Topic

Sensors & IoT

RFID enabled sensing, battery-less IoT, backscatter communication, and environmental telemetry research.

Original coverage

RAIN Sensors Need a Common Language Before They Can Scale.

A new industry working group is tackling interoperability, but its white paper remains ongoing and buyers should treat the framework as work in progress.

News wire

newsRFID NewsOctober 28, 2026 Europe

British Vets hail launch of centralised pet microchip portal

Five of the UK's pet microchip databases are searchable in a single free portal for vet practices, rescues, police, and councils. The Association of Microchip Database Operators launched the Single Point of Search on 30 September 2026, though record accuracy remains a persistent issue.

newsRFID JournalOctober 28, 2026 Global

The Overhead Crane Joins the Internet of Things

The source emphasizes that tracking technology has advanced for many items in a facility but that overhead cranes have historically been left out of digital monitoring. This discrepancy creates a potential blind spot for location and condition data regarding critical infrastructure.

newsRFID NewsOctober 28, 2026 Europe

SparkLink shows a passive sensing interface and claims it beats RFID: here’s what the claim actually measures

The Shenzhen demonstration exhibits a battery-free temperature tag that transmits data at rapid speeds and high density. This performance metric reflects a specific capability in proximity sensing rather than a new standard for general identity management.

researcharXiv (Networking)October 28, 2026 Global

Packet Interval Modulation-based NFC for Scalable IoT around Meandered E-textile

Near-field communication sensor tags enable scalable environmental monitoring through battery-free operation. Implementing packet interval modulation reduces collisions and increases throughput compared to standard time-slotted ALOHA methods.

newsRFID JournalOctober 21, 2026 Global

Your AI Is Brilliant. Until the Network Drops a Packet

The Chief Product Officer author observes escalating conversations between portfolio officers and customers regarding artificial intelligence. Deploying increasingly advanced AI models with growing compute requirements creates deployment and management challenges that must be resolved.

newsRFID NewsOctober 21, 2026 Europe

SBB reads rail vehicle IDs with RAIN RFID at 68 points up to 180 km/h

Swiss Federal Railways utilizes RAIN RFID readers at dozens of trackside locations to identify individual rail vehicles traveling at various speeds and during winter conditions. This deployment allows operators to link specific axle-level condition data to individual vehicle IDs, which facilitates the transition from general monitoring to predictive maintenance strategies.

newsRFID NewsOctober 20, 2026 Europe

RFID in Tyres has taken 10 years, but is now the time it breaks through?

Michelin has integrated RFID tags into approximately 50 million tires over the past decade, successfully overcoming engineering challenges despite a lack of consumer-facing communication regarding the technology. This suggests that the industry may need to prioritize public education and transparency to address consumer surveillance concerns as tagged products become more visible in mainstream social media.

newsRFID NewsOctober 17, 2026 Europe

The Physics of RFID: Backscatter, Coupling, and Energy Harvesting

UHF reader power reaching a passive tag decreases to a quarter when distance is doubled, while power at HF decreases with the cube of the gap. These physical principles of backscatter, inductive coupling, and energy harvesting suggest that increasing transmit power is often an ineffective solution for addressing coverage gaps or challenging environmental interference.

newsRFID JournalOctober 15, 2026 Global

Pricer Showcase Shelf Edge As Driver of Grocery Retail Performance

Pricer introduced a battery-free, modular display platform designed to convert promotional zones and end-caps into digital canvases for retail environments. This development suggests that moving toward large-scale digital shelf displays could influence consumer purchasing behavior at the point of sale.

researcharXiv (Signal Processing)October 12, 2026 Global

On the Performance of Randomly Generated Codebooks in Near-Field Communications

Researchers have analyzed the performance of four types of randomly generated codebooks—random vector quantization (RVQ), random phase (RP), random far-field (RFF), and random near-field (RNF)—specifically for beamforming within near-field communication environments. The findings suggest that system designers must account for phase mismatches when using far-field beams for near-field users, as RNF codebooks demonstrate more effective gain scaling as array sizes increase compa

newsRFID NewsOctober 9, 2026 Europe

7,500 endangered snuffbox mussels stocked in Clinton and Huron rivers and Cass Lake

Michigan has stocked captive-reared snuffbox mussels equipped with PIT tags, glued numbered shell tags, and color markings into several state waterways. This deployment necessitates the use of low frequency readers for recovery efforts, as UHF signals do not penetrate water effectively.

newsRFID JournalOctober 7, 2026 Global

Silicon Labs Brings AI to Embedded Development With Simplicity AI SDK Beta

Silicon Labs has released a public beta of its Simplicity AI SDK, providing developers and AI coding assistants with context-aware access to the company's documentation, tools, and hardware resources. This integration may allow RFID and IoT developers to leverage generative AI tools more effectively when programming connected hardware and Bluetooth Low Energy applications.

press releaseRFID NewsOctober 7, 2026 Europe

NFC Forum Announces Winners for 2026 NFC Forum Innovation Awards

The NFC Forum announced winners of the 2026 Innovation Awards, highlighting technologies including a phone-powered padlock, a communication system between cooktops and pans, and cattle tags that store records locally. These developments suggest a trend toward decentralized data storage and harvesting energy from mobile devices, potentially reducing reliance on external databases and internal batteries for specialized NFC applications.

newsRFID NewsOctober 7, 2026 Europe

ARG-US active RFID gains AI seals and digital twin leak detection for nuclear material packages

Argonne National Laboratory has updated its ARG-US active RFID monitoring system to include digital twin leak detection, AI-verified fiber-optic seals, and instrumented radioisotope generator tracking. These advancements imply that the integration of artificial intelligence and digital twins could provide more granular security and integrity data for high-stakes hazardous material logistics.

newsRFID NewsOctober 7, 2026 Europe

Melbourne Airport’s A$500 million baggage system puts an RFID tag on every tote

Melbourne Airport has implemented a baggage handling system that utilizes RFID tags on individual totes to track luggage from check-in to aircraft loading. This deployment suggests that integrating RFID at the carrier level enhances visibility across multiple stages of airport processing, including security screening and final transport.

newsRFID JournalOctober 5, 2026 Global

Dracula Technologies’ Jérôme Vernet OPV and the Future of RFID: The RFIDJournal.com Q&A

Dracula Technologies’ organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology generates power from low light levels and can be paired with radio frequency harvesting to improve detection accuracy. This development suggests that overcoming energy constraints may enable RFID tags to evolve from simple identification tools into devices capable of sensing and active connectivity.