Section: Application Domains

Pervasive applications in uncontrolled environnements

Some limitations of existing RFID technology become challenging: unlike standard RFID application scenarios, pervasive computing often involves uncontrolled environment for RFID, where tags and reader have to operate in much more difficult situations that those usually encountered or expected for classical RFID systems.

RFID technology is to avoid missing tags when reading multiple objects, as reading reliability is affected by various effects such shadowing or wave power absorption by some materials. The usual applications of RFID operate in a controlled environment in order to reduce the risk of missing tags while scanning objects.

In pervasive computing applications, a controlled reading environment is extremely difficult to achieve, as one of the principle is to enhance existing processes "in situ", unlike the controlled conditions that can be found in industrial processes. Consider for example a logistic application, where RFID tags could be used on items inside a package in order to check for its integrity along the shipping process. Tags would likely be placed randomly on items inside the package, and reading conditions would be variable depending on where the package is checked.

RFID operation in uncontrolled environments is challenging because RFID performance is affected by multiple parameters, in particular:

• Objects materials (on which tags are attached to),

• Materials in the surrounding environment,

• RFID frequency spectrum,

• Antenna nature and placement with respect to the tags.

In controlled environment, the difficulty to read tags can be limited by using the appropriate parameters to maximize the RFID performance for the application. But in many cases, it is needed to read large number of objects of various nature, arranged randomly in a given area or container. Most pervasive computing applications fall in this context.