That's an important point Karen. Metal will block an RFID tag's signal if the antenna substrate is covered, as will water (including that contained in a human body). But mere proximity to these materials will not interfere with a reading. In one quick test, I successfully read a tag placed behind the adjacent legs of two pallet racks. But if a tag is completely shielded, its antenna needs to be at least partially uncovered by the intervening material. In the case of a steel plate wrapped in a slipcase, for example, the tag would have to be read from the side of the package on which it's placed. Any other tags being sought that are positioned behind a metal shield would also need their tags exposed, or scanned from the other side of the interference. You still don't need to scan a visual line of code, or expose the tag at all, as long as you can scan from a more effective angle. Worst case scenario, such interference reduces the RFID tag nearly to the limits of a barcode-only tag's readability. We also print our RFID labels with barcodes on their faces, so we can record their movements by either method. This could be an instructive setup for a case study if anyone is on the fence about which system to implement.
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