Just wanted to include something i wrote for the newsletter here at work…

The history of RFID tags is as shadowy as the technology it uses. Many believe that Leon Theremin invented the RFID tag in use with espionage work for the Russian government. They would be wrong. What Theremin created was more of a way to listen in on conversations—and as everybody knows there isn’t much listening done with an RFID tag on a shirt from the Gap.

Perhaps the oldest instance of RFID technology is the IFF Transponder stuff used in the Second World War. This ‘friend or foe’ technology allowed the British to identify allied planes much more easily—an important feature considering how crude radio signal technology was at this time.

It took 30 more years before the RFID technology became honed to the state it is today. But many saw it coming. Harry Stockman delivered a paper in 1948 in which he predicted the next great wave of scientific radio technology will be in the field of “reflected-power-communication.” (Notice the word power in that description.)

For more info>..http://www.de220.com/Electronics/Antennas/Antennas.htm