Smart Tags Research Articles

A systematic review of RFID applications and diffusion: key areas and public policy issues

RFID applicants called as e-ID, smart tag, and contactless smart card are being applied to numerous areas in our daily life, including tracking manufactured goods, currency, and patients to payments systems. To review these various applications of RFID is important to exploring not only ongoing e-governance issues such as digital identification, delivery process, and governance but also business oriented application areas like supply chain. Through a systematic review methodology from 111 previous studies about RFID technology for public sector, we found six key areas of RFID applications: defense and security, identification, environmental applications, transportation, healthcare and welfare, and agriculture-livestock. We also suggest that the diffusion and applications of RFID can involve unexpected disadvantages including technological deficiency, uncertain benefits, dubious transparency, uncomfortable privacy issue, and unequal distribution of digital power and literacy. Further research on RFID impact includes not only various theoretical issues of but also legal and managerial problems. Rigorous research is required to explore what factors are critical to adopt and implement new RFID applications in terms of technology governance and digital literacy. Massive data driven research is also expected to identify RFID performance in government agencies and various industry sectors.

Ambient intelligence for optimal manufacturing and energy efficiency

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the creation of innovative and intelligent systems to optimise energy efficiency in manufacturing. The systems monitor energy consumption using ambient intelligence (AmI) and knowledge management (KM) technologies. Together they create a decision support system as an innovative add-on to currently used energy management systems. Design/methodology/approach – Energy consumption data (ECD) are processed within a service-oriented architecture-based platform. The platform provides condition-based energy consumption warning, online diagnostics of energy-related problems, support to manufacturing process lines installation and ramp-up phase and continuous improvement/optimisation of energy efficiency. The systems monitor energy consumption using AmI and KM technologies. Together they create a decision support system as an innovative add-on to currently used energy management systems. Findings – The systems produce an improvement in energy efficiency in manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The systems provide more comprehensive information about energy use and some knowledge-based support. Research limitations/implications – Prototype systems were trialled in a manufacturing company that produces mooring chains for the offshore oil and gas industry, an energy intensive manufacturing operation. The paper describes a case study involving energy-intensive processes that addressed different manufacturing concepts and involved the manufacture of mooring chains for offshore platforms. The system was developed to support online detection of energy efficiency problems. Practical implications – Energy efficiency can be optimised in assembly and manufacturing processes. The systems produce an improvement in energy efficiency in manufacturing SMEs. The systems provide more comprehensive information about energy use and some knowledge-based support. Social implications – This research addresses two of the most critical problems in energy management in industrial production technologies: how to efficiently and promptly acquire and provide information online for optimising energy consumption and how to effectively use such knowledge to support decision making. Originality/value – This research was inspired by the need for industry to have effective tools for energy efficiency, and that opportunities for industry to take up energy efficiency measures are mostly not carried out. The research combined AmI and KM technologies and involved new uses of sensors, including wireless intelligent sensor networks, to measure environment parameters and conditions as well as to process performance and behaviour aspects, such as material flow using smart tags in highly flexible manufacturing or temperature distribution over machines. The information obtained could be correlated with standard ECD to monitor energy efficiency and identify problems. The new approach can provide effective ways to collect more information to give a new insight into energy consumption within a manufacturing system.

Networked Wireless Sensors, Active RFID, and Handheld Devices for Modern Car Park Management

Networked wireless sensors, actuators, RFID, and mobile computing technologies are explored in this paper on the quest for modern car park management systems with sophisticated services over the emerging internet of things (IoT), where things such as ubiquitous handheld computers, smart ubiquitous sensors, RFID readers and tags are expected to be interconnected to virtually form networks that enable a variety of services. After an overview of the literature, the authors propose a scalable and lowcost car parking framework (CPF) based on the integration of aforementioned technologies. A preliminary prototype implementation has been performed, as well as experimentation of some modules of the proposed CPF. The results demonstrate proof of concept, and particularly reveal that the proposed approach for WSN deployment considerably reduces the cost and energy consumption compared to existing solutions.

A New Method about Smart Identification of Electronic Information on Tropical Agricultural Products

The article focused on tropical agricultural products and summarized the electronic information elements. RFID was used as information carrier. The research explored the smart identification method realization technologies for the internet of things of tropical agriculture. In the research, we set up a base information database platform of tropical agricultural products and realized the smart tag’s reading and writing operation. The smart identification of electronic information system based on RFID is designed. The system can realize functions of RFID code automatically generating and improving the tag read rate.

