RFID Closes the Wireless Communications Loop

 
NTT DoCoMo is one of the first wireless carriers to test an RFID technology-based shopping service.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is exploding in the retail, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals markets. It's set to do the same in the wireless space. Analysts predict that wireless phones will be RFID-enabled starting in the next year, turning the handsets into roving RFID readers that allow users to receive pertinent business and consumer information they want and need.

Yumi Hideko wants her clicker back.

Hideko, a 27-year-old Tokyo resident, recently participated in NTT DoCoMo's test of its R-Click service, which employed radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. With RFID, a tiny chip and an antenna are attached to objects, and information stored on the chip—up to 64 KB worth—is then sent to an RFID reader, a mobile phone in this case, via radio waves.

As part of the test group, Hideko received an RFID device about the size of a lipstick tube that fastened to her mobile phone and transmitted information about products and services directly to the handset via e-mail while she shopped at the fashionable Roppongi Hills complex. With R-Click, Hideko and 4,000-plus other testers could request on-the-spot information about stores, sales, and special offers available in the vicinity. Information could also be sent from multimedia billboards to testers' mobile phones on request.

Hideko's favorite feature was "buratto (walk-around) click," which proactively e-mailed her information about products and services that she might be interested in as she wandered through the mall. The recommendations were based on predefined preferences she entered when she registered for the service.

"It was as if my phone knew where I was going before I had even really decided to go there myself," says Hideko. "R-Click was great, and now that the test is over, I miss my little clicker a lot! The only thing that I and some of the other testers did not like was having two things to carry around, the clicker and our phones. If the clicker could be built into the phone, it would be perfect."

She may soon get her wish. DoCoMo is evaluating whether to roll out R-Click to all subscribers, and experts say it seems likely the company will integrate RFID directly into handsets.

Analysts believe RFID technology is likely to be added to mobile phones intended for specific business uses in Europe and North America within the next year or so. They expect to see widespread adoption of the technology in consumer phones within the next three to five years.

Transforming RFID

RFID is already in use on prescription drug containers and in electronic toll-collection programs such as New York's E-ZPass and the San Francisco Bay Area's FasTrak. Wal-Mart will require its top 100 suppliers to put RFID tags on all shipping crates and pallets by January 2005.

"Until now RFID has mostly been presented in the context of its potential to improve business efficiencies," says Vijay Sarathy, group marketing manager for RFID Infrastructure Solutions at Sun Microsystems. "But now companies are clearly starting to think about ways RFID could be applied to improve the customer experience."

To do this, communications companies must move away from the typical RFID setup, in which tagged items move around, communicating with readers whose locations are fixed. Instead, mobile phones will become moving readers, and the tags that contain the chips, antennas, and data will more likely remain stationary.

At the recent CeBit consumer electronics trade show in Hannover, Germany, attendees saw one of the first examples of a mobile RFID reader built into a phone when Nokia announced it would make RFID available as an optional feature on its 5140 handset, designed for use by remote work crews, field sales forces, and other mobile workers.

Nokia's mobile RFID kit consists of two readers, similar to those used in the DoCoMo R-Click test, that attach to the phone. The Nokia package also includes Java technology-based software for programming and reading the tags, plus 20 RFID tags. Business users can program the tags as needed. For example, on a construction site the tags could be programmed with specific work instructions for each segment of the site. Workers would scan the tags to get updated work orders.

Consumer-targeted handsets with integrated RFID aren't available yet, but Nokia, with Philips and Sony, recently announced the creation of the Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum to develop RFID-based technology that will work in mobile phones and other devices. Near-field communication uses a combination of RFID and interconnection technologies to enable devices to exchange information securely with each other. The idea is to connect everything in the consumer universe, including devices, products, places, and people.

Linking the Commercial Supply Chain

RFID could eventually be the technology that connects the entire commercial supply chain, from manufacturers to retailers, banks, advertising, and consumers, says mobile technology expert Daisetsu Yoshida.

"Eventually there will be an RFID reader in every mobile phone, and the phone will replace credit cards and cash," says Yoshida, a mobile technology consultant based in Hong Kong. "But this technology will be more than just a way to pay for things. The RFID tag that allows manufacturers to manage their production will be the RFID tag that allows retailers to track shipments and handle inventory. And it will be the same tag that enables people to pay for their purchases, in some cases by simply pointing their RFID-enabled phone at an ad.

"Some people are a little leery of RFID now, worried about their privacy, but once they see this technology in action and understand that they can control it, they will accept it," adds Yoshida. "When they realize they can walk by a store and point their phone at a display to have a new best-selling book delivered to their home, walk by the market and point at the store's sign to have their grocery order packed and delivered, point at a poster while walking by a movie theater to have tickets for that night's show delivered right to their phone, then people will see the benefits and want this technology.

Yoshida predicts that within five years, "RFID will turn mobile phones into a very personalized remote control unit for each user's entire life."

It's an eventuality mobile consumers such as Yumi Hideko are looking forward to.