RFID technology is part of our daily lives. From credit cards to medical equipment like pacemakers; from shipping crates on huge transatlantic carriers to labels on items you might buy in any store to prevent theft. This technology plays a huge role in our lives, and most of us don't even know it exists. A Brief History of RFID Technology RFID technology first gained attention during World War II. The 1930s and 1940s marked the era of radar and telegraph communications in the Western world, on which the Allied powers relied heavily. The British Royal Air Force was the first to recognize the use of radar to distinguish friendly from enemy aircraft. This system, called Identify Friend/Foe (IFF), was used successfully to track aircraft used by the Allies to prevent friendly fire and reduce the risk of surprise attacks against England's main enemy. This technology is still used today by modern armies around the world, in a more advanced way of course. Aside from its use in IFF systems during World War II, RFID technology as we think of it today didn't really take off until World War II. 1960s. A boom in research and development in the 1970s propelled RFID technology into the everyday world we see everywhere today. There were several notable inventors between the 1960s and 1970s. RF Harrington, among them, studied electromagnetic theories related to the operation of modern passive RFID systems. His theory, called the “Charged Diffuser Theory,” was a device that used scattered radio patterns, similar to Morse code, to track objects. Robert Richardson and JH Vogelman also developed similar theories, both based on the passive transmission of data via radio or radar signals. T...... middle of paper ......am: O'Reilly, 2005. Safari Tech Books online. Internet. February 16, 2013. Landt, J. “The History of RFID.” IEEE Potentials 24.4 (2005): 8-11. 2005. Internet. February 16, 2013. Thornton, Frank, Anand M. Das, Brad Haines, Hersh Bhargava, Anita Campbell, and John Kleinschmidt. RFID security. Rockland, MA: Syngress, 2006. Safari Tech Books Online. Internet. February 16, 2013. United States. Congress. Home. RFID Technology: What the Future Holds for Commerce, Security, and the Consumer: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Commerce and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred and Eighth Congress, Second Session, July 14, 2004. Washington: USGPO, 2004. Print. Want, R. “An Introduction to RFID Technology.” IEEE Ubiquitous Computing 5.1 (2006): 25-33. Print.