Monday, February 07, 2005

RFID Plus Mobile Phone..

From The Korea Herald Forum to develop RFID technologies.

Korean mobile-phone carriers and electronics makers will combine efforts to develop radio-frequency identification technologies for mobile phones, enabling people to receive real-time information on consumer products or services through microchips embedded in their handsets.

Electronics manufacturers Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc. and mobile-phone operators SK Telecom Co., KT Freetel Co. and LG Telecom Ltd. established the Mobile RFID Forum last week to promote the use of RFID and short-range data transmission between wireless devices such as mobile phones and WiBro portable Internet receivers

"RFID holds an important place in the national info-tech strategy and will change the way people live and do business. The technological level of Korea's RFID industry currently lags behind the United States, Europe and Japan, so integrating RFID with the country's advanced mobile communications environment becomes a natural conclusion in closing the gaps," said Information and Communications University professor Lee Hyuk-jae, who chairs the forum.

Industry watchers are upbeat on the business potential of combining mobile phones with RFID technology to communicate with other electronic devices with smart-card infrastructure, changing the way consumers obtain information and buy products and services. For example, a mobile phone embedded with a RFID microchip could enable the user to make cash-less payment when purchasing an on-shelf product by simply touching the RFID tag on the item.

Cash-less payments will start when barcodes get "turned on" first. NFC Near field communications will allow contactless transactions. Finally cellphones with RFID tag readers will then allow another form.

In order for these services to be viable, the tag, barcode needs to be turned on and recognized.

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