Ubiquitous ID Center Unveils Small Active UWB RFID Tags

Ubiquitous ID Center/ YRP Ubiquitous Networking Lab and HItachi, Ltd. unveiled UWB Dice, small active RFID tags using UWB-based wireless communication. There are two types: the smaller one (1cm3) that can be connected to external sensor devices and the larger one that can contain sensor devices inside the package. Their battery life is quite long: 9 years when the tags are activated once in 5 minutes. They can communicate data faster than existing active tags and they can be used to recognize positions of things with the accuracy of 30cm. About 1000 of them can be recognized by a reader deivice. The price: somewhere between a dollar/tag and tens of dollars/tag. The frequency band for these UWB tags (500MHz band) cannot be used in Japan at this moment but it will likely be legalized this fall.

via nikkei (photos)