Smart radio-frequency identification tag for diaper moisture detection.

A passive smart tag is described that responds to dampness in diapers once a pre-defined threshold value is reached. A high-frequency (HF) system at 13.56 MHz is used as this allows operation through water or human tissues with less absorption that would occur for an ultra-HF signal. A circular spiral coil and swelling substrate facilitate a reaction to dampness that can be detected without contact to the diaper wearer. A prototype design is simulated and measured results are provided together with a demonstration of a tag integrated into a worn diaper.

Multi-State Logging Freeze Detection Passive RFID Tags

In this paper, the design and measurement of a passive UHF RFID smart tag suitable for monitoring and recording critical temperature violations in cold chain management are presented. The tag uses moving parts to detect and log different temperate states without the requirement for transceivers, memory, and batteries. A simple mechanical method is proposed whereby a moving metallic plate is trapped in one of four possible positions by specific environmental temperatures whereby inducing a permanent state-based change in the passive RFID tag response. The latched product critical temperature violations can be monitored via the read power required to turn on the tag transponder chip, which differs in each state.

Design and Development of Sensing RFID Tags on Flexible Foil Compatible With EPC Gen 2

Taking advantage of the sensor interface capabilities of a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, the integration of different types of sensors on printed ultrahigh frequency (UHF) RFID tags is investigated. The design, development, and testing of printed smart sensing tags compatible with the RFID standard electronic product code Gen 2 is presented. Two different strategies are employed to interface the sensors: 1) passive single-chip and 2) semipassive architectures. Both strategies provide sensor data by directly answering to the RFID reader inquiries or using a data logging mechanism to store the sensor data in the RFID chip memory. Temperature readout is measured using the embedded sensor in the RFID chip. Additionally, a light sensor and pressure sensor interfaced to a microcontroller are implemented in the passive and semipassive tags versions, respectively. For the employed RFID chip, two different UHF antennas are designed and printed using inkjet and screen printing to compare their radio frequency performances. Finally, the fabricated smart tags are fully validated through measurements in an anechoic chamber and their behaviors are compared with numerical simulation. The screen printed semipassive RFID tag with loop antenna shows a better reading range than the inkjet-printed one, whereas the passive tag can be considered as the most cost-effective system.

A Design of Smart RFID System for Toxic Gases Monitoring

This paper proposed a design of smart RFID system for toxic gases monitoring. In the daily life the toxic gases that could be harm for us are hydrogen sulfide, ammonia gas, carbon monoxide, etc. Workers are very easy to be poisoned by these gases. So a rapid and low cost method of preventing toxic gases poisoning is needed. We design a smart RFID system to monitor the concentration of different gases. Proposed system consists of smart RFID tag, humidity sensor, hydrogen sulfide sensor, ammonia sensor, reader, and server. This monitoring system can show the concentration of different toxic gases for three grades, Safe, Warning, Risk. In order to confirm the usefulness of the proposed system, we performed experiments on mackerels. With the smart RFID system, we estimated the concentration of toxic gases successfully.

Magnetite nanoparticles: Synthesis, thin film properties and inkjet printing of magnetic cores for inductor applications

Magnetic thin films of preferred thickness, patterns, and characteristics were produced using digital printing at room temperature and under ambient conditions to realize magnetic cores for Radio Frequency Identification resonators. The magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4) covered with oleic acid were synthesized for that purpose and inkjet printed from chlorobenzene solution on flexible polyimide (PI) substrate and on paper. The obtained nanoparticles have a homogenous morphology, approximately round shape and a size distribution of 7–10nm. The crystallite size in the films remains the same as in the powder, although aggregation takes place to various extents in the films providing different magnetic properties in each of them. The inkjet printed magnetic cores were investigated in the frequency range from 10kHz to 11MHz. Only the magnetic cores printed on PI and annealed at 300°C for 1h and 2h exhibit ferromagnetism (μr>1) at low frequencies, and at higher frequencies all films saturate to μr<1. For the 300°C–2h annealed films the μr saturation value is distinctly lower than for other films. μr of the core realized on paper is lower than unity in the entire investigated range of frequencies and very uniform, especially at high frequencies. The presented results put forward the possibility of exploitation of the inkjet printed thin magnetic films in well-established manufacturing industries, such as the watch making, banknote watermarking, and the smart tag production.

