A passive RFID tag and barcode combination label on a piece of jewelry I bought at Target today caused me embarrassment. And it's not the first time!
The tag, stuck to the back of the little plastic card holding my new ring, did its job well. Once I purchased the item, the salesperson was supposed to deactivate the tag by passing it over a gadget that would scramble the electronic circuit hidden inside, but either she forgot, or the equipment didn't work.
So, when I walked through the pair of RFID reader panels by the exit doors, the radio-frequency signal from one side of the gate powered up the flat metal coil antenna hidden in my tag. Once the power was "turned on," the electronic circuit embedded in the tag transmitted a reply to the opposite panel signaling that I was "illegally" removing the item from the store.
It's happened to me so often, both at this particular store and others, that I didn't even look back. If an employee had chased after me I could have shown them my receipt, but nobody seemed to notice. It was a case of human error thwarting technological advances.
Engineering once again shows its promise, along with its imperfection.
