A battery-less remote control based on a novel multi-RFID scheme

This paper presents a novel battery-less remote control system based on a multi-RFID scheme. The proposed remote control unit does not require batteries and it is composed of a plurality of N passive RFID chips and N switches. In order to communicate with the multi-RFID arrangement the controlled device (e.g. a TV) incorporates an RFID reader. A common antenna is shared by the multi-chip arrangement and a multi-port microstrip network is proposed to interconnect the various RFID chips. By default, all the RFID chips are in idle mode (unreadable). Once a switch is pressed by the user the respective RFID chip is activated so that the reader can read the chip ID and identify the key. The multi-RFID scheme is described. Afterwards, a four-key remote is prototyped and measured, and finally the system is integrated in a TV in order to implement basic control functionalities (Vol−, Vol+, CH−, CH+).