Journal Summary 5 : “Consumer Acceptance of RFID Technology:An Exploratory Study”

Nurul Farahin Mohd Shuhaimi

14370

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been a technology which has been used in numerous applications and has many interesting application which identifies as potential as a fundamental technology and have gain attention by both academicians and practitioners.

However, there are several issues rising up regarding this matter which require addressing to achieve its widespread acceptance by consumers. Example of RFID technology is the violation of personal information privacy in government sector.

Therefore, a study is proposed to investigate the factor that affect consumer acceptance on the RFID technology. A model is developed and tested on its theoretical framework of the critical factors that affect the consumer’s acceptance of RFID technology.  

The model contextualized the technology acceptance model (TAM) within the context of the technology. The research model proposes that convenience, culture, privacy, regulation, and security are the principal factors influencing the consumers’ acceptance of RFID.

There are several hypotheses that have been proposed based on the previous studies.

Hypothesis 1: Convenience perceived of using RFID technology has a significant positive influence on consumer intention to use this technology.

Hypothesis 2: The influence of culture on perceptions about RFID technology has a significant bearing on the intention to use RFID technology by the members of that culture.

Hypothesis 3a: The higher the perceived importance of personal privacy, the lower the intention to use RFID technology.

Hypothesis 3b: The less willing the consumer is to sacrifice personal privacy, the lower their intention to use RFID technology.

Hypothesis 4: The consumers’ perception of regulatory protections associated with RFID technology is positively associated with their intention to use RFID technology.

Hypothesis 5a: The higher the perceived importance of personal information security, the lower the intention to use RFID technology.

Hypothesis 5b: The less willing consumers are to sacrifice their personal information security, the lower their intention to use RFID technology.

To support the result, a survey was conducted in the study to investigate the factor that affects consumer acceptance on RFID technology. The survey approximately suggested the responder, 10 minutes to fill out the survey and the people aged below 18 are not allowed filling out the survey. The responses are based on seven-point Likert scale anchored between 1 (strongly disagree) and 7 (strongly agree).

A review and pilot test was conducted in this study to ensure that none of the items were ambiguous and that the items adequately captured the domain of interest.

In addition, an online survey method was used also conducted in “websurveyor” and the link was e-mailed to the prospective respondents.

250 responded for the survey. It represents 83.4% response rate. The responses are check for any early-versus-late response bias and two tests were conducted which are Independent sample t-tests were used to test for such bias in the data and t-tests using SPSS showed the absence of early-versus-late response bias.

The result of shows and the reliability of the factors were checked using Cronbach’s alpha. Two analyses are used to test the proposed hypothesis.

First is regression analysis which is a statistical tool concerned which evaluate the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables.

For regression analysis, Intention was used as dependent variable, and Convenience, Culture, PrivacyIMP, PrivacyWTS, Regulation, SecurityIMP, and SecurityWTS as independen variables. The runs test, Levene’s test and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests were conducted to test for randomness, constancy of variance, and normality, respectively.

The results of multiple regression analysis show that Convenience, Culture, SecurityIMP, and SecurityWTS are significant predictors of intention to use RFID technology. These findings support four hypotheses (H1, H2, H5a, and H5b). The results also show insufficient evidence for support of three hypotheses (H3a, H3b, and H4), suggesting that PrivacyIMP, PrivacyWTS, and Regulation play insignificant roles in predicting the intention to use RFID technology in the presence of the other variables.

Second analysis is discriminant analysis and a model was developed to show the underlying differences between the consumers who have higher intention to use RFID and those who have lower intention to use RFID. A discriminant analysis was then conducted with these clusters as the dependent variables and the summated scores of Convenience, Culture, PrivacyIMP, PrivacyWTS, Regulation, SecurityIMP, and SecurityWTS as the independent variables.

The result suggests that convenience, culture and security are important to know the acceptance of the consumer on the technology. However, privacy issue led to a factor that future implementation of RFID technology to be insignificant.

There are four explanations that support the findings.

First is the nature of how the RFID technology is used. RFID technology might threaten the privacy of the consumer therefore as they have the awareness and realized of the issues, consumer will have a better view on the possible threats of the RFID technology.