Development of a time–temperature indicator (TTI) label by rotary printing technologies

Abstract A novel continuous production process is presented for smart labels specifically designed as time–temperature indicators (TTI). Printing and converting technologies are set out on a traditional rotary press that works at high web speed with a great repeatability of the printed product. TTI labels are based on a functional water-based ink that impregnates some areas of an absorbent paper whose edges are waterproofed by a UV graphic ink. A rotary screen printing process is used for the deposition of the inks and a plastic layer is applied by lamination on both sides of the substrate to ensure optimum wetness of the functional ink. The formulation of the ink includes a chromogenic growth medium with a starter culture; the metabolism of the bacteria acidifies the ink, hence changing the pH indicator colour. A model based on the Gompertz equation has been developed to simulate the colour change of the labels for different starter culture loads and temperatures, with an accurate match between predictions and experimental data. This model can be a useful tool in the design of new features of the tags that can be a straightforward scale-up to a pre-industrial level. The rotary printing process allows massive production of low cost smart tags.

Smart Tag(RFID: Radio Frequency Identification) and Legal principles of Product Liability

Smart Tag(RFID: Radio Frequency Identification) and Legal principles of Product Liability

Humidity sensors printed on recycled paper and cardboard.

Research, design, fabrication and results of various screen printed capacitive humidity sensors is presented in this paper. Two types of capacitive humidity sensors have been designed and fabricated via screen printing on recycled paper and cardboard, obtained from the regional paper and cardboard industry. As printing ink, commercially available silver nanoparticle-based conductive ink was used. A considerable amount of work has been devoted to the humidity measurement methods using paper as a dielectric material. Performances of different structures have been tested in a humidity chamber. Relative humidity in the chamber was varied in the range of 35%–80% relative humidity (RH) at a constant temperature of 23 °C. Parameters of interest were capacitance and conductance of each sensor material, as well as long term behaviour. Process reversibility has also been considered. The results obtained show a mainly logarithmic response of the paper sensors, with the only exception being cardboard-based sensors. Recycled paper-based sensors exhibit a change in value of three orders of magnitude, whereas cardboard-based sensors have a change in value of few 10s over the entire scope of relative humidity range (RH 35%–90%). Two different types of capacitor sensors have been investigated: lateral (comb) type sensors and modified, perforated flat plate type sensors. The objective of the present work was to identify the most important factors affecting the material performances with humidity, and to contribute to the development of a sensor system supported with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip directly on the material, for use in smart packaging applications. Therefore, the authors built a passive and a battery-supported wireless module based on SL900A smart sensory tag's IC to achieve UHF-RFID functionality with data logging capability.

The Meat Freshness Monitoring System Using the Smart RFID Tag

This paper proposes a monitoring system for meat freshness and use-by date, based on the smart RFID (radio frequency identification) tag. Freshness can be checked by various factors, such as the presence of microorganisms, bacteria, and gases. This paper focuses on detecting the temperature, humidity, and the gases released by meat. We analyzed the factors affecting the freshness of meat and decided to use a gas sensor as the main detection method. We use temperature sensor and humidity sensor as auxiliary sensors to get the food poisoning index. The proposed system consists of an RFID tag, temperature sensor, humidity sensor, gas sensor, reader, and server. By comparing the temperature, humidity, and gas concentration of the meat storage environment, we can get the relationship between meat freshness and the sensor signal. This monitoring system can show the meat freshness at four distinct grades: High, Medium, Low, and Spoilage. In order to confirm the usefulness of the proposed system, we performed experiments on pork. With the smart RFID tag, we successfully estimated the freshness of the meat.

