RFID for the New Normal: Contactless Identification
The Covid-19 pandemic has turned businesses and industries upside down affecting both front-end and back-end operations. Many of them are quick to adapt new technologies to eliminate or at least significantly decrease human to human contact. A prime example is the access control process of office buildings and manufacturing plants to authenticate the identity of employees going in and out of the facilities. Another example is thru RFID-based payment systems, instead of money exchanging hands and causing transmission of viruses, many establishments are opting to use contactless payments to limit physical interaction. One last example is for tracking healthcare workers and medical devices in hospitals. More and more healthcare facilities are adapting RFID technology to help them manage their people and equipment better.
1. RFID for Access Control
Companies who used to implement fingerprint scanning for access control identification has reverted back to RFID technology to refrain employees from human contact. RFID readers have evolved from just being a simple reader that scans your RFID card/badge to being an all-in-one reader that houses the RFID reader, controller, and other peripherals. The evolution of the RFID technology and innovations made by various companies has allowed users to easily implement RFID for access controls regardless the size of your business.
Simply connect your automatic door lock to your controller or RFID reader and issue RFID badges to your users. Your users can scan their RFID badges to enter and exit the secure area without having contact with other people. You can also connect the RFID reader to your software system to record and monitor the activity in that particular area.
2. RFID for Payment Systems
Contactless payment systems have been using RFID technology for quite some time. There are two types of RFID payment systems: (1) Open system and (2) Closed system. Most open systems are created for public transport where you can use the same RFID card to pay for all types of public transport and in some cases can also be used as payment in stores. A closed system is mainly used in a private setting where the card can only be swiped within a specific establishment such as a cafeteria for employees of a factory. An RFID card will be preloaded with an amount paid by the user like a debit card or it can also serve like a credit card where employees can use the card to pay for their meals in the cafeteria and the amount charged to the card will be deducted on their payroll.
It is the best solution for payments as it not only eliminates human contact but it is also secure especially when using cards with high-level encryption such as Mifare Desfire.
3. RFID for Healthcare
RFID applications in the healthcare industry have increased significantly in recent years. Hospitals have utilized RFID to track medical devices’ location and used the information from the RFID tags on medical devices to monitor its maintenance schedules. Healthcare facilities have also used RFID technology to keep track of patients and its employees in real-time. Deployment of RFID in critical areas of hospitals such as operating rooms and pharmacies that store prescription medications and vaccines have increased as well.
RFID has allowed hospitals to decrease over-stocking, monitor item expiration, reduced inventory time, and increase efficiency by having all the data they need in real time.
Scannel RFID for the New Normal
As part of our efforts to help you prevent the spread of the coronavirus, we have developed AG19 Hygiene Monitor which can be connected to RFID readers and automatic door locks to ensure that your employees are practicing clean hand hygiene by disinfecting their hands before entering your facilities. For more information about AG19, you can check our link here.
You can choose from our wide variety of RFID products for your specific application. We also offer Low Frequency and High-Frequency RFID readers and tags that are easy to use and suitable for access control and payment systems. For inventory management, you can check our UHF RFID readers, antennas, and tags which can be used for smart cabinets to track item-level pharmaceutical products. We can also help you develop your own RFID products via OEM or ODM services.
Which RFID should you choose?
There are different types of RFID technology available and it all boils down to your application. If you want to know which one you should choose then you can refer to our piece on Know More About RFID to understand RFID further or you can contact us at info@scannel.net for consultation.