Second is consumer pay less attention to the issues although realizing the potential privacy threats of the technology. The consumer see that benefits of the technology is greater that the potential privacy threat.

Thirdly is the pervasive and ubiquitous nature of technology. The technology nowadays may influences the perception of the people on the privacy issues therefore people are more pervasive the positive influence of technology on people, the less the issue of personal privacy arises.

Last but not least is different reaction on the privacy issues. Different respondents may have different perception regarding their own privacy and the notion of privacy.

To sum up, convenience, culture’s influence and security perceived are the factors that affect the consumer’s acceptance on the RFID technology.

However there are several limitations of the study which involves the sample, the student which shows the limitations on the generalizability of the study.  Therefore, future research should test and validate the model by collecting data from a different composition of subjects.

Besides that, another issue is several of the constructs used in this study are in the developmental stage. 

RFID’s scientific research is not well-developed yet and just recently gained momentum therefore the scientific study on the acceptance of this technology are scarce.

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Reference
Hossain. M.M. & Prybutok. V.R., “Consumer Acceptance of RFID Technology:An Exploratory Study”, IEEE Transactions On Engineering Management, vol. 55, pp. 316-328, 2^nd May. 2008

Journal Summary 4 : Enabling RFID in Retail

Stelio Sergio 

14161

Although currently impractical except for high-value products, item-level RFID tagging offers tangible benefits to both suppliers and retailers. However, widespread development will ultimately depend on public concerns about public privacy protection.

The past years have seen an increased interest in Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) due to its fast large use throughout the supply chain. RFID applications monitor store-keeping units (SKUs) not individual items due the high cost of RFID development. Future previsions envision carts with onboard computers or RFID-enabled smartphones that display information and promotions wirelessly from the system. This could also enable quick checkout at the counters and thus eliminating queues which are one of the most negative aspects of supermarket shopping. Moreover, to embed RFID devices in loyalty cards could accelerate the processes at the point of sale counter, however that raises privacy concerns.

Radio-Frequency Identification

RFID indicates to any system that can transmit identification numbers over radio. These systems exist since the World War II. Nowadays, it is also used in animal tracking, automatic toll collection, car immobilizers and building access control systems. The interest in this technology has come to public interest in means of gathering how RFID use could affect everyone. Not falling far behind, supermarkets and retailers are currently implementing RFID solutions throughout their supply chain.

When it comes to operating principles, RFID systems are divided into the tag and the reader. The tag is composed by a microcontroller, an antenna and polymer-encapsulating material. On the other side, the reader is the one that initiates the identification process by generating an RF field which the tag detects and responds by transmitting the identifier that it holds. RFID tags are also divided into passive and active. Passive RFID tags are those that do not require any power source, meaning they can only be read within few centimeters from the reader and plus they have a high rate of error. On the other hand, active RFID tags have longer range, provide reliable communication and work until the battery runs out. Even though the difference in the tags is apparent, their transmission range will depend mostly on the antenna’s size.

Like any other technology, RFID has its own implications. In order to perform accurately, RFID requires differentiation in the frequencies used. It needs to operate without being absorbed by neither water nor metals. Another implication is the privacy because as the technology is deployed, new uses are discovered, and these might affect consumer’s privacy.

Item-Level Tagging in Retail

Although the cost is too high, there is a tendency to implement item-level tagging for high-value products. In the pas there was a successful implementation of Efficient Consumer response (ECR) initiatives which support the use of information technology to increase consumer value and decrease supply-chain inefficiencies.

Furthermore, using RFID at the SKU level improves vendor-managed inventory (VMI) by automating the scanning of stock and enabling continuous and accurate data flows.

Another proposed use, was in user profiling in order to do the price refinement in order to attract and retain specific consumer groups. During the same period, RFID use was expected to provide understandings into consumer buying habits and patterns so that the organizations exploit this information and gain a competitive advantage. This is possible because RFID use in the stores creates an information trail of locations, routes and interactions with products, hence retailers can combine and mine this information to develop offers and promotions.

Consumer Privacy Perceptions

In order to gather public opinion regarding privacy issues, a research was conducted, and which the outcome was that participants objected any recording of data on delivery of personalized commercial communications. The reason for this objection was because they viewed it as a direct privacy violation, and required more control instead of commercial benefits. Although they understood the tradeoffs, they did not advocate uncontrolled use of personal data because they do not have any assurance that the data will not be used beyond the expressed purpose. Moreover they felt that the collection of data can violate individual’s freedom of choice and sense of uniqueness.

