What Are Smart Tags?

Smart Tags are one type of numerous Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFIDs). The "Tags" contain small chips that have an identifying code in them, and are but one part of a three part system. Also required are a scanning antennae and a decoding transceiver (to read the data transmitted from the chip). When a RFID Tag is passed through the field of an antennae, the energy in this field activates the chip. The chip then sends a signal to the antennae telling it whatever is encoded on the chip (model number, serial number, size, color, etc.) A chip that is activated by the antennae's field has a relatively short distance that it is effective at (around 3 meters), and is a Passive RFID. In an Active RFID system, a small  power source is built in and can be read from a greater distance (somewhere around 100 meters). Active RFIDs have the additional capability of having information written to them, such as when, on what date, they pass a specific reader. These can be used for a myriad of applications ranging from a manufacturer embedding them into products for inventory control or customer preference logging to governments placing them into passports, alowing for the electronic documentation of the coming and going of people.