Ravi Pappu discusses new applications for passive RFID technology, which uses radio waves to identify objects within millimeters to tens of meters without contact or line of sight. He notes that battery-assisted passive RFID systems can identify tags from over 100 meters away and some readers can scan between 200 to 1200 tags per second with up to 100% accuracy. Pappu suggests this technology could enable new real-time, ultra-local search applications by allowing computers to see nearby objects.

1. Searching Local Spacetime
New applications for passive RFID
Ravi Pappu
Co-Founder / Head of Advanced Development
ThingMagic Inc.
(c) 2008 ThingMagic Inc. Please do not reproduce without permission.

2. Summary
• Passive RFID enables computers to see objects at distances from
millimeters to tens of meters.
• Battery-assisted passive systems have ranges of a 100+ meters.
• Read rates range from 200 to 1200 tags per second (protocol limited)
• Read accuracy is (100 - !)%, ! 0
• Diverse reader form-factors and low-cost tags enable applications in real-
time, ultra-local search
• Reality search engines are a reality
(c) 2008 ThingMagic Inc. Please do not reproduce without permission.