RFID 'for the rest of us' to enter beta tomorrow
Alcatel-Lucent's Tikitag, a venture whose objective is to enable an "Internet of things," plans to enter public beta on October 1 with an "RFID for the rest of us" solution that's already produced an array of intriguing applications.
Tikitag -- a product first announced at the the Demo show in San Diego earlier this month -- uses high frequency RFID (HFRFID) operating at 13.56 MHz to connect real world items such as business cards, stuffed toys, and paintings to the Web through passive RFID tags and active readers. The technology is also compatible with Near Field Communication (NFC), a standard based on HFRFID which is now being implemented in some mobile phones.
Even if you aren't a developer, you can contribute application ideas for the personalizable new RFID system, which works with mobile phones and Windows and Macs.
Users can send information from RFID-tagged items to Web pages by touching the tags with compatible mobile phones or Windows- or Mac-based PC readers, said Tikitag's Anthony Belpaire, speaking with reporters including BetaNews at a recent ShowStoppers event in New York City. Downloadable software is used for configuring the system, and Web pages can be generated on-the-fly.
Tikitag has been demoing the use of its technology to connect a stuffed toy depicting a fictional character to an online story about the same character. Or you can wave a mobile phone at a painting to make the painter's Wikipedia profile show up on the phone's LCD screen.
| One of TikiTag's developers demonstrates the use of an RFID-enabled business card. When waved in front of a detector near a laptop, it triggers the assembly of a page showing the card originator's online social contact points. |
In another application, dubbed Social Business Card, you can configure your social media identities from sites like Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and Twitter to be displayed in a single Web page when you touch the Tikitag to a reader. Other applications already available include Simple URL, Music Player, Skype Call, and Souvenir Photo Template.
End users have already used Tikitag's Web site to contribute dozens of ideas, such as TikiBank, New Concept of a Shop and Bus Route, to name a few.
A "Tikitag starter package" containing one USB RFID reader and 10 "smart sticker" tags can be ordered from Tikitag's Web site for $49.95 or €34.95. The USB reader works with PC Windows XP and Vista and with Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Intel version only).