RFID is a Media Technology Says Futurist

Filed in archive Ubiquitous Computing on April 15, 2005

The big U.S. RFID event -- RFID Journal Live -- has wrapped up. It's interesting that the concluding keynote speaker was not a technologist or a corporate executive, but a Futurist.

Paul Saffo sees RFID as a media technology and pointed out some ways it will change our lives -- within most of our lifetimes:

"Over the next 10 years, he said, RFID, wireless communications and robotics will each play an important role in what he calls the sensor revolution. Saffo said sensors are creating an early phase of "smartifacts," or intelligent artifacts, that are "observing the world on our behalf and increasingly manipulating it on our behalf. This is why I view RFID as a media technology. This is where I think the opportunities are for you."

He also sees an important opportunity for RFID in robotics, because RFID readers and other sensors will allow robotics to operate autonomously. He said robotics, such as the Roomba vacuum cleaner, are already starting to change the way we interact with technology and sensors, and he predicts a significant growth in personal home robotics over the next 10 years."

Read the whole thing over at RFID Journal.