ETH Zurich : Computer Science : Pervasive Computing : Distributed Systems : Research : RFID

Radio Frequency Identification

A Research Topic of the Distributed Systems Group

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is rapidly evolving as a result of increased awareness of its potential in the business community, adoption by developers to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual world, and the development of new manufacturing techniques that might allow for low-cost RFID tags. RFID systems have been successfully used in specialized application domains such as cattle herding, library checkout, car immobilizers and ski ticketing. More recently, the technology has received increased attention as a technology that can provide better transparency and visibility in the supply chain.

Our work on RFID is focused on the development of middleware concepts to support RFID systems rather than to design RFID systems ourselves. Particularily, we investigate how RFID can be used to bridge the gap between the physical and the virtual world. Examples that we realized as demo applications include the RFID chef, the smart toolbox, and the smart medicine cabinet. In the past we also combined passive RFID tags with Bluetooth-based active tags.

See also the following related items:

• Internet of Things (topic)
• Fosstrak (formerly Accada) (project)
• Smart Playing Cards (demo)

Participating Researchers

Christian Flörkemeier (until 2014), Steve Hinske (until 2010), Marc Langheinrich (until 2008)

Selected Publications

See the Publications of the Distributed Systems Group page for a full listing of our publications.

• Dominique Guinard, Christian Floerkemeier, Sanjay Sarma
  Cloud Computing, REST and Mashups to Simplify RFID Application Development and Deployment.
  Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on the Web of Things (WoT 2011). ACM, San Francisco, USA, June 2011
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Dominique Guinard, Mathias Mueller, Jacques Pasquier
  Giving RFID a REST: Building a Web-Enabled EPCIS.
  Proceedings of Internet of Things 2010 International Conference (IoT 2010). Tokyo, Japan, November 2010
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Steve Hinske, Matthias Lampe, Nicola Yuill, Sara Price, Marc Langheinrich
  Let the Play Set Come Alive: Supporting Playful Learning through the Digital Augmentation of a Traditional Toy Environment.
  Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Workshop on Pervasive Learning (PerEL) at PerCom 2010, Mannheim, Germany. March 2010
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Marc Langheinrich
  A Survey of RFID Privacy Approaches.
  Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 413-421, August 2009
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Steve Hinske, Marc Langheinrich
  An Infrastructure for Interactive and Playful Learning in Augmented Toy Environments.
  Proceedings of the 5th IEEE International Workshop on Pervasive Learning (PerEL) at PerCom 2009, Galveston, Texas, USA. March 2009
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Steve Hinske, Marc Langheinrich
  W41K: Digitally Augmenting Traditional Game Environments.
  In: Mike Fraser, Steve Benford (Eds.): Proceedings of Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2009, February 16-18, 2009, Cambridge, UK. ACM, New York, NY, USA, February 2009
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Steve Hinske, Marc Langheinrich
  RFIDice – Augmenting Tabletop Dice with RFID.
  Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting, Vol. 5, No. 4, September 2008
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Marc Langheinrich
  RFID und die Zukunft der Privatsphäre.
  In: Alexander Rossnagel, Tom Sommerlatte, Udo Winand (Eds.): Digitale Visionen – Zur Gestaltung allgegenwärtiger Informationstechnologien. Springer, pp. 43-68, Berlin Heiderlberg New York, 2008
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Jürgen Bohn
  Prototypical Implementation of Location-Aware Services based on a Middleware Architecture for Super-Distributed RFID Tag Infrastructures.
  Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 155-166, 2008
  doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00779-006-0107-2
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Marc Langheinrich, Remo Marti
  Practical Minimalist Cryptography for RFID Privacy.
  IEEE Systems Journal, Special Issue on RFID Technology, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 115-128, December 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Christian Floerkemeier, Christof Roduner, Matthias Lampe
  RFID Application Development with the Accada Middleware Platform.
