Chapter 5

Understanding How Technology Becomes a Working System

In This Chapter

bullet Peeking at the components of an RFID tag

bullet Discovering the inner workings of a reader

bullet Understanding the different kinds of antennas

bullet Looking at the various tag protocols

I f you want to know a thing or two about setting up a great RFID system, take a look at Lance Armstrong, one of the greatest athletes of all time. What does Lance have to do with RFID? Well, you can make even the simplest and most well-proven systems better by paying painstaking attention to the minutest details. You also need to understand every component that makes up the entire system. The simple system in Lance’s case is a bicycle. If you add a little oil to a rusty chain, an old neglected bicycle can take you around the neighborhood or through the countryside in far less time than you can walk. Lance’s team in the Tour de France, by contrast, has spent countless hours understanding the effects of wind, speed, tire pressure, clothing, and so on, using that knowledge to fine-tune their clothing and bicycles so they don’t lose a second ...

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