RapID: A Framework for Fabricating Low-Latency Interactive Objects with RFID Tags

In this work, we show how to achieve low-latency manipulation and movement sensing with off-the-shelf RFID tags and readers.

RFID tags can be used to add inexpensive, wireless, batteryless sensing to objects. However, accurately estimating the state of an RFID tag quickly is difficult. In this work, we show how to achieve low-latency manipulation and movement sensing with off-the-shelf RFID tags and readers. Our approach couples a probabilistic filtering layer with a Monte-Carlo-sampling-based interaction layer, preserving uncertainty in tag reads until they can be resolved in the context of interactions. This allows designers to make accurate decisions at a high level. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by creating a number of interactive objects, along with a library of components that can be combined to make new designs.