The Internet of Things and the potential for RFID

BY RAGHU DAS, CEO, IDTechEx
http://www.IDTechEx.com/IoTUSA 

RFID was invented seven decades ago, but 23% of all the RFID tags ever sold were sold in 2013. In 2014, a further 1.12 billion RFID tags will be sold versus the total number of tags sold in 2013. RFID has been trialled and piloted extensively and it is now in rapid adoption mode in many industries, for many applications, and is being rolled out in a cookie-cutter approach as the high-performance capability versus system cost proves payback.

Converging with this is the rapidly growing interest in the Internet of Things (IoT), usually meaning powered IP-based nodes, often with sensors. The Internet of Things is of great excitement to many of the world's largest consumer electronics companies seeking to leverage the electronics that consumers now carry, providing new valuable capabilities and services.  

RFID will play an important part — namely by addressing the highest volume opportunity where tag price is important. That is why companies such as Google are involved, already having used UHF RFID in the development of glucose sensing contact lenses.

“With over 10 billion RAIN RFID tags in circulation through this year, and 100 billion tags by 2020, data collection for the IoT is already in full swing.” said Steve Halliday, RAIN president. “The latest version RAIN tags are able to include encryption and the ability to interface directly with sensors, which will lead to even more implementations of the IoT using RFID.”

The IDTechEx event Internet of Things Applications, hosted on November 19-20 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California, addresses the opportunities for the Internet of Things including the role that RFID will play, with a session dedicated to RFID and hosted by the RAIN alliance.

The event delves into specific market verticals and appraises new enabling technologies, with speakers including AT&T, Adidas, Bayer Healthcare, Belkin, Dolby, GE, Google, Intel, Osram, Samsung, and many more. The RAIN RFID session will feature presentations from Smartrac, Feig Electronics, SecureRF Corporation, in addition to the RAIN RFID Alliance President, Steve Halliday. To learn more, see http://www.IDTechEx.com/IoTusa