RFind Can Pinpoint RFID Tags with Sub-Centimeter Precision in 3D Space

Finding lost items, like keys, remotes, or cell phones, can often be difficult. Even within your own home, its easy to spend a lot of time trying to remember where you put a small item. Anyone who has ever spent half an hour looking for their car keys or the remote control knows this. While some solutions exist, like GPS tracking on your phone, they’re expensive, require the device to have power, and aren’t very accurate.

A new technology from MIT’s Media Lab called RFind should change all of that soon. The technology relies on low-cost RFID tags, which cost just a few pennies, for tracking any item you can stick them to. Using three transmitter/receiver units, the location of an individual item can be quickly be found with sub-centimeter precision.

While this has obvious potential for finding lost items, it would also make a big difference in automation. A warehouse full of boxes, for example, could have each box equipped with its own RFID tag. A robot could then easily find and retrieve the box. Because the tags themselves are so inexpensive, it would be entirely practical to use them in industries where efficiency and per-unit cost are of the utmost importance.