Impressions

Bluetooth is an open-source standard for connecting devices without wires via short-wave radio frequencies. Bluetooth is a short-wave standard, with most development concentrated on connecting devices within a radius of 10 meters, or roughly 30 feet – in tech terms, a PAN, or personal area network.

The most "hotly contested" Bluetooth segment is the semiconductor market which last year began moving into second-generation solutions with developers also ramping up for volume production. The result was "fiercer competitive forces driving strong performance," a trend that will continue to spur consolidation. Frost & Sullivan projects that consolidation will lead to the emergence of " no more than 10 key players" in the sector. Also driving the Bluetooth success story: advances in single-chip RF technology, a solution that is geared toward the cellular phone market.

Among the applications garnering increased Bluetooth attention: "human interface" devices, such as keyboard, mouse, games controllers, and desktop peripherals, including printers and digital cameras.

"All are perceived as potential high volume areas for market development," according to the report, which adds that "improvements in the robustness of chipsets to conditions such as heat and light is allowing further investigation in automotive and industrial environments."

A thriving environment of supporting products and services has emerged around the main semiconductor market, with design services, protocol software vendors and intellectual property developers all making major contributions to the growth of the market.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a method of remotely storing and retrieving data using devices called RFID tags. An RFID tag is a small object, such as an adhesive sticker, that can be attached to or incorporated into a product. RFID tags contain antennae to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver

RFID tags can be either active or passive. Passive RFID tags do not have their own power supply: the minute electrical current induced in the antenna by the incoming radio-frequency scan provides enough power for the tag to send a response. Due to power and cost concerns, the response of a passive RFID tag is necessarily brief, typically just an ID number (GUID). Lack of its own power supply makes the device quite small: commercially available products exist that can be embedded under the skin. As of 2004, the smallest such devices commercially available measured 0.4 mm × 0.4 mm, and thinner than a sheet of paper; such devices are practically invisible. Passive tags have practical read ranges that vary from about 10 mm up to about 5 metres.

Active RFID tags, on the other hand, must have a power source, and may have longer ranges and larger memories than passive tags, as well as the ability to store additional information sent by the transceiver. At present, the smallest active tags are about the size of a coin. Many active tags have practical ranges of tens of metres, and a battery life of up to several years.

As passive tags are much cheaper to manufacture, the vast majority of RFID tags in existence are of the passive variety. As of 2004 tags cost from $0.25. The aim is to produce tags for less than $0.05 to make widespread RFID tagging commercially viable.

There are four different kinds of tags commonly in use, their differences based on the level of their radio frequency: Low frequency tags (between 125 to 134 kilohertz), High frequency tags (13.56 megahertz), UHF tags (868 to 956 megahertz), and Microwave tags (2.45 gigahertz).
See also for some Transponder devices which deliver a similar function, and contactless chipcards.

High-frequency RFID tags are used in library book or bookstore tracking, pallet tracking, building access control, airline baggage tracking, and apparel item tracking. High-frequency tags are widely used in identification badges, replacing earlier magnetic stripe cards. These badges need only be held within a certain distance of the reader to authenticate the holder.

RFID tags are often envisioned as a replacement for UPC or EAN bar-codes, having a number of important advantages over the older bar-code technology. RFID codes are long enough that every RFID tag may have a unique code, while UPC codes are limited to a single code for all instances of a particular product. The uniqueness of RFID tags means that a product may be individually tracked as it moves from location to location, finally ending up in the consumer's hands. This may help companies to combat theft and other forms of product loss. It has also been proposed to use RFID for point-of-sale store checkout to replace the cashier with an automatic system, with the option of erasing all RFID tags at checkout and paying by credit card or inserting money into a payment machine. This has to a limited extent already been implemented at some stores

(http://www.ncr.com/repository/articles/pdf/sa_selfcheckout_integratedsolutions.pdf).

An organization called EPCglobal is working on a proposed international standard for the use of RFID and the Electronic Product Code (EPC) in the identification of any item in the supply chain for companies in any industry, anywhere in the world. The organization's board of governors includes representatives from EAN International, Uniform Code Council, The Gillette Company, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, and Auto-ID Labs.

In July 2004, the Food and Drug Administration issued a ruling that essentially begins a final review process that will determine whether hospitals can use RFID systems to identify patients and/or permit relevant hospital staff to access medical records.