[RBASE-L] - RE: RFID

[Michael J. Sinclair]

Is there such a thing as a device that can read and write the RFID tags that an end user can get? Is there a way to tell what kind of RFID is being used?
Mike

 

-------------- Original message from "Wills, Steve" <jswi...@utmem.edu>: --------------

See what I mean?  I didn’t totally trust that vendor’s “kool-ade”.

 

Bill, have you even helped with registration/results management at the Mini?  Just curious.

 

Typically, whether it’s RFID or the tried and true Championchip (Et Al.), there are mats laid across the race course/line at start, finish, and any intermediate check-points race management desires and can afford.  Beneath these mats are loops of wire that create an electro-magnetic field which “enervates” the chip to transmit its unique identifier. 

 

(The mats are mostly a compromise between protecting the wires and the runners from each other.  However, last year or year before, one of the big US Marathons saw a world-class runner slip on a mat and fall while approaching the finish of what I think was a time well under 2:10 for the 26.2 distance.  Although I’m sure any Andretti who can reach the pedals can drive faster, left-handed, facing backwards, while texting [or programming], that’s still pretty fast, just under 5:00/M average pace or 12+MPH velocity, a dangerous speed for making unplanned and uncontrolled contact with the pavement uniformed in no more than running “thin-clads”!)

 

It seems that Championchip device, which operates this way, is actually a ruggedized (and more expensive) form of RFID - that’s why these are reclaimed in the finish chute before finishers are allowed to mix and mingle (hopefully with some appropriate, carb’-rich post-race beverages).  They are then id’d, bagged/packaged, and used at the next event.

 

Anyway, in my bit of investigation into this aspect of RFID, the big bucks seem to be associated with the transponder equipment that generates the field(s), acquires, then stores||uploads the data to a computing device.  That is probably true whether the application is in a warehouse application or on a Half-Marathon route.

 

However, as you indicate with that “throw them away” comment, the RFID equipment has become more capable and more reliable such that a “cheap” RFID tag can actually be embedded in the runners’ bib numbers.  The price of the bib numbers shoots up dramatically, of course, but, in toto, there is a net value gain for event and results management.

 

In fact, this shift in “cost/util”, as my undergrad’ Econ Professor liked to say, has been relatively recent and relatively dramatic.  It has been enough so, that the guy with the Knoxville Track Club who manages the Tennessee Middle School XC State Championship - which I think my girls will win again this year! - told me that KTC just bought one of these systems and, yes, you do “just throw them away after the race”.

 

Hey, hope all is well in The Circle City.  There is intra-familial discussion about a visit there sometime in August …

 

Steve

 

From: rbase-l@rbase.com [mailto:rbas...@rbase.com] On Behalf Of Bill Downall
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:09am 09:09
To: RBASE-L Mailing List
Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: RFID

 

Regarding price:

 

I don't know what they used for acquisition software and hardware, but for the Indy 500 Mini-Marathon (half marathon), all 35,000 runners got an RFID chip to attach to their shoe, and this year they were told to just throw them away after the race. 

 

Bill

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Wills, Steve <jswi...@utmem.edu> wrote:

 1 - The total price was very high.

 2 - RFID hardware and tags, even ones that survive being autoclaved, are available from multiple HARDWARE vendors.

 3 - As a strategic principle, avoid proprietary implementations as much as possible, unless some huge value can be demonstrated for so doing.