RFID: Radio Frequency Identification (McGraw-Hill Networking Professional)

This book provides an interesting and sometimes entertaining discussion of the history of automated identification, and a simple and accessible introduction to enterprise resource planning and the management of supply chains. This book also provides a nice if quick survey of recent and prospective applications. The UPC/EAN bar code system's history and operation are well-described. However, if you're looking for a well-organized, comprehensible introduction to the technology of RFID, you will be disappointed. Mr. Shepard doesn't appear to understand some key distinctions -- for example, the difference in operating principles between 'inductive' systems operating at frequencies of KHz to MHz, and 'radiative' systems in the UHF and microwave bands -- and his discussion of technology focuses almost exclusively on low-frequency technology without explicitly noting this fact. I don't know how anyone who wasn't already familiar with the technology would understand most of the discussion of modulation and coding techniques. He implies that public key cryptography is used to secure RFID communications, which is absurd for passive tag applications given the computational demands of that approach. Mr. Shepard also fails to clearly distinguish between applications that are readily achievable with today's technology and those that would require revolutionary improvements or are just flat physically impossible. So if you're interested in history, pick up this book; if you need to design or implement an RFID system, get Finkenzeller's handbook, which is less accessible but much more thorough and technologically astute.

I hate to say this, because it sounds so hokey in a book review, but this is one book I couldn't put down. Well obviously I could put it down, and I did. But I didn't until after I had read the first 54 pages, Part I of the book.Part I of this book talks about some applications of RFID that is stretching the limits of the technology as it exists today. He gives a series of examples of how RFID might be used in the future, along with a history of machine identification in the past. Perhaps my interest comes from the years I worked in that area. But that was some time ago, and RFID was just beginning. Now I see the applications he describes and immediately I think of several others. This kind of overview of where we are trying to go is rare in a technical book, and greatly appreciated.Part II of the book is a description of the current state of the art in RFID. Here is a detailed description of who makes what that you can use to implement what was thought about in Part I.He finally concludes with a short what-if story about a suspect container on a ship headed to an American port. This is straight out of not the headlines, but the comments made by John Kerry during the debates. This is a technology that is coming, that is needed.

I have just seen a news report about how a school in Japan is using this new RFID technology to track its students by putting a small tag inside each student's bookpack. Retailing giant Walmart is about to make a similar move by employing the RFID tags to track its inventory. What is this new technology all about? Is it a business opportunity, or an investment opportunity? This book answers these questions and more.This is an excellent book that covers its subject well and also is easy to read. Often technical books are solely about the technology and you wonder why or where or how to use the technology. This book is a wonderful blend where hard business sense meets hard technology and you can come away understanding not just what the technology of RFID is about, but also, and more importantly, how it would fit into your business and why you want it there.This book is basically made up of four parts which break down into the following questions: why, how, what and what next? If you've never heard of RFID, this book will tell you why you might need to know about it, what it is and what it is not, and how it works. The author clearly knows his subject as he carefully explains the pitfalls and roadblocks that one might come up against while implementing such a technology and he points out that careful consideration should be taken whenever introducing new technologies into a business.Do not be scared off by the fact that this is a technical book and talks of bits and bytes. The author has clearly written this for a broad audience that spans from top level decision makers and conceptual planners to the bits and bytes technical person or the casual network reader who want to learn about a new technology. And if you are a techophile only interested in bit and bytes, you may be disappointed that the author doesn't spend enough time actually taking apart the readers and transponders, but there are other engineering books for that. If you are an investor who tracks tech stocks and wonders what RFID is all about, then you're going to love this book.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting the author Steven Shepard at a telecommunications industry conference, and had the opportunity to engage in a wide ranging conversation on topics that will affect the telecom and high-tech industries over the next several years. As I learned during that conversation, and now in greater depth with the release of Shepard's new book, RFID is emerging as one of the most exciting and interesting opportunities across a wide range of business sectors including global commerce, retailing, supply chain management, and telecommunications.Steven's passion for and knowledge of RFID and the impact it will have on society, commerce and communications comes through clearly in this excellent book. In his unique and eminently readable style, Steven weaves the links between technology, history, and human behavior to explain exactly why RFID is important, and how it might affect you, your business, and your life.This volume includes a valuable list of RFID related resources, acronyms and dictionary of industry terms, so it serves as a valuable reference.