I would like to use RFID as part of an interactive game. Can it be implemented to identify a player quickly, and to give feedback that affects computer output?
—Name withheld
———
Yes. The velocity of radio waves is slightly less than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) in the Earth’s atmosphere, so the amount of time it takes for a reader and tag to communicate is almost instantaneous.
If you need to write to a tag, that can take longer. The biggest issue is likely to be the amount of time required by a computer to look up which player is associated with which tag in the database, and then to respond accordingly. If you have a fast computer and a dedicated link between it and the interrogator, you should not have an issue.
—Mark Roberti, Editor, RFID Journal