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I am building an app which requires data reading between phone and any type of hardware (NFC tag, RFID tag) but it has to be long range.

For example reading a RFID tag from 5 meters using a Android or iOS phone. I tried normal NFC tags but it has a short range only (under 4cm).

I know there is iBeacons that communicates with BLE, but wondering if there is any other types that can be read with NFC phone reader from above 5 meters distance.

Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩
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Mo Adel
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1 Answers1

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There is no simple answer to that question. First of all the range depends on several factors:

  • technology standard backed by a tag
  • is tag active or passive (powered by rf carrier)
  • antennas of both transciever and a tag And probably several more.

NFC is a set of technologies such as ISO15693, ISO 14443 etc. You can refer to techs supported here

For more details about every one of them you should probably check standard comitee notes for each of them.

As far as I remember ISO15693 for example should be able to work over 1.5m. But again it is about technology only and not specific implementation.

Some of those technologies are used in example in supply chain for medicine transportation which usually requires them to be monitored from larger distance. So yes, it is possible to read from longer range. But that is often done with strong transciever and custom tags.

Can you use a phone to read any tag from 5m? I strongly doubt it. All these technologies work great in the close proximity as that is what they were made for. The bigger range can only be achieved with active tags as the power dissipates too quickly with range. Active ones have their own power source such as a battery.

I strongly suggest using BLE for longer range applications. The tags are not as cheap but they will work on larger distances.

mhenryk
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