RFID's Inventor

Filed in archive RFID Basics on June 8, 2004

The San Jose Mercury News has a fascinating article about Charles Walton, whom they dub the "Father of RFID."Although Walton did not strictly invent RFID technology, he was responsible for enormous leaps in the technology in the 1970's. For instance, he patented RFID technology for use with grocery scanners. Unfortunately the cost of the tags was the issue (as it still is currently to some degree).

Walton held four patents on RFID technology and made US$3 Million from them. One of his main inventions is still in use today:

"In his tags, a minute electrical current from a radio transceiver, or reader, wakes up a dormant card and give it enough power to generate a response. A patent search shows his 1973 patent is referenced by 48 later inventions.

``For RFID, this is a pretty darn fundamental patent,'' said Bruce Sunstein, a patent attorney at Bromberg & Sunstein in Boston."

Unfortunately for Walton - but good for the public at large - all the patents have since expired. Walton will not be able to reap financial benefits from the current huge popularity in RFID technology. But the world will benefit from the advancements he made.