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Can a Cell Phone Read an Active RFID Tag?
Would it be possible for an active RFID tag to be interrogated by a cell phone with specially designed software?
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To answer this question, I reached out to the engineers at Savi Technology, a leading provider of active RFID systems. Here is the company's response:
"Technically, it is feasible to read an active RFID tag with a cell phone, if the tag were designed to communicate with a cell phone, or the cell phone had additional hardware and software that enabled it to communicate with a tag. However, there are currently no tags on the market that use cellular radios to communicate, and since cellular radios are power-hungry and expensive, it is unlikely that a cellular-based active tag solution will ever reach the market. On the other hand, readers for active tags based on industry standards, such as ISO 18000-7 (DASH7), can be implemented cost-effectively in small packages, so in the near future, it is quite realistic to expect a cell phone company to offer a handset that incorporates a DASH7 SIM card, enabling the phone to read DASH7 tags."
—Mark Roberti, Editor, RFID Journal
———
To answer this question, I reached out to the engineers at Savi Technology, a leading provider of active RFID systems. Here is the company's response:
"Technically, it is feasible to read an active RFID tag with a cell phone, if the tag were designed to communicate with a cell phone, or the cell phone had additional hardware and software that enabled it to communicate with a tag. However, there are currently no tags on the market that use cellular radios to communicate, and since cellular radios are power-hungry and expensive, it is unlikely that a cellular-based active tag solution will ever reach the market. On the other hand, readers for active tags based on industry standards, such as ISO 18000-7 (DASH7), can be implemented cost-effectively in small packages, so in the near future, it is quite realistic to expect a cell phone company to offer a handset that incorporates a DASH7 SIM card, enabling the phone to read DASH7 tags."
—Mark Roberti, Editor, RFID Journal