An attempt to address privacy issues was the creation of an extension with a destroy command for RFID in which the tags will stop accepting read requests, however this was still under deliberation because consumers did not have any way of verifying that the tags have been disabled.

RFID and Risk Management

Nowadays, technology and business govern culture; nonetheless it is a society’s privacy culture that defines the values, sensibilities and commitments. The aspects of the technology that emphasize trust problems are: RFID-based systems’ silent and transparent operation and the fact that trust is not a purely cognitive process and thus is not opened to a strictly quantitative treatment. Actually, many challenges reside in managing data that RFID generates and monitoring the contact between user and system. In a near future, RFID use in the supply chain will turn into a common practice at the SKU level, yet item-level tagging will be constrained to high-value products. While businesses, users and the society in general struggle to handle excess of new data sources and their privacy implications, new mechanisms of use of the same data will appear, shopping behavior will change and consumer engagement will increase.

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Reference

G. Roussos, “Enabling RFID in Retail,” IEEE Local Computer Networks, no. 31, 2006, pp. 25

Journal Summary 3 : Bluetooth in Wireless Communication

Anis Liyana Abd Rahman 

14415

Bluetooth is one of method for data communication that uses short- range radio links to replace cable between computers and their connected units. Bluetooth is an open standard for wireless connectivity that supports mostly from the PC and cell phone industries. It is a primary market for data and voice transfer between communication devices and PCs.

Bluetooth is a radio frequency (RF) technology that utilizing the unlicensed 2.5 GHz industrial,

scientific, and medical (ISM) band. The target applications for Bluetooth include PC and peripheral networking, hidden computing and data synchronization such as for address books and calendars.

Other applications could include smart home networking and home appliances of the future such as smart appliances, heating systems and entertainment devices.

Bluetooth History

Bluetooth was created in 1994 by L. M. Ericsson (telecoms vendor) of Sweden. Bluetooth was named after Harald Blaatand “Bluetooth” II, king of Denmark 940–981A.D. The story goes when a runic stone has been erected in a capitol city Jelling (Jutland) in which he ruled, that depicts the knighthood of Harald said:

• Harald christianized the Danes.
• Harald controlled Denmark and Norway.
• Harald thinks notebooks and cellular phones should continuously communicate.

Bluetooth is managed by Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) which was founded by Ericsson,

IBM, Intel, Nokia, and Toshiba in February 1998 in order to develop an open specification for shortrange wireless connectivity. The group is now also promoted by 3COM, Microsoft, Lucent, and Motorola. There are approximately more than 1900 companies have joined the SIG.

Why Using Bluetooth

Significantly, Bluetooth attempts to provide advantages over other data transfer technologies, such as IrDA and HomeRF competing for similar markets. Despite comments from the Bluetooth SIG indicating that the technology is complementary to IrDA, it is definitely a fierce competition for PCto- peripheral connection. IrDA is more popular in PC peripherals, but due to the limitation by the short connection distance of 1m and the line of sight requirement for communication. This limitation eliminates the feasibility of using IrDA for hidden computing, where the communicating devices are nearby but not visible to one another. On the other hand, Bluetooth is not subject to such limitation due to its RF nature.

Besides, Bluetooth has the capability for wireless device connections up to 10 m (could be up to 100 m if the transmitter’s power is increased), in addition with the devices need not be within line of sight and may even connected through walls or other non-metal objects. This allows for applications such as a cell phone in a pocket or a briefcase acting as a modem for a laptop or PDA. As a matter of fact, Bluetooth is designed to be low cost. Thus it has the greatest advantages however, there are few flips side of this advantage such that the limited connection distance and also the transmission speeds. Bluetooth supports only 780 kbps. These rates are comparable to the 1–2 Mbps supported by HomeRF and although live digital video is still beyond the capability of any RF technology, perfectly adequate for file transfer and printing applications.

