Introduction - RFID: Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards and Identification - page 8

Table 1.1 Comparison of different RFID systems showing their advantages and disadvantages

System parameters Barcode OCR Voice recog. Biometry Smart

card

RFID
systems

Typical data quantity (bytes) 1-100 1-100 — — 16-64 k 16-64 k

Data density Low Low High High Very high Very high

Machine readability Good Good Expensive Expensive Good Good

Readability by people Limited Simple Simple Difficult Impossible Impossible

Influence of dirt/damp Very high Very high — — Possible

(contacts)

No influence

Influence of (opt.) covering Total failure Total failure — Possible — No influence

Influence of direction and
position

Low Low — — Unidirectional No influence

Degradation/wear Limited Limited — — Contacts No influence

Purchase cost/reading
electronics

Very low Medium Very high Very high Low Medium

Operating costs (e.g. printer) Low Low None None Medium

(contacts)

None

Possible ∗
(audio
tape)

Unauthorised
copying/modification

Slight Slight Impossible Impossible Impossible

Reading speed (including
handling of data carrier)

Low
∼ 4s

Low
∼ 3s

Ve r y l ow
> 5s

Ve r y l ow
> 5-10s

Low
∼ 4s

Very fast
∼ 0.5 s

Maximum distance between
data carrier and reader

0-50cm < 1cm

Scanner

0-50cm Direct

contact ∗∗

Direct contact 0-5-m,

microwave

∗ The danger of 'Replay' can be reduced by selecting the text to be spoken using a random generator, because the text that must be spoken is not known in advance.
∗∗ This only applies for fingerprint ID. In the case of retina or iris evaluation direct contact is not necessary or possible.