RFID augmented devices for autonomous sensing and computation

In several application scenarios, the integration between passive RFID devices and sensors would represent a real added value, primarily in terms of cost and ease of use. In this work, two different passive RFID devices with sensing and computing capabilities are presented. The former device, named RAMSES, relies on a novel approach exploiting a new-generation I²C-UHF RFID chip. RAMSES is able to write sensor data into the EPC code and communicate up to 5 meters of distance from a conventional RFID Class-1 Generation-2 (Gen2) reader. The latter platform, named SPARTACUS, represents the first example in literature of RFID-based device embedding sensing and actuation functionalities, distributed computation, and bidirectional communication with the Gen2 reader. Satisfactory operating range, sensing, computation, data storage, and cost-effectiveness are the main strengths making the proposed devices definitely suitable for a wide variety of applications.