The main strength of Bluetooth is its ability to simultaneously handle both data and voice transmissions. It is capable to support one asynchronous data channel and up to three synchronous voice channels or one channel supporting both voice and data. This capability will make the greatest solution for mobile devices and Internet applications as it combines with ad hoc device connection and automatic service discovery. Such combination will produce innovative solutions for example, mobile hands-free headset for voice calls, print to fax capability and automatically synchronizing PDA and cell phone address book applications.

Architecture Overview

Bluetooth link the control hardware as either one chip or a radio module and a baseband module implementing the RF. This hardware handles radio transmission and reception as well as required digital signal processing for the baseband protocol. Its can establish connections, support for asynchronous (data) and synchronous (voice) links, error correction and authentication. The link manager firmware provided with the baseband CPU performs low-level device discovery, link setup, authentication and link configuration. Link managers on separate devices communicate using the Link Management Protocol, which utilizes the services of the underlying link controller (baseband).

Network Topology

Basically, Bluetooth devices are organized into groups of two or to eight devices called piconets, consist of a single master device and one or more slave devices. A device can belong to more than one piconet and it will connect the piconet into a scatternet. Bluetooth operates in the unlicensed ISM frequency band, in order to help Bluetooth devices coexist and operate reliably alongside other ISM devices, each Bluetooth piconet is synchronized to a specific frequency hopping pattern. This pattern, moving through 1600 different frequencies per second and each frequency hop is a time slot during which data packets are transferred.

Baseband State Machine

Piconets may be static or dynamically as devices move in and out of range of one another. A device leaves standby (the low-power default state) by initiating an inquiry page of command. An inquiry may be used if the address of a targeted device is unknown and must be followed by a page command. A page command containing a specific DeviceAccess-Code is used to connect to a remote device. When the remote device responds, both devices enter the connected state, with the initiating device becoming the master and the responding device acting as a slave. Once in the connected state, the slave device will synchronize to the master’s clock and to the correct frequency-hopping pattern.

Today, most of the devices have implementing Bluetooth thus in the near future, Bluetooth is likely to be standard of more than tens of millions of electronic devices. As a result, the market is going to demand new innovative applications, valueadded services and much more. The possibilities opened up really are limitless and since the radio frequency used. In addition, SIG continues to improves and analyzing for the betterment of Bluetooth in the communication industry.

Reference

K. Sairam, N. Gunasekaran, & S. Reddy, “Bluetooth in Wireless Communication”, IEEE

Communications Magazine, June, 2002, pp. 90-96.

Journal Summary 2 : RFID: A Technical Overview and Its Application to the Enterprise

LUIS PEDRO

14164

RFID or Radio Frequency Identification systems are wireless, contactless data transmission systems based on radio-frequency electromagnetic fields, they are used mainly for id authentication and tracking purposes. An 

RFID system is made of three basic components:

·                       The tag/transponder device

·                       The reader/interrogator device

·                       The computer and Software Infrastructure

For a successful implementation of an RFID system it is mandatory that the components above mentioned be present forming a RFID system. The tags are attached to items that we wish to track or monitor, and they emit messages that are decoded by the interrogator devices. The interrogator device upon identified the unique ID emitted by the tag on the database triggers a module on the software infrastructure and acts upon it accordingly. Some tags are embedded with writable memory, therefore instead of only transmitting information they are also able to record it.

TYPES OF TAGS

The RFID tags are classified into two main types based on their initiation source; those are the active tags and the passive tags. The active tags have an independent power source which is great because allows them to transmit a stronger signal allowing coupling devices to detect them even more precisely, however to have an independent power source also means that this devices are also larger in size and cost, the smallest devices are usually about the size of a deck of cards, they normally operate at high frequencies (455 MHz) and distance ranges that cover between 20 to 100 meters.

As for the Passive tags which are widely available and flexible given there accessible costs and relatively smaller sizes, that allow them to be integrated into common products and materials account for a great portion of the growth in RFID expansion. The data transfer sequence is normally activated when a tag comes within the range of the interrogator device and uses the electromagnetic signal captured through its antenna to power up its on-board capacitor (this process in known as inductive coupling), once the capacitor has built enough charge it enables the tag circuit to transmit a modulated signal reply to the reader.

