Would you like to see your mobile phone act as a thermometer or even check your glucose levels? This is what an IP development company Gentag wants to do. The company plans to turn you mobile phones into universal RFID interrogators which could read passive tags and wireless sensors.

The healthcare sector is set to benefit with this technology as your mobile phone armed with the power of a reader could be used to read adhesive skin patches embedded with passive RFID tags and temperature sensors. The smart patch technology is expected to act as a cost effective way of monitoring health so you could apply it in keeping a tab on your child's body temperature. Besides temperature one could also monitor heart activity, glucose levels and ultra violet radiation.

The company is making an effort towards replacing expensive sensors with cost effective disposable passive RFID sensor tags. The technology was demonstrated on palm Treo smart phones and expect the RFID sensors to be available in anther six to nine months.

I remember as a child how much I hated it when my mother used to thrust the thermometer in my mouth in case she suspected I was running with high fever but now we have cell phones which will act as doctor at our disposal and take care of our health. Now say good bye to those messy thermometers. I never knew that technology could make our life so simple.