Table 1.
Summary of advantages and disadvantages of optical and radiofrequency technologies for people and asset tracking and monitoring [8,12,13,14,15,16].
| Optical | Radiofrequency | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| QR/barcodes | High-frequency (HF) radio frequency identification/near-field communication (RFID/NFC) (13.56 MHz) | Ultra high-frequency (UHF) RFID (868 MHz, 915 MHz) |
|
| Advan-tages | Reading technology based on image processing. | Can work even with non line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions between the reader and the tags. | |
| Low cost of the readers. | High throughput (up to hundreds of tags read per second). | ||
| Widespread and mature technology, users worldwide are familiarized with it. | |||
| Reading range up to 10 m. | |||
| Capability to read several tags simultaneously. | |||
| Disadvan-tages | Can require a person to operate (increasing the amount of work, or the risk of mistakes). | Moderate to high cost of UHF RFID readers and antennas. | |
| Limited reading range. Requires line-of-sight (LOS) between reader and the QR/barcode. | Limited reading range (25–50 cm). | ||
| Can be affected by multipath, interferences (reducing RFID system throughput and performance). | |||
| Only one barcode/QR code can be read at a time. | |||
| Read-only tags. | |||
| Subject to environmental conditions (good visibility and illumination). | |||