THE BEGINNING

RFID is built on the scientific discoveries of intellectual giants, such as:

• Michael Faraday: in 1846 identified that both light and radio waves are part of electromagnetic energy.
• James Maxwell: in 1864 propounded his theory that electric and magnetic energy travel in transverse waves at the speed of light.
• Heinrich Hertz: in 1887 proved Maxwell's theory and showed that radio waves may be reflected, refracted, and polarized like light.
• Guglielmo Marconi: in 1899 demonstrated long distance transmission of radio waves between France and England, across the English Channel.

It may be stated by the historians in the crowd that RFID was derived from the work of the Radar Engineers in the early 1920s. Here's why: Radar sends out radio waves for detecting and locating an object by cleverly decoding the reflection of the "bounced back" radio waves. A technique that RFID exploits by sending radio signals to the Tag and receiving the reflected radio wave at the Reader. Cheers to radar for providing the practical foundation on how to use radio waves traveling at the speed of light for identifying objects.

Birth of an Idea
Perhaps the first recognized formal paper related to RFID was by Harry Stockman and titled "Communication by Means of Reflected Power", proceedings of the IRE, pp1196-1204, October 1948. Many historians consider the use of radio waves in WWII to identify friend or foe aircraft as the first application of RFID.

It is significant to recognize the parallels in development time between RFID and another successful radio technology - Cellular Telephones. The gestation period for cellular telephone was 45-55 years until large scale success was achieved. Consequently, the timing for RFID's recent success seems appropriate assuming history repeats itself.

Like Cellular, collaborating technology was needed before RFID could hit the Big Time! We had to wait for the technology chain to deliver key links such as: the transistor, integrated circuit, microprocessor and high yield IC fabrication plants. These ingredients made the cost/benefits attractive for applications.

RFID Becomes Reality
Electronic article surveillance to counter theft in retail stores is a prime example of early commercial use of RFID technology. Sensormatic and Checkpoint were founded in the late 1960s to offer this solution. Since then an entire industry has been created for this purpose.

Future vertical applications, such as EZ Pass for toll collecting, trace back to the RCA patent of an Electronic License Plate for motor vehicles in 1977. Almost a decade passed until RFID toll collecting was realized in the Dallas North Turnpike in 1989.

From these early starts RFID has expanded into new markets for tracking, logistics, counterfeit protection, supply chain management, airport luggage handling, silent commerce, etc. Now it is gaining momentum and large amounts of capital are being invested in this sector. Every day I learn about more useful applications.