Disney RFID Research Designs Battery-Less Toys: Nintendo's 'Amiibos' Could Be One of Them

Disney Research, MIT and Carneige Mellon has designed devices that will not use battery as energy source.

The team of researchers claims that the finding will make faster RFID-based toys and games. How?

Researchers use Radio-frequency identification, commonly known as RFID to power up the devices. Thus, it does not take power source from a single battery. RFID as microchip has been widely used by vets when identifying problems with a scanner. However, now RFID has more functions than before.

In the research paper entitled "RapID: A Framework for Fabricating Low-Latency Interactive Objects with RFID Tags", the team highlights the drawbacks of RFID and comes up with probable approach by combining interactive objects and extensive amount of components to produce new designs.

An example of the research is physical objects that often use circuit board, wiring system and power. With the RFID tags, there will be potential benefits that can overcome the difficulty in making a room for those components since the tags use adjustable tiny electronic circuits.

The study also mentions Nintendo games such as "Amiibos" or "Skylanders" might be able to use the technology because it has already applied NFC a division technology in RFID, the NFC.

The RFID, without battery, can receive energy from its reader albeit a possible delay in the low power transmission process. However, it is not what the researchers at Disney is aiming at. Rather, using the algorithms to decrease delays, by producing RapID. Deriving from the technology, RapID will be able to make objects, smarter, the Verge has learned.

Researchers use Monte-Carlo based sampling method. It helps deliver the reading and detects the movement and speed it travels. This new method eventually allows the team to develop a lot more interesting applications.

Let's wait for another Disney magic to arrive with the result, shall we?