| NECTEC sets direction for RFID development | | | |
To set the direction to develop a radio frequency identification (RFID) industry in the country, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC) has developed the first RFID industry road map to encourage the use of RFID technology and stimulate local research and development to serve the emerging industry.
The road map is to be a guideline for the industry's development for five years, from 2008 to 2013. Having spent three months studying the overall status and market potential of RFID, the research team found four key potential areas for RFID development. They are the use of RFID in animal identification and food traceability, logistics, transport and the financial sector.
RFID can be used in animal identification and food traceability to identify livestock individually and trace the food products back through the supply chain to their origin, while logistics can use RFID in product delivery and inventory management. It also includes the use of RFID in wholesale and retail systems. In the transport sector, RFID will be used to facilitate fare and toll collections by mass-transit systems, manage fleets and support new intelligent transport systems while it can also be developed as an electronic purse by the financial sector.
Phaophak Siriruk, the associate dean of engineering at Mahanakorn University of Technology and an adviser for the road-map development project, said the road map had set these four areas as the direction research and development efforts should take. During the next five years, the plan also set a goal for increased use of RFID in animal identification and tracking as well as for food traceability within three years. Meanwhile it will encourage greater use of RFID in the country's logistics and supply-chain management in the next five years.
Phaophak said the road map would allow local researchers to have guidelines and see the overall picture to conduct local research on RFID development. It's also hoped that there will be at least 10 local RFID development projects conducted each year to serve industry.
For local development, the road map also identifies four areas of products and services that should be developed in the next five years under the CATS framework. CATS includes the development of chips, applications, terminals and systems. Under this framework, it's hoped to eventually turn Thailand into an RFID manufacturer instead of being solely a technology consumer.
Phaophak said the development of software applications and system services would offer strong potential as it would add more value to local developers. According to a market survey, the proportion of RFID hardware in the global market currently represents 59 per cent while software and system services combined had a 41-per-cent market share. However it's predicted that the growth of the latter two areas through until 2010 will increase to 42 per cent for software and 34 per cent for services while the growth of hardware will be only 28 per cent. These are also areas with potential for local RFID developers.
This year, it's expected that the worldwide RFID market will be worth US$5.3 billion (Bt180.2 billion), growing from $4.3 billion last year. The market value will continue to grow at around 30 to 35 per cent through to 2010, exceeding $7 billion.
In Thailand alone, it's estimated that the total RFID market in 2008 will reach Bt1.9 billion, increasing from Bt1.5 billion last year.
RFID is a new market, and Thailand has opportunities to take part. Phaophak said local developers therefore had to concern themselves with technology to be developed to serve industry's demands. Technology like Near Field Communication or NFC, for example, is also expected to play an important role in the RFID development area. As the concept emerges from the combination of contactless RFID and interconnection technologies, it can be used in mobile-phone devices to turn a tiny instrument into, for example, an access key, a ticket for public transport or even a purse to make a payment.
With an NFC chip embedded in their mobile phone, users can just tap the device on a reader and then use the phone as a means of authentication to access offices, rooms, cars or sport clubs, or as a ticket to take public transport as well as paying for products and services. This technology will bring true mobility to people's lives so various kinds of new applications and services can be developed to respond to the new emerging requirements.
To encourage the local RFID industry, the road map has also set a strategy to promote local development with the establishment of a centre to allow local developers and the private sector to use development tools at a lower cost. The plan also includes the development of a standard RFID platform which is open for the community to make further improvements.
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