Barcodes vs RFID

Barcodes vs RFID

News: Baggage tags equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) will soon be available at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, marking a first of its kind for the country.

About RFID:
• It is a wireless tracking system that consists of tags and readers.
• Radio waves are used to communicate information/identity of objects or people.
• The tags can carry encrypted information, serial numbers and short descriptions.
• Active RFIDs use their own power source, mostly batteries.
• Passive RFIDs are activated through the reader using the electromagnetic energy it transmits.

How do they work?
• RFID tags use an integrated circuit and an antenna to communicate with a reader using radio waves at several different frequencies – low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), and ultra-high frequency (UHF).
• The message sent back by the tag in form of radio waves is translated into data and analysed by the host computer system.
• Unlike Barcodes, RFIDs do not require direct line of sight to identify objects.

About Barcode:
• A barcode is a printed series of parallel bars or lines of varying width used for entering data into a computer system.
• The bars are black on a white background and vary in width and quantity depending on the application.
• The bars represent the binary digits zero and one, which represent the digits zero to nine processed by a digital computer.
• These barcodes are scanned using special optical scanners known as barcode readers.
• The majority of these codes use only two different widths of bars, however some use four.
• One of the most well-known examples of a barcode is the QR code.