EPC Technology

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been widely used in applications such as car immobilizers, animal tracking and access systems since the late 90s. For the adoption of RFID in less specialized applications domains such as supply chain operations, however, there was a need for a low cost, standardized RFID technology with a read range of more than two meters. Since 1999, work at the Auto-ID Center and its successor organization EPCglobal has focused on turning this vision of low cost tags and readers into reality by developing the appropriate standards [2]. In the four years of its operation the Auto-ID Center became a collaborative effort of six universities including MIT, the University of Cambridge and the University of St. Gallen and more than 100 global companies such as Coca-Cola, Gillette, IBM, Intel, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, UPS, and Wal-Mart. Since November 2003, EPCglobal Inc., a joint venture between EAN International and the Uniform Code Council, two of the earliest sponsors of the Auto-ID Center, has carried forth the development and commercialization of the technology, while the universities involved continue the RFID research as the Auto-ID labs.