Charles Walton, Tech Pioneer and the “Father of RFID”

Did everyone in the RFID industry notice the contrast between the passing of two great technology pioneers, Steve Jobs and Charles Walton? Jobs, an iconic personality, was a household name, known worldwide

for the tech devices he brought to the mark

etplace. Walton, on the other hand, was virtually unknown. Yet it’s Walton’s invention that will perhaps exert the more profound impact on all of us, changing the way we live, do business and play.

Walton was responsible for taking the existing knowledge of radio frequency identification, and pushing that technology forward. In his lifetime, Walton was awarded more than 50 patents; ten specifically for RFID related devices, including RFID technology for use with grocery scanners. He charted the course that placed RFID on its path to wide-spread, worldwide deployment and commissioning, and for this, he earned the fitting title, “The Father of RFID”.

Walton was an entrepreneurial inventor, and his focus on the things around us that we cannot see, including radio waves, light-waves, magnetic fields, gravitational fields and neutrinos led him to write a book about these “fields” entitled, “The Space Before Your Face”. Now that book, whether in the library, a book store or sold via an e-commerce site, is likely being tracked by RFID technology.

RFID is rapidly becoming ubiquitous. It is an integral part of modern life. It’s used in toll booths, security locks, baggage handling, vehicle fleets, warehouses, retail stores. Hospitals use RFID readers to track pharmaceuticals and patients; libraries use RFID to track books.

An enabling and “enhancing” technology, Walton’s invention paved the way for other technologies, including Near Field Communications (NFC). Today, NFC and RFID are enabling consumer advantages such as self-check-out and payments via mobile phones. Companies like Google are implementing RFID technology on the latest smartphones, eliminating the need to swipe credit-cards at retail outlets. There’s lots more to come.

Despite, or perhaps because of, RFID’s profound capabilities, when Walton presented his RFID technology to the board of General Motors, they rejected it as space technology…… “too Buck Rogers.” He eventually got lucky, and succeeded in licensing his technology to Schlage, a lock-making firm. They used the technology to make electronic locks that opened when a key card was waved near a reader.

Today, Macy’s, Wal-Mart, Bloomingdale’s and others, including the U.S. Department of Defense, are embracing RFID with widespread roll-outs and broad implementation. While neither Walton nor his estate (nor General Motors) will gain financially from RFID’s explosive growth, the rest of us—the entire world—will benefit from his advancements of the technology.

Thanks, Charlie. Your legacy to the world is a game-changing technology, and I am very passionate about using that technology to help shape the future of retail. Leveraging RFID, the fastest, most accurate way to count, we at Truecount have been able to realize our passion for improving the way businesses operate. You opened the window to the universe of RFID applications we are enjoying today, and will be exploring tomorrow. In true “Buck Rogers” style, you led us into the future and have given us an adventurous ride.