Smartrac Sees RFID's Future in the Cards, the Clouds and the Cosmos

RFID and Near Field Communication (NFC) tag and inlay producer Smartrac is partnering with playing cards company Cartamundi to develop an NFC tag that is small, thin and cheap enough to be embedded in standard cards, such as sports trading cards, playing cards and game cards, that could be used to connect users to Internet-based games. Cartamundi expects to begin offering NFC-enabled cards with the new technology by the end of the year. Smartrac announced the partnership, as well as the release of its new software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution Smart Cosmos, at the RFID Journal LIVE! conference and exhibition, held last month in San Diego, Calif.