Wireless smart tag with on-board conductometric chemical sensor

A contactless smart card with integral wireless power and data link and on-board chemical sensor is described. The chemical sensor part of the smart card comprises a planar conductometric interface onto which a chemically or biologically sensitive thin film may be cast using microfabrication techniques. The thin film sensor and conductometric interface form an integral part of a radio-frequency smart card that has been designed for use in distributed chemical and biological detection systems, and which is based upon the International Standards Organisation high-frequency (HF) ISO 15693 radio-frequency identification (RFID) protocol. Conductometric measurements are controlled, sampled and stored by the smart card electronics. Measurement results achieved with an organic semiconductor, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate), PEDOT-PSS, as a model thin film conductometric sensor material cast on planar gold electrodes are reported. The standardisation of short-range wireless radio protocols such as Bluetooth, RuBee, ZigBee, WiFi and RFID is opening new markets for distributed sensors and sensor networks, and the fusion of chemical and biosensor technologies with short-range, low-cost, wireless technologies will create new opportunities for chemical and biological sensor systems in healthcare, environmental monitoring, process and quality control, and chemical and biological threat detection. The chemical sensor smart card described here could in future be suitable for use in various distributed short range wireless data applications and sensor networks as part of the emerging sensor Internet of Things.

Hybrid sol–gel thin films doped with a pH indicator: effect of organic modification on optical pH response and film surface hydrophilicity

Optical sensors for application in innovative wearable sensing systems such as textile-integrated systems and wireless sensor platforms rely on the development of low-cost multifunctional materials compatible with standard fabrication technologies. We are developing optically responsive pH sensitive sol–gel coatings for integration with a mobile wireless smart tag sensing system. For this application, we have fabricated a range of thin pH sensitive films using bromocresol green (BCG) indicator immobilised in inorganic–organic silica hybrid matrices prepared by a sol–gel method and deposited by spin-coating onto glass substrates. The surface hydrophilicity of the films were varied by using the inorganic sol–gel precursor tetraethoxysilane together with either methyltriethoxysilane, ethyltriethoxysilane, phenyltrimethoxysilane or glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane as organically modified sol–gel precursors, co-polymerised in different ratios. Spectral characterisation of the films was performed using visible absorption spectroscopy. The shift in absorption maxima and other spectral changes of the different matrices have been identified, and the apparent pK app values of the immobilised BCG pH indicator determined. The surface wettability properties of the films have been studied by measuring the contact angle of water, formamide and diiodomethane which has allowed the estimation of the surface free energy (SFE) using three different models: Owens–Wendt, Wu and van Oss-Chaudhury-Good. It is shown that the SFE of the hybrid films is directly related to the type and the degree of organic modification, which in turn has a significant effect on the pH response-time of these sensing films.

Packaging strategy for maximizing the performance of a screen printed piezoelectric energy harvester

This paper reports the extended design and simulation of a screen printed piezoelectric energy harvester. The proposed design was based on a previous credit card sized smart tag sensor node, and packages the power conditioning circuit in the free space above the tungsten proof mass layer. This approach enables electronic components to be mounted onto the cantilever beam, which provides additional weight at the tip of the cantilever structure. The design structure contains a T-shape cantilever beam with size of 47 mm × 30 mm × 0.85 mm which is fabricated using screen printing. ANSYS simulation results predict the revised architecture can generate 421.9 μW approximately twice of the RMS power produced by the original design along with a higher open-circuit RMS Voltage of 8.0 V while the resonant frequency is dropped to 53.4 Hz.

Properties and Printability of Inkjet and Screen-Printed Silver Patterns for RFID Antennas

We report the modeling, and geometrical and electrical characterization, of inkjet and screen-printed patterns on different polymeric substrates for use as antennas in radio-frequency identification (RFID) applications. We compared the physical and electrical characteristics of two silver nanoparticle-based commercial inkjet-printable inks and one screen-printable silver paste, when deposited on polyimide (PI), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyetherimide (PEI) substrates. First, the thickness of the inkjet-printed patterns was predicted by use of an analytical model based on printing conditions and ink composition. The predicted thickness was confirmed experimentally, and geometrical characterization of the lines was completed by measuring the root-mean-square roughness of the patterns. Second, direct-current electrical characterization was performed to identify the printing conditions yielding the lowest resistivity and sheet resistance. The minimum resistivity for the inkjet-printing method was 8.6 ± 0.8 μΩ cm, obtained by printing four stacked layers of one of the commercial inks on PEI, whereas minimum resistivity of 44 ± 7 μΩ cm and 39 ± 4 μΩ cm were obtained for a single layer of screen-printed ink on polyimide (PI) with 140 threads/cm mesh and 90 threads/cm mesh, respectively. In every case, these minimum values of resistivity were obtained for the largest tested thickness. Coplanar waveguide transmission lines were then designed and characterized to analyze the radio-frequency (RF) performance of the printed patterns; minimum transmission losses of 0.0022 ± 0.0012 dB/mm and 0.0016 ± 0.0012 dB/mm measured at 13.56 MHz, in the high-frequency (HF) band, were achieved by inkjet printing on PEI and screen printing on PI, respectively. At 868 MHz, in the ultra-high-frequency band, the minimum values of transmission loss were 0.0130 ± 0.0014 dB/mm for inkjet printing on PEI and 0.0100 ± 0.0014 dB/mm for screen printing on PI. Although the resistivity achieved is lower for inkjet printing than for screen printing, RF losses for inkjetted patterns were larger than for screen-printed patterns, because thicker layers were obtained by screen printing. Finally, several coil inductors for the HF band were also fabricated by use of both printing techniques, and were used as antennas for semi-passive smart RFID tags on plastic foil capable of measuring temperature and humidity.

