RFID-based Disaster-Relief System

In the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, bills were widely posted as a means of distributing information in the disaster-afflicted are a. Resident safety and evacuation information and emergent risk assessment results were directly posted on damaged buildings, and in this manner information was communicated within the disaster area. This example highlights the importance of establis hing a system that can be used in rescue operations for the rapid collection of inform ation scattered throughout an affected area; such a system could rely on manpower, rescue robots, or other elements that are independent of existing means of communicati on. This feature would prove particularly important in the event of a large-scale disaster that would likely cripple the communication infrastructure. An RFID tag (for Radio Frequency Identification, a type of electronic tag) is a small device