  IEEE Systems Journal, Special Issue on RFID Technology, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 82-94, December 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Marc Langheinrich
  Secure Localized Storage Based on Super-Distributed RFID-Tag Infrastructures.
  Journal of Location Based Services, Vol. 1, No. 3, Taylor & Francis, pp. 208-230, September 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Julian Randall, Oliver Amft, Jürgen Bohn, Martin Burri
  LuxTrace - indoor positioning using building illumination.
  Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 11, No. 6, pp. 417-428, 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Steve Hinske, Marc Langheinrich
  An RFID-based Infrastructure for Automatically Determining the Position and Orientation of Game Objects in Tabletop Games.
  In: Carsten Magerkurth, Carsten Röcker (Eds.): Concepts and Technologies for Pervasive Games – A Reader for Pervasive Gaming Research. Vol. 1, Shaker Verlag, pp. 311-336, Aachen, Germany, 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Marc Langheinrich
  RFID and Privacy.
  In: Milan Petkovic, Willem Jonker (Eds.): Security, Privacy, and Trust in Modern Data Management. Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-69860-9, pp. 433-450, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2007
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Jürgen Bohn
  Prototypical Implementation of Location-Aware Services based on Super-Distributed RFID Tags.
  19th International Conference on Architecture of Computing Systems – System Aspects in Organic Computing (ARCS 2006). LNCS No. 3894, Springer-Verlag, pp. 69-83, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, March 13-16, 2006
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Christian Floerkemeier, Roland Schneider, Marc Langheinrich
  Scanning with a Purpose – Supporting the Fair Information Principles in RFID protocols.
  In: Hitomi Murakami, Hideyuki Nakashima, Hideyuki Tokuda, Michiaki Yasumura (Eds.): Ubiquitious Computing Systems. Revised Selected Papers from the 2nd International Symposium on Ubiquitous Computing Systems (UCS 2004), November 8-9, 2004, Tokyo, Japan. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3598, Springer-Verlag, ISBN 3-540-27893-1, pp. 214-231, Berlin, Germany, June 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Matthias Lampe, Christian Floerkemeier, Stephan Haller
  Einführung in die RFID-Technologie.
  In: Elgar Fleisch, Friedemann Mattern (Eds.): Das Internet der Dinge – Ubiquitous Computing und RFID in der Praxis. Springer-Verlag, pp. 69-86, 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Christian Floerkemeier
  EPC-Technologie – vom Auto ID Center zu EPCglobal.
  In: Elgar Fleisch, Friedemann Mattern (Eds.): Das Internet der Dinge – Ubiquitous Computing und RFID in der Praxis. Springer-Verlag, 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Marc Langheinrich
  Die Privatsphäre im Ubiquitous Computing – Datenschutzaspekte der RFID-Technologie.
  In: Elgar Fleisch, Friedemann Mattern (Eds.): Das Internet der Dinge – Ubiquitous Computing und RFID in der Praxis. Springer-Verlag, pp. 329-362, 2005
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Jürgen Bohn, Friedemann Mattern
  Super-Distributed RFID Tag Infrastructures.
  Proceedings of the 2nd European Symposium on Ambient Intelligence (EUSAI 2004). Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) No. 3295, Springer-Verlag, pp. 1-12, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, November 8-10, 2004
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Christian Floerkemeier, Matthias Lampe
  Issues with RFID usage in ubiquitous computing applications.
  In: Alois Ferscha, Friedemann Mattern (Eds.): Pervasive Computing: Second International Conference, PERVASIVE 2004. LNCS No. 3001, Springer-Verlag, ISBN 3-540-21835-1, pp. 188-193, Linz/Vienna, Austria, April 18-23, 2004
  BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Jürgen Bohn
  The Smart Jigsaw Puzzle Assistant: Using RFID Technology for Building Augmented Real-World Games.
  Workshop on Gaming Applications in Pervasive Computing Environments at Pervasive 2004, Vienna, Austria, April 2004
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Christian Floerkemeier, Dipan Anarkat, Ted Osinski, Mark Harrison
  PML Core Specification Version 1.0.
  Auto-ID Center Recommendation (http://www.autoidcenter.org), September 2003
  BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Christian Floerkemeier, Matthias Lampe, Thomas Schoch
  The Smart Box Concept for Ubiquitous Computing Environments.
  Proceedings of sOc'2003 (Smart Objects Conference). pp. 118-121, Grenoble, May 2003
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  

Related Student Projects

The following table lists corresponding student projects in our group. Note that some descriptions will be in German.