RFID Tag cum Reader for Apple iPhone 4G?
Wednesday, July 08, 2009

by Adi Tedjasaputra
Apple Inc. recently filed a patent application that may change how the future iPhones let its users interact with the Internet of things. Apple's invention claims the ability to integrate RFID circuitry, in particular RFID antenna within a touch sensor panel. In other words, you can use any device embedded with this kind of touch screen either as RFID reader or tag interchangeably.
Near Field Communication (NFC) technology has been around for several years. When Bluetooth SIG approved Bluetooth version 2.1 + EDR specification last year, it was of no surprise that the specification includes an improvement for inter-device pairing process and a support for NFC technology. Despite the fact that Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is still missing from the latest release of Bluetooth version 3 specification this year, there is no doubt that short-range RFID technology has increasingly been more important than ever.

With its latest RFID patent application, Apple seems to understand the importance of having short-range RFID technology embedded into its future products, which will probably include iPhone 4G. The main benefit of having short-range RFID technology embedded into a mobile device is mainly a better user experience.
Beyond user experience, by emulating the functions of both RFID tag and reader, any device embedded with this kind of touch screen can better facilitate a web of interrelated communication between its users and any object embedded with RFID technology.
The writer is the Founder of RFID Asia - The Prominent RFID Community in Asia.
Labels: iphone, nfc, panel, reader, rfid, screen, sensor, tag, touch
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