a solution. A plastic card where RFID embedded can be used for identification or payment. For example, in Taiwan, most mass transit systems can be paid according to the RFID card that pre-registered and sold to the consumers. Each consumer can use the RFID card to pay the consumption in con‐ venient store, fee of the parking lot, and use the card as a ticket for railway or MRT system. Due to the convenience, most consumers have at least one RFID card for payment. Howev‐ er, the security for financial application is very important. Although there are some security method proposed, no algorithm or system can provide the 100% promise that the security method is always safe.

**Figure 9.** The sample of RFID Tag; a.3D Toy, b. plastic card, c. button tag.

In addition to the RFID card, various styles of RFID tag may be required by different con‐ sumer. According to the environment, the RFID tag may be designed to anti-water or antiwet. Some RFID tags need to be applied to the metal environment such as containers. Due to the characteristics of RFID, suitable frequency of RFID corresponding to the environment should be selected carefully. In other words, the cost of different RFID may be also different according to the applications and environment. Furthermore, different shapes of RFID tag also costs. For example, the cost of an RFID tag embedded into a 3D toy is much more ex‐ pensive than that embedded in a plastic card.

#### **4.2. Hardware and integration**

The RFID technology is affected by several factors such as frequency, energy, and environ‐ ment. When users decide to use RFID in a particular place, users have to select the fittest specification of RFID at first. Because the fittest specification of RFID can make higher per‐ formance in the efficient of RFID application system, to select the fittest specification of RFID is important. Furthermore, the cost of RFID is an important factor for users to select.

Today, based on the behavior of customers, the history or record of the production includ‐ ing the delivering is not the most important thing. Most consumers care about the price, ex‐ piration date, or packing of the goods. In other words, although the RFID can enhance the management of logistic, to embed the RFID technology into current system also cost a lot. For example, one RFID tag for paste once (non-reusable) may cost \$0.8. However, a bottle of water may also cost about \$1. Most consumers would not to pay almost twice payment to obtain the information which they do not care about. Comparing with barcode or 417-bar‐ code, the RFID tag costs more than barcode or 417-barcode which can be printed by a print‐

er. In other words, to identify an object via RFID tag costs more than using barcode.

In opposition to once-using RFID tag, to reuse the RFID tag may be a solution. A plastic card where RFID embedded can be used for identification or payment. For example, in Taiwan, most mass transit systems can be paid according to the RFID card that pre-registered and sold to the consumers. Each consumer can use the RFID card to pay the consumption in con‐ venient store, fee of the parking lot, and use the card as a ticket for railway or MRT system. Due to the convenience, most consumers have at least one RFID card for payment. Howev‐ er, the security for financial application is very important. Although there are some security method proposed, no algorithm or system can provide the 100% promise that the security

(a) (b) (c)

**Figure 9.** The sample of RFID Tag; a.3D Toy, b. plastic card, c. button tag.

**4. Challenges**

18 Radio Frequency Identification from System to Applications

method is always safe.

**4.1. Cost**

The RFID Antenna is the main component for RFID tag induction. The antenna continuous‐ ly spreads the electromagnetic wave. The energy is transmitted to the RFID tag. After induc‐ tion, the RFID Antenna also receives the signal from the RFID tag.

After receiving the signal, the RFID Reader translates the signal into the digital data such as the UID of this RFID tag. Then, the RFID Reader sends the digital data to the corresponding systems or applications. To implement the RFID system, not only the RFID tag but also RFID reader and antenna hardware should be considered. Due to the design and product limitation, the RFID antenna cannot dynamically change. Therefore, similar to the RFID tag, the environment of the RFID system affects the size and cost of the antenna. The size of the antenna increases, the costs also increases. In addition, considering the implementation en‐ vironment, to place the antenna at the suitable location for signal receiving also affects the performance and costs. Therefore, to integrate the RFID system with the existed system, some additional problems may need to be overcome.

