Discover how Radio Frequency Identification affects you

Even if you don’t know what RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is, the chances are you’ve experienced this technology first hand.

Micro-chipping your moggy, setting the alarm off at your library by forgetting to get your book signed out, or using the London Underground with an Oyster card are all examples of RFID in action.

Now used in a wide-range of industries, RFID hails from the 1960s.

Not a single technology per se, the term refers to any system that uses radio waves as a means of identification.

As the price of RFID technology has dropped, so its uses have begun to proliferate across business, the high street and now in your home.

In a few years all the items you buy from a shop or store will have an RFID chip attached to them.

Your mobile phone will soon become a digital wallet thanks to Near Field Communication (NFC).

If you thought Chip & Pin was great, soon you will just wave your card at a till to pay for things as RFID moves the cashless society one step closer.

And with new gadgets enabling you to attach RFID tags to just about anything; the technology will touch all of us.

RFID tags come in two basic types: active and passive.

Active tags have the same integrated circuits as a passive tag, but carry a battery.

Active tags constantly transmit their location and any other data the tag contains, even when they are not near an RFID reader.

Passive tags only activate when a reader or ‘interrogator’ comes into close proximity to the tag.

RFID could revolutionise your local shopping centre, as every item you buy over the next few years may have an RFID tag that will act like a digital fingerprint.

The days of the humble barcode could be over.

Outside of retail, RFID is also tracking new-born Indian elephants, and en suring surgical patients aren’t left with sponges inside them as some hospitals are now using ‘smart sponges’ to track each one in theatre.

Pirelli is using RFID in tyres that transmits information about road conditions to a car’s computer.

And a security service in Mexico is using RFID to track kidnapped people.

Wave to pay
Tracking what you buy is only one practical application of RFID technology.

The cashless society has been promised for decades, but thanks to RFID and NFC, which will find its way into the next generation of mobile phones, paying for goods and services will become fast and convenient.

An example of NFC is the Oyster card system used on the London Underground.

The downside of it is that you still have to carry a separate card to pay for your journeys.

Build the NFC technology into your mobile that you carry pretty much everywhere, and you can pay for public transport and other goods or services as long as the retailer has a compatible till.

Mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola, Nokia and Samsung are all planning NFC handsets. You can watch a video of how Nokia sees NFC in its phones.

The Nokia 6131 is already being used as an e-wallet on the public transport systems in Germany.

Of course Japan leads the way with its Felica technology that is built into the handsets from NTT Docomo, the largest mobile operator in the country.

It sells ‘osaifu keitei’ or wallet phones with NFC built in.

Outside of NFC, cashless payments are rapidly being developed and rolled out by the existing credit and debit card providers.

The contactless payment systems from Mastercard (Paypass) is being tested to make the London 2012 Olympics a completely cashless games.

Visa’s platform is called Paywave.

Also available is the Barclaycard Onepulse that offers an Oyster, credit and contactless payments in one card.

These technologies enable you to buy things without the need for a Pin or signature.

Contactless payment certainly works, as the London Oyster card shows.

The market is focused on paying for low-cost items of less than £10 in most cases.

Clearly being able to buy your lunch with your phone, Oyster card or other card-based payment is a great idea.

If retailers buy into the system ­ and invest in RFID readers ­ these ideas will flourish.

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