Analysts IDTechEx, Frost & Sullivan and ABI Research do not collude and they research the future of RFID in very different ways. However, they all forecast that we may be within ten years of seeing hundreds of billions of RFID tags on items in shops every year provided the new all-printed RFID tags are successful. For example, Kovio says it can meet the world's most popular RFID specification in money spent - ISO 14443 - with an ink jet printed nanosilicon transistor array. That is at High Frequency (13.56MHz) as used for tickets, cards and on library books, beer kegs, gas cylinders and some retail and drug item tagging. It says it can also meet the UHF specifications common for items in shops but not the highly complex EPC versions increasingly favored. That will come later, or the U Code favored in East Asia, the Marks & Spencer (world retail leader in apparel RFID) simple 64 bit tag and other more basic versions will be preferred, these being inherently much lower cost and easier to print. The IDTechEx forecast for global sales of RFID tags, showing printed types dominating in later years, is given below.
Tagging everything means multiple paybacks from cost reduction, increased security and safety - such as perfect automated stock removal of dangerous food - and improved customer service. Part of this revolution in retailing is the change in ways of paying for the merchandise using the printed RFID label on it. Look to Japan for the future in this respect, where 40 million RFID enabled phones are already in use.
Robot shopkeeper
A neat "robot" terminal has just been announced by electronics giant NEC. It combines a touch-sensitive screen in its chest with an RFID reader terminal for gathering data from the e-money phones that are popular in Japan.
Source: NEC
Customers wishing to pay for something then simply use the screen to specify the kind of e-money their phone holds, after which they pass the handset near the contactless RFID reader on it to make the transaction.
NEC thinks the robot would be perfect for venues that sell tickets, such as fairgrounds or theme parks. The built-in camera and face-recognition software can determine a user's age suggests it also has an element of customer service in mind. Pointing adults to the bar and kids to the rollercoaster would then be as easy as ABC - all without the need to pay anyone a salary, of course, notes Future Tech News.
For more attend Printed Electronics USA 2008 and Printed Electronics Europe 2009.
