What technology does TRS use to time events?
TRS uses radio frequency identification (rfid) technology to capture the unique time (start, intermediate, or finish) for each participant. Rfid systems consist of three main components: an rfid chip, an antennna, and a data storage device (mini computer). The rfid chip is a passive device that can be programmed with a unique data string. For our purposes, the data string is the same number as the bib number. We use a passive device because it does not depend on the state of a battery charge to be operational as is the case with an active device. The antenna has two functions; it generates an electrical field that the rfid chip uses for its power source and it captures the data string that is generated by the rfid chip when it is activated and transfers this data string to the data storage device. The data storage device uses software to assign a unique time stamp to the data string, converts the data string to a number, and stores this combined data in a text file. this text file can
