Commercial Product Activation Using RFID

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) would be used for commercial product activation, according to a proposal. The concept of RFID is not new: RFID systems are widely used in commerce for tracking such diverse assets as animals, credit cards, and retail products. Also not new is the concept of manufacturing commercial products to be nonfunctional or unusable until activated at points of sale or in response to electronic submission of proof of purchase. What is new here is the concept of combining RFID with activation — more specifically, using RFID for activating commercial products (principally, electronic ones) and for performing such ancillary functions as tracking individual product units on production lines, tracking shipments, and updating inventories (see figure).