Miniaturised wireless smart tag for optical chemical analysis applications

A novel miniaturised photometer has been developed as an ultra-portable and mobile analytical chemical instrument. The low-cost photometer presents a paradigm shift in mobile chemical sensor instrumentation because it is built around a contactless smart card format. The photometer tag is based on the radio-frequency identification (RFID) smart card system, which provides short-range wireless data and power transfer between the photometer and a proximal reader, and which allows the reader to also energise the photometer by near field electromagnetic induction. RFID is set to become a key enabling technology of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), hence devices such as the photometer described here will enable numerous mobile, wearable and vanguard chemical sensing applications in the emerging connected world. In the work presented here, we demonstrate the characterisation of a low-power RFID wireless sensor tag with an LED/photodiode-based photometric input. The performance of the wireless photometer has been tested through two different model analytical applications. The first is photometry in solution, where colour intensity as a function of dye concentration was measured. The second is an ion-selective optode system in which potassium ion concentrations were determined by using previously well characterised bulk optode membranes. The analytical performance of the wireless photometer smart tag is clearly demonstrated by these optical absorption-based analytical experiments, with excellent data agreement to a reference laboratory instrument.

Food Poisoning Prevention Monitoring System based on the Smart RFID Tag System

Food poisoning that can happen commonly, a little caution can be prevented in advance, but the average consumer can not know whether the poisoning infection of food. While there are many factors affecting food poisoning typically changes in temperature and humidity, and monitoring temperature and humidity variability during transport and storage is very important. So we proposed the food poisoning prevention monitoring system based on the smart RFID tag system. Proposed system consists of RFID tag, temperature and humidity sensor, sensor interface, RFID reader, and server. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system, we performed experiments on the tofu. Proposed system measures the temperature and humidity using the smart RFID tag. The measured information can be calculated according to food poisoning index with four grade, interest, caution, warning, risk, and is monitored. The proposed system confirms usefulness through experiments.

Editorial: Special Issue in Privacy, Security and Trust for Mobile Systems

Recently, mobile devices, such as wireless sensors, smart tags, RFIDs, tablets, PDAs and smart phones, have become pervasive and attracted significant interest from academia, industry, and standardization organizations. Integrating the latest cloud computing technology, these mobile devices are playing a more and more important role in computing and communication systems. Millions of mobile applications have been developed in the last several years, which dramatically changes the way that people manage their daily life, for example, mobile payment and mobile social networks have changed our life significantly. When the storage, processing and communicating of many sensitive data have been migrated to mobile devices, privacy, security and trust become critical factors for the acceptance of mobile applications and maintaining a reliable mobile environment becomes an essential requirement. Several favorable characteristics of mobile andwireless devices, including portability, mobility, and sensitivity, further impose the challenge of security and privacy in these systems. Finally, the constrained hardware and software supports of those devices make it even more challenging to build a secure, privacy-preserving and trusted mobile system. Despite recent advances, many research issues still remain in the design of secure, privacypreserving, or trust architectures, protocols, algorithms, services, and applications on mobile and wireless systems. For example, when mobile devices have more storage space, higher bandwidth, and better sensing capability, more sensitive information will be stored over there and more demanding application will be created. On the other hand, operating systems running on these devices are not as powerful and reliable as those on traditional computers. Both OS layer and higher-level layer protocols are expected to enhance the security and preserve the privacy of these mobile devices. With more mobile devices being used in online social networks and various ad-hoc network systems, novel trust models are essential for new applications. New cryptographic algorithms, intrusion detection and preventionmechanisms,