The existed applications or systems should include or integrate the RFID system. In other words, to integrate the RFID system, the original working practices of the existed system may be changed which needs extra costs. For example, to identify goods in warehouse, orig‐ inal applications or systems may only need the manual operation. However, to integrate the RFID system, some infrastructure such as the placement of RFID antenna, wire line for con‐ nection between antenna and reader, and the establishment of RFID reader and system serv‐ er are required. In other words, the extra costs of RFID infrastructure are needed. In addition, some existed systems are based on mechanical operation without too much intelli‐ gent analysis. For example, a car parking lot only needs to open the gate when a car ap‐ proaching or according to the teleswitch. When integrated with the RFID system, the RFID antenna should be placed in front of the gate for induction. All the cars to the parking lot should present the RFID tag given on demand. In addition, the RFID reader should be used to analyze the signal information from the RFID tag. The server which includes the database should be used to judge whether the gate should open or not. Although the RFID system enhances the automation with less manual operation, some extra costs and delay may also happen. Therefore, the benefits of RFID system integration such as automation, information exchanging with third party applications, etc., are very important. Only when the benefits or additional new functions overcome the extra costs of RFID system integration then the inte‐ gration of system will be used.

#### **4.3. Plug and play middleware**

In the RFID systems or applications, there are two partitions: RFID devices (includes RFID tag, antenna, and reader) and other devices or systems. Therefore, the application or middle‐ ware for communicating these two parts is needed. When using the RFID device, the third party systems or applications should obtain the information from RFID devices.

requires the further checking, the Plug and Play Middleware sends the required information such as UID to the server via Internet. To reduce the cost for communicating with different third party applications, the unify data storage format is necessary. Therefore, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) can used as a data exchange standard. After obtaining the response from the server, the Plug and Play Middleware can acknowledge the third party application.

RFID Applications and Challenges http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/53368 21

At last, the corresponding services can be presented.

**Figure 10.** The structure chart of data exchange in Database management

In this chapter, we show applications and systems based on RFID technology which inte‐ grated into the existed service systems. The RFID technology can enhance the automatic management procedure. Identification and tiny information exchanging can be achieved. In‐ dividual or personal services can be provided to different consumers. However, to establish the RFID embedded systems and applications, the cost, convenience, feasibility should be considered. To adopt RFID system, some extra costs such as RFID tag and hardware should be overcome by the enhanced performance of management. In other words, to implement the RFID systems for the consumers, to enhance the convenience for consumers will be an

**5. Conclusion**

important issue than the cost.

Due to that there are many types of RFID hardware, the application program interface (API) for the communication between RFID Hardware and different third party applications is needed. In addition, the end user's devices are also various. Hence, the plug and play mid‐ dleware for different hardware and applications is important.

To manage the RFID information from different RFID Hardware, and the communication with different applications, the Plug and Play Middleware is proposed. To realize the con‐ cept of Plug and Play, the proposed middleware has to manage the information from the all possible third party RFID Hardware, deal with and parse the information, and then provide the required information to the corresponding applications. Therefore, the main purposes of the proposed Plug and Play Middleware are:


Furthermore, the Plug and Play Middleware also should implement two possible APIs: the ex‐ ternal procedure call and network communication. If the application is embedded in the Plug and Play Middleware, the external procedure call sends the required information to the specif‐ ic application. In addition, some communications of the related applications such as database query are also established by the external procedure call. Then, the Plug and Play Middleware deals with the results from the external procedure call. In opposition to external procedure call, for the concept of Plug and Play, normal network communication should also be implemented. Most third party software or applications can communicate with the Plug and Play Middle‐ ware via sending the information in string format. For example, if the third party application requires the further checking, the Plug and Play Middleware sends the required information such as UID to the server via Internet. To reduce the cost for communicating with different third party applications, the unify data storage format is necessary. Therefore, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) can used as a data exchange standard. After obtaining the response from the server, the Plug and Play Middleware can acknowledge the third party application. At last, the corresponding services can be presented.

**Figure 10.** The structure chart of data exchange in Database management
