Could a Smartphone Read a UHF RFID Tag?

Published: June 8, 2011

Do smartphones have the ability to read such a tag if an application were designed to supply content based on a tag’s ID number?

—Warm Regards, Carl

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Sorry, Carl, that’s currently impossible, as there are no smartphones that contain an ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) reader.

Some phones, such as Samsung‘s Nexus S model, have a Near-Field Communication (NFC) reader in it. NFC is a short-range RFID technology that enables phones to read NFC tags.

A group of South Korean companies has introduced a UHF reader for cell phones (see South Korean Consortium Launches EPC Gen 2 Reader for Mobile Phones), but it is not yet widely available.

—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal