IEEE RFID 2026 - Key Note Speaker

Abstract:

In 2000, Professor Sanjay Sarma, founder of the Auto-ID Center, co-authored the white paper “The Networked Physical World – Proposals for Engineering the Next Generation of Computing, Commerce & Automatic Identification.” It articulated the following vision:

“The Auto-ID Center envisions a world in which all electronic devices are networked and every object, whether it is physical or electronic, is electronically tagged with information pertinent to that object. We envision the use of physical tags that allow remote, contactless interrogation of their contents; thus, enabling all physical objects to act as nodes in a networked physical world…”

While the Center’s stated mission was “creating the infrastructure, recommending the standards, and identifying the automated identification applications for a networked physical world,” the widespread adoption of that infrastructure and those standards depended on a much broader ecosystem of stakeholders.

The adoption of Auto-ID technologies and standards by GS1, the global organization responsible for most supply chain standards, together with their continued evolution and subsequent regulatory approval by authorities such as the FCC and ETSI, laid the foundation for large-scale industrial deployment.

Now, 26 years later, we can look back and ask: what progress has been made toward enabling all physical objects to act as nodes in a networked physical world?

In this presentation, I will argue that RFID, as originally defined by the Auto-ID Labs, has far exceeded initial expectations. I will show how, in the most advanced current deployments, objects are no longer detected only occasionally and at discrete locations, but can be detected pervasively and continuously: everywhere, all the time. As a result, RFID-tagged objects can in these cases be considered permanent nodes in a physical network.

I will also present examples of how this physical network can be combined with other sensors, such as cameras and ultra-wideband (UWB), using AI-enabled sensor fusion to generate a digital twin of physical reality, a rich, dynamic dataset representing the state and evolution of objects, people, and their interactions.

In the digital world, interactions of people with digital objects, “clicks”, and their AI-driven analysis (“clickstream analysis”) have been a key driver of the success of most online businesses, particularly in the growth of e-commerce. In an analogous way, the use of RFID and sensor fusion to detect “cricks” (a term we coined as a portmanteau of “clicks” and “brick-and-mortar”) enables AI, physical AI, to analyze, optimize, and predict the evolution of the physical world in specific contexts, especially logistics and retail.

RFID everywhere, all the time, is no longer a vision. It is already being deployed and is becoming an essential element in a world where all objects, people, and information systems are permanently connected.

Speaker Bio:

Rafael Pous obtained dual M.Sc. degrees in Telecommunications Engineering and Computer Science from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain). He later earned an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. His graduate studies were funded by Fulbright and Schlumberger fellowships. During this period, he conducted research on numerical methods in electromagnetics, novel antenna design, and superconductivity applied to communication circuits.

He then joined the faculty at UPC, where he taught and led research groups for 16 years. His work resulted in publications on advanced numerical methods in electromagnetics, superconductor-based electro-optical modulators for optical communications, and fractal antennas. He is a co-author of the first patent on fractal antennas, a technology that gave rise to the company Fractus, whose innovations are now present in most mobile phones.

During his tenure at UPC, he co-founded two companies. The first, The Information Highway Group, was a key player in the early years of the Internet, developing the software infrastructure for the world’s first online university, as well as some of the earliest online banking platforms, online marketplaces, and e-commerce sites, working with both startups and large corporations. The second company, AIDA Centre, was a pioneer in deploying the UHF RFID technology and standards developed by the Auto-ID Center (later Auto-ID Labs) in commercial applications across logistics, retail, manufacturing, