Last updated on October 9th, 2024 at 12:21 pm
Over the past 5-10 years, most national passports have been transitioning from the primary data storage format of MRZ to RFID. Both formats are intended to speed up border crossings and customs interactions by making passports scannable by specific cameras and hardware. Instead of manually reading a passport an agent can scan the document and immediately ingest a variety of fields.
Machine readable zone (MRZ)
Global organization ICAO sets the standards for passport designs and readability. There are currently three MRZ sizes, but the two most common are:
“Type 3” – passport booklets: 2 lines × 44 characters
“Type 1” – passport cards – 3 lines × 30 characters
The dimensions of the effective reading zone (ERZ) is standardized at 17.0 mm in height with a margin of 3 mm at the document edges and 3.2 mm at the edge against the visual readable part. This is in order to allow use of a single machine reader.
Only characters A to Z (upper case), 0–9, and < (angle bracket) are allowed. The typeface is universally OCR-B, a typeface which is ideal for optical character recognition.
The following information is stored within the MRZ on all travel documents:
- document type
- document holder name
- document number
- Nationality
- date of birth
- sex
- document expiration date
MRZ has been the worldwide standard since the 1980’s. It is an easy format that anyone can use. However, wear and tear on the passport can render it unreadable. It is also limited in the amount of information that can be stored – because of this some fields such as long names, may be truncated.
What is Radio frequency identification (RFID)
RFID, also known as “a chip” or “biometric passports” stores all of the information, and more, on a chip which is embedded inside the hardcover of the passport. It is the same technology used for embedding a chip into a pet for finding them when they get lost. It is intended to be read only by a device within 4 inches of the physical chip. Either an active RFID tag or a passive RFID tag located on the item is read by a reader, sometimes called an interrogator, by way of its antenna. Smart labels may also be used as passive RFID tags. The data is transmitted via radio waves to the reader which then converts this data into a more usable form. Once converted, the data can be read by a host computer system and stored in a database to be accessed at a later time.
Unlike MRZ, ICAO has not set a standard for what information must be stored inside an RFID chip on a passport. For American citizens, there is no personal information stored on the RFID tag, simply a reference code to a file the government keeps on you and agents can access at passport control. Most other countries store data directly on the chip itself. For Europeans this typically means all of the information about you is inside of the passport (e.g. name, date of birth, etc.) plus your photo and fingerprints. Most countries attempt to perform some type of encryption on the RFID chip to protect sensitive data.
Currently, 160 countries have some type of RFID. Notable national passports that do not contain a chip and still rely on MRZ exclusively are India, South Africa, Egypt, Cuba, Ethiopia and many more countries in Central America, Africa, and the Pacific Islands. India plans to start issuing biometric passports in 2022.
Benefits of RFID vs. MRZ
- A larger storage capacity that includes the ability to store images, as well as avoiding truncation
- Harder to damage with less wear and tear
- Embedded in the document, so does not take away visual real estate on the document
- All data is transmitted and can be verified near instantaneously
- Substantially harder to fabricate
Although MRZ is much cheaper to produce, and MRZ-readers are cheaper to manufacture, it appears that most nations are making the investment in the superior identity data storage format.
What is the difference between active RFID and passive RFID?
RFID is a form of AIDC technology, or Automatic Identification and Data Capture. AIDC allows the user to scan an object so it can be identified and its data can be collected. That data is then stored onto a computer system automatically. Because it uses radio waves, the item being scanned does not need to be in the reader’s line of vision, making inventory collection and tracking easier than with the older barcode technology. RFID can mainly be used in two different forms: active RFID vs. passive RFID. Semi-passive is a third option that uses some aspects of both active and passive.
There are two primary types of readers; active RFID vs. passive RFID readers. In other words, interrogators that interact with passive RFID tags and interrogators that interact with active RFID tags.
When comparing active RFID vs. passive RFID readers, we see that readers that interrogate active RFID tags wait to come into contact with the tag’s signal, which is always being emitted – only then does it read the tag. Active tags have a wider range than passive tags and can even be adjusted to read up to 150 meters away. An excellent example of when this would be applicable is in a toll tag for a car. In places where commuters cross toll roads or bridges, there is often an option to buy an active RFID tag which serves as a monthly toll pass. The driver can bypass the toll booth and continue over the bridge or road quickly. As they pass the toll booth, an RFID reader sends a signal to the tag mounted in the front window of the car. The tag sends back its information to the interrogator letting it know what kind of car it is, who owns it, and that the toll pass has a sufficient balance to cross. If the pass has an account associated with it that has insufficient funds, it can alert the camera system to take a picture of the license plate to add to any applicable records and bill the associated account’s address.
Readers that interrogate passive RFID tags, however, send out a signal to interrogate the passive tag. The passive tag receives this signal from the reader and sends back its identification information. When taking a look again at active RFID vs. passive RFID, passive tags can’t be read from nearly as far as active RFID tags can be, but they are also smaller and less costly to implement. These interrogators typically read passive RFID tags such as employee name badges or wristbands with smart labels printed on them.
The onboard technology in an active RFID tag can contain many different features, from sensors to input and output ports. Some examples of active RFID tag technology are location detection or heat sensors that can help to keep track of items or personnel location for safety.
The antenna is what the reader uses to collect this information. The shape of the antenna depends on the frequency of the radio waves being transmitted and how far they are traveling. In general, the higher the frequency and the farther the distance, the bigger the antenna will need to be. Active RFID tags require larger antennas than passive RFID tags because they utilize much higher radio wave frequencies and are capable of reading at further distances.
As we analyze active RFID vs. passive RFID tags, it’s not too hard to see how the passive RFID tags are structured slightly differently. A passive RFID tag has an antenna and a microchip much like the active RFID tag does, but when comparing active RFID vs. passive RFID, passive tags do not have the onboard technology or internal power source. What it does have is something called a substrate. This is a material usually made of Mylar or some kind of plastic film that acts as a bonding agent for the microchip and the antenna. It holds the components of a passive RFID tag together. This might manifest as personnel ID badges that are made of a plastic in which the components of the tag are embedded.
Active RFID tags are very durable and have a wide reading range of up to 150 meters. The higher frequency that the active tag operates on when comparing active RFID vs. passive RFID makes active a better choice when metals or liquids are around as liquids can absorb the signal and metals can reflect it. The best applications for active RFID tags vs. passive RFID tags are usually outdoors and on large assets as the tags themselves are usually quite large.
ID Scanners That Can Read Both MRZ & RFID
Passport scanning and passport parsing can be performed on both MRZ and RFID, however the IDScan.net passport parsing SDK only works on MRZ.
For hardware that can handle both MRZ reading/parsing and RFID reading, take a look at our AT10K and AT9000 which can do both, in addition to reading drivers’ licenses and state IDs. IDScan.net offers a variety of solutions that can scan and parse the necessary information to keep security at a maximum and wait times to a minimum.
Still not sure? Contact us and let one of our industry experts help to guide your company to the right solution that will help you remain compliant and efficient. With summer travel picking up, and security queue times at record highs, the time to upgrade your scanning solution is now.
