A library in Pudong, Shanghai, uses RFID technology in books to quickly locate them. [Photo / Provided to China Daily]

Radio tag IDs continue to find new applications

SHANGHAI - The Shanghai Base of National RFID Industrialization, China's first national industrial base of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, expects the number of producers in the base to increase five times by 2016.

The base's expansion will be in line with the development of China's wireless sensor networks industry, which reached a "turning point" last year, said He Xiang, general manager of the base in Zhangjiang, Shanghai, an incubator of RFID-related companies.

Radio-frequency identification is a technology that uses radio waves to exchange data between an electronic tag and reader to identify and track an object the tag is attached to.

RFID tags have been used mainly in wireless sensor networks - or the Internet of things - a digital network of physical objects that has been used in fields such as transportation, logistics, environment protection and public security.

Twenty producers in the base made 500 million RFID tags in 2010, including 40 million used in the tickets of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai, with each tag selling between 0.8 to 8 yuan, according to He.

"That is a big increase from the 100 million yuan ($15.2 million) output value we realized in 2009," He said.

"The number of companies and output has been increasing steadily ever since the base was launched in 2006. With the rapid development of China's wireless sensors network industry, the base will see even faster development," he added.

According to a report published in October during the Internet of Things Expo China 2010 in Jiangsu province, the value of China's wireless sensor networks market reached 171.6 billion in 2009 and would top 200 billion in 2010.

By 2015, the industry's market value is expected to reach 750 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 30 percent, the report said.

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"Though it's hard to precisely predict the growth rate of our output value, I am confident that it will be higher than that of the overall industry," He said.

For now, the base is negotiating with East China Grid Co Ltd and one of the country's major wireless network operators over a pilot project for real-time monitoring of electricity meters in some buildings in Shanghai, using RFID tags.

"It's part of the smart-grid system China's been developing. Using wireless sensor networks, electricity companies can instantly monitor electricity consumption and adjust their supply," He said.

Meanwhile, the base is also holding talks with the local government to hold the country's first RFID conference in Shanghai in October, in a move to provide a communication and publicity platform for RFID designers and producers.