New technology turns smartphones into RFID readers, saving costs and reducing waste

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-02-technology-smartphones-rfid-readers.html

"combines chip size grain of sand costing few pennies to manufacture... integrated into product packaging and software update on phone, which becomes capable of identifying objects based on signals chip emits ... 1000X less power using signals generated by phone and re-directs back in format phone understands... first backscatter IC enable wireless communication and battery-less operation...  relies on common communication protocols: Bluetooth, WiFi and LTE... range of 1 m... adding battery 10's of m"

Related: Backscattering protection in integrated photonics is impossible with existing technologies, says study

https://phys.org/news/2023-04-backscattering-photonics-impossible-technologies.html