A Cheaper Alternative to RFID - RuBee

Filed in archive RFID Basics on January 30, 2007

You appreciated WiBree and ZigBee and now it's the turn to move on to RuBee which is being hailed as a cheaper alternative to RFID. Technically its termed as IEEE 1902.1 but the name RuBee is easier to use. Here low cost radio tags are used which can be read as far as fifty feet and below 450 kHz. RuBee scores over RFID since it can be survive in some of the most difficult conditions such as water and metal where RFID tends to under perform. Also it's quite easy to transfer the RuBee data to an internet database.

The RuBee radio tags have a good battery life and they can last for more than ten years with the costs of radio tags being low, can be fully programmed using four bit processors and are as thin as a credit card.

In terms of speed and accuracy RuBee is still behind RFID but it certainly scores in the cost arena and can be visualized as gap filler between RFID and personal area networks. Let me tell you that RuBee is being hailed as an alternative and not a replacement for RFID.