The tag (passive) uses two main methods to modulate the ID signal to be transmitted to the reader; these methods are associated with the capacity of the on-board capacitor, and they are Low frequency (below 100 MHz) and backscatter (above 100 MHz). in which passive tags operate are 128 KHz, 13 MHz, 915 MHz or 2.45 GHz with ranges that go up to a maximum of 30 feet.

RFID STANDARDS

RFID development communities have raised several efforts to set standards and applications for RFID technologies, the standards defined specify protocols for the air interface, the application support and coding mechanisms. On the basis of this work the ISO (International Standard Organization) has established 3 RFID main standards:

·                       ISO 14443, for contactless systems

·                       ISO 15693, for vicinity systems

·                       ISO 18000, to specify the air interfaces for the variety of RFID applications

Apart from these standards there also widely accepted standards in the development community such as the EPC (Electronic Product Code) standard that covers the air interfaces, the format for the product information stored in the tag, the middleware and database used for storing data about the tags. The EPC standard is managed by EPCglobal, a non-profit organization turned towards standardizing the RFID technology application.

RFID APPLICATIONS ADVANTAGES

·         RFID does not require line of sight to detect and read the tag

·         RFID offers greater read range

·         RFID readers can detect multiple tags simultaneously without having to scan each separately.

·   RFID tags store more information than barcode tags, allowing history information on a product to be purposefully tracked.

CHALLENGES AND ISSUES IN RFID

The usage of RFID systems has also raised several concerns and challenges over the years, these concerns are evaluated from the technological and usage points of view. On the usage point of view a major concern is 

privacy, since it disconcerting to have your information tracked without your knowledge, just in parallel this also raises a security concern where users do not know the information they are giving away and if they are willing to share that information.

RFID Application Best Cases

The most successful example of implementation of RFID technologies in supply chain management is provided by Wal-Mart that has an in house proprietary RFID system that proves the utmost efficiency and effectiveness of this technology in movement and product tracking, given all its warehouses and suppliers are due to apply the same technologies in order to maintain their business transactions. It is reported that Wal-Mart estimates its saves with the implementation of the system to be up to $ 8 billion a year. The US Navy has also offered an insight into the application of RFID systems with the successful completion of its pilot project to monitor the loading of supplies into cargo containers the Navy was successful in reducing the errors in records and improve its efficiency and speed in loading the containers, as well personnel could be assigned to other concerning areas effectively.

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration)is also conducting an investigation to determine the possibility of implementing RFID technology to ensure the safety in the supply chain and the authenticity of the prescription drugs, the idea is to have each shipment marked with an RFID tag which will then be read by the suppliers to ensure its authenticity. Furthermore Hospitals are known to have started applying RFID technology bracelets on newborns to ensure identity and track them in case they are removed from the facilities; this also helped reduce the margin for errors on surgical patients that had been tagged.

Schools are also implementing these systems to monitor attendance and track the children within the school premises.

References:

Welnsteln, R. RFID: A Technical Overview and Its Application to the Enterprise. Published by IEEE May, June 2005. www.cs.sunysb.edu/~jgao/CSE370-spring07/RFID.pdf

Journal Summary 1 : “What is Bluetooth?”

SITI HAFIZAH ARIFFAH BT HAJI AHMAD MAHYUDDIN

16624

In 1994, Ericson invented Bluetooth to replace cable technology and its capability is becoming widespread in various device types which include all the intelligent devices such as PDAs and embedded applications for instance automobile power locks.  Four year later, Bluetooth special Interest Group (SIG) is formed.  Joint work by the SIG members endorsed the Bluetooth vision to change to open standards to ensure rapid recognition and compatibility in the marketplace.  This technology has been developed by the Bluetooth SIG and is supported by over 2100 companies around the world.  Furthermore, it is freely available at the official Bluetooth website.

Bluetooth Technology is one of wireless network types.  It is a Radio Frequency specification for short-range, point-to-multipoint voice and data transfer.  Apart from that, it is also a low-power short-range wireless standard for a wide range of devices which uses 2.45GHz band that is an ideal technology that enable various devices to communicate and available anywhere in the world.

Bluetooth devices group themselves for communication purposes.  A Bluetooth Wireless Personal Area Network (BT-WPAN) comprises of piconets.  It is a cluster of up to eight Bluetooth devices that is a master and slaves in the others for each piconet.  Scatternet is formed when two piconets are connected through a getaway or a bridge.  These interconnected piconets within the scatternet for a backbone for the Mobile Area Network (MANET) enables the device to exchange data through several hops in the scatternet even though they are out of range of another device or not directly communicate with each other. 

