The next generation RFID chips

Two big news with respect to the RFID (radio frequency identification) world come up today. They are:

1. Philips to present plastic RFID circuit

2. Hitachi advances paper-thin RFID chip

Source: EE Times

For ppl who dont know anything about RFID, they are a tiny device for use as a mean to make identification process a little bit easier. RFID chips are widely used in high tech cities. For HK ppl, the octopus card you guys used to pay for bus, subway, or even some restaurant, it has RFID chips in there. For US ppl, the NYC subway will be experimenting to use RFID tags as a mean to collect fares, although this is already widely adapted in Europe, and as i mentioned, HK. For Dutch ppl, the passports that are issued recently also have a RFID chip in there. RFID are also widely used in supermarkets and warehouses for inventory tracking.


In the pic: two 0.4 x 0.4mm RFID chips on a finger

regarding to the two news, with the new plastic RFID circuit, Philips will help reduce the cost of RFID manufacturing, making RFID a lot more attractive for consumer products. And by being able to making it a lot smaller and thinner by Hitachi, it may not be long for ppl to tattoo RFID chips underneath their skins. For wut you have seen in movies few yrs ago that ppl can just walk into a supermarket, grab their stuff, and walk out with their payment automatically deducted from their bank account, this can actually happen very soon!!