Canadian Government Grants & Loans - Small Business Financing. Radio-frequency identification. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the wireless use of electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects.
The tags contain electronically stored information. Some tags are powered by electromagnetic induction from magnetic fields produced near the reader. Some types collect energy from the interrogating radio waves and act as a passive transponder. Other types have a local power source such as a battery and may operate at hundreds of meters from the reader.
Unlike a barcode, the tag does not necessarily need to be within line of sight of the reader and may be embedded in the tracked object. How RFID Works" Long checkout lines at the grocery store are one of the biggest complaints about the shopping experience.
Soon, these lines could disappear when the ubiquitous Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code is replaced by smart labels, also called radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. RFID tags are intelligent bar codes that can talk to a networked system to track every product that you put in your shopping cart.