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Evidence Management: Why Barcode is Better Than RFID

October 19, 2015

At Tracker Products, we provide advanced evidence management technology to make life easier for law enforcement agencies across the country.

SAFE is evidence-tracking software that is designed to expedite criminal investigations. The Tracker team constantly explores new technologies and techniques to see if they may help us better serve our clientele. A current fad in the tracking field is radio frequency identification or RFID. In the following blog, we explain why we aren’t jumping on the RFID bandwagon and describe how our innovative barcode feature could help your business or organization function better.

 

How Does RFID Work?

A RFID chip is a tiny electronic device (slightly larger than a grain of rice) that contains a unique tag (so it can be recognized with the proper equipment) and an antenna (so it can wirelessly transmit information using electromagnetic waves. Depending on the design of the particular RFID chip, it may or may not also contain a small battery to power it. The chip’s tag can be interpreted when it comes within a certain distance (between 20 and 100 feet) of a RFID reader. Russian inventor Leon Theremin developed RFID technology in order to help the Soviet Union spy on its enemies during the 1940s. Many countries have used RFID tools for espionage over the decades, but this system has only recently become more popular with the general public. Today, RFID chips are used in some retail, transportation, and identification systems, although they remain controversial.

RELATED: EVIDENCE MANAGEMENT TRACKING: RFID VS. BAR CODE TECHNOLOGY

The Benefits of Barcode

Evidence Management

Barcode is such a universal element of modern culture that it almost requires no explanation. Like RFID, this tracking technology was developed in the late 1940s, but it quickly gained widespread acceptance. A bar code is simply a visual representation of data involving lines of varying thicknesses and sets of numbers. Special readers can scan and decode this information to identify objects. Barcode offers numerous benefits over RFID for tracking evidence, assets, or other objects:

How Tracker Uses Barcode

One of the hallmarks of our SAFE tracking software is its barcode system. You can assign each item and log a distinctive bar code so it can be easily scanned and tracked. This makes for simpler, more convenient evidence organization, asset management, and e-discovery.

Test it Out For Yourself

To experience our barcode functionality for yourself, start with your free version of SAFE today.

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