Research
History of RFID
An aircraft's IFF transponder being read from the ground, which is a form of active RFID. (Source: Defense Visual Information Center)
RFID has its roots in IFF systems used during the Second World War to identify friendly aircraft. This is an example of active tags.
Research in the 1980s focused on tracking livestock in Europe and transportation and security access in the United States.
The worlds first electronic tollway opened in 1987 in Norway. The first electronic tollway in the United States is the Dallas North Turnpike, which opened in 1989.
Passive RFID tags were invented in the early 1990s by IBM. Research continued at the Auto-ID Lab at MIT in 1999, sponsored by a consortium of companies. This marks the start of exploration of use in supply-chain.
There was no standard for passive RFID tags until December 2004 when EPCglobal adopted the Generation 2 standard.