Bluetooth depend primarily on point-to-point data links between Bluetooth devices that are within range.  Apart from that, it can also be more complex networking topologies.  The goal is to form Bluetooth scatternets that provide effective and efficient communication over multiple hops.

The Bluetooth protocol stack

It is divided into three logical groups that are Transport Protocol Stack, Middleware Protocol Stack and the Application Protocol Group.  The Radio, Baseband, Link Manager, Logical Link Manager, Logical Link Control and Adaption layers are included In Transport Protocol Group that required to support communications between Bluetooth devices while third-party, industry-standard protocols as well as Bluetooth SIG developed protocols are included in the Middleware Protocol Group.  These protocols allow existing and new applications to function over Bluetooth links.  Lastly, the Application group consists of actual applications that use Bluetooth links which includes legacy application as well as Bluetooth-aware applications.

Communication

A Bluetooth transceiver is a frequency-hopping spread-spectrum (FHSS) device that uses 2.4GHz band but the nominal bandwidth for each channel is only 1MHz.  The restrictions of this technology are that it is easily interrupt with other devices which used the same channel such as by 802.11b/g devices, HomeRF devices, portable phone and microwave ovens.  When it is connected to other Bluetooth devices, it hops at the rate of 1600 times per second for typical use.   

For standard transmissions, the Bluetooth transceiver uses all 79 channels and hops pseudo-randomly across all channels at 1600 hope per second.  The range of each radio is approximately 10m but can be extended to 100m by increasing transmit power.  This is because the transceiver has an extremely small footprint which easily embedded into physical devices making it a truly global radio link.  This specification uses Time Division Duplexing and Time Division Multiple Access for device communication.

The access code holds the piconet address, usually 72bits in length.  The header contains link control data encoded with a Forward Error-Correcting code with one-third rate for high reliability.  Bluetooth device uses polling-based transmission but for all the communication between devices in a piconet use Time Division Duplex with only master to slave communication. 

The master will poll each active slave to make sure it has data to transmit or not.  The master transmits only in even-numbered time slots and oppositely in slaves.  Inevery time slot, different frequency channel is used.

The piconet

Bluetooth facilitates ad-hoc connections for stationery and mobile connections which mean that any device that equipped with Bluetooth radio can establish instant connection to another Bluetooth radio as soon as it comes it comes into range.  In piconet, a master can connect to 7 slaves simultaneously.  These roles are temporary and exist as long as the piconet itself exists.  The master device selects a frequency, the frequency-hopping sequence, the timing and the slaves polling order.  It is also responsible to instruct the slave devices to switch to different device states for periods of inactivity.  If there are more than 7 slaves, the rest must be “parked” which only limits to 255 parked slaves per piconet with direct addressing as defined by SIG.  However, parked slave indirect addressing by own specific Bluetooth device address is also authorized which allows unlimited number of parked slaves.  In order for it to reactive, active slave must be placed into a parked slave by the master.

Bluetooth devices can attempt to communicate with each other when it enters into communication range.  In order for the slave to join the master’s piconet, master and slave must exchange and clock information as it have its own unique ID to create a hopping pattern.  The master shares its ID and clock offset with slaves in its piconet providing the offset in it.A slave need to know which frequency to use and must synchronize with master’s clock to recreate the frequency-hopping sequence of joined piconet.

Bluetooth gateway or bridge device interconnects two or more piconets for multi-hop communication.  The bridge can communicate with all the connected piconet which form scatternet  by aligning itself with the clocking of each piconet when it is ready to communicate.  This is because the bridge incurs overhead shifting from one clocking to another in order to communicate with each connected piconet which has a potential for a bottleneck to occur.

To fully realize the vision of Bluetooth, full networking of multiple Bluetooth devices is required that leads to the exploration of scatternets which address scatternet formation and reconfiguration, scheduling and routing issues.

(995 words)

Reference

Patricia,W. McDermott, “What is Bluetooth”, IEEE Potentials, December 2004/January 2005, pp. 33-35.