RFID Reader For IPhone

[Benjamin Blundell] built an RFID reader for the iPhone. A jailbroken iPhone connects to this project box by patching into a standard iPhone USB cable. Like in past iPhone serial projects, [Benjamin] is using openFrameworks for the software interface. Right now this reader only detects low-frequency tags but he’s working on the code to read MIFARE tags as well. See the magic of a tag ID displayed on the screen in the video after the break.

[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/10133832]

[Thanks Andrew via Recombu]

13 thoughts on “RFID Reader For IPhone

  1. Most people probably don’t know that all major phone manufacturers like Nokia are pushing rfid readers into their phones and even rfid’s. This technology will be the basis for new authentication possibilities on the web and in the physical world. I hope Apple knows this and follows suite. Very nice project!

  2. Onboard RFID is the next logical step for cell phones, especially if they are ever going to make any headway into mobile payments. But knowing how long it takes Apple to adopt new technology, it will be about 5 years before we see it officially included in an iPhone…

  3. The MIFARE/iClass tags are dead easy to read.. they just take a boatload of power. There are very few handheld readers because those things seriously suck the power when they are trying to power up a chip in the field. Current tricks to get around the power draw are to check capacitance (hand nearby) or an IR proximity sensor (card nearby) before powering up the coil.

  4. I am in no way a Apple fan, But I hope they add internal RFID reading into there products in the near future iPhones, iTouch,iMac, iNevergetlaid. With any luck some nice Android units will come out with it as well.

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