Charles Walton, the Father of RFID

Roland Piquepaille writes "In a very interesting article, the San Jose Mercury News tells us about Charles Walton, the man behind the radio frequency identification technology (RFID). Since his first patent about it in 1973, Walton, now 83 years old, collected about $3 million from royalties coming from his patents. Unfortunately for him, his latest patent about RFID expired in the mid-1990s. So he will not make any money from the billions of RFID tags that will appear in the years to come. But he continues to invent and his latest patent about a proximity card with incorporated PIN code protection was granted in June 2004. Maybe he'll be luckier with this one. This overview contains some excerpts of the original article. It also contains tips to search for Walton's patents and an image of the front page of his first patent."

Comments

His famous quote from when RFID was first used

[Anonymous Coward]

"I am become death, the tracker of products."

We can't put the genie back in the bottle.

at 83, money is more important than luck

[John_Sauter]

At 83, I don't think he is really that interested in the monetary aspects of the invention process.

I beg to disagree. As you get older, the cost of female companionship goes up.
nbsp; John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)

I Seriously Doubt That Man Invented the RFID

[John_Booty]

He has a patent for it, after all. And we all know that the US Parent Office only grants patents when there are clear examples of existing prior art, right? Think about it!