RFID Applications in E-Healthcare - E-Healthcare Systems and Wireless Communications - page 100

links, optical character recognition, touch memory,
smart cards, biometrics, etc.
RF: It is a frequency or a band of frequen-
cies that lie in the range 10 KHz to 300 GHz.
These can be used for radio communications and
broadcasting.
Radio Frequency Identification: It is one
of the many automatic identification technolo-
gies, which communicates via the radio waves
to exchange data between the RFID components
(RFID reader and tag) so as to identify or track the
items/people/animal on which the tag is placed.
Radio Waves: These are a type of electromag-
netic radiation with the longest wavelengths in
the electromagnetic spectrum. These waves also
travel at the speed of light like all other electro-
magnetic waves.
RFID Tag: An RFID tag is a microchip com-
bined with an antenna in a compact package such
that it can be easily attached to different items.

RFID Reader: An RFID reader is a device
that has an antenna attached to it which emits and
receives signals from the tag.
Tracking: Tracking is one of applications of
RFID. Radio Frequency Identification helps in
real time tracking of objects, people or animals,
provided that the assets or people have RFID tags
attached to them. Asset tracking and human track-
ing are the most important applications of RFID.
Tagging: Tagging is the same as the track-
ing application. The word 'tagging' is used with
regard to animals. When an RFID tag is placed
on an animal with the purpose of identification
and tracking, it is said that the animal has been
tagged. Animal tagging is another common ap-
plication of RFID.
Electronic Product Code: It is a universal
identifier that provides a unique identity to any
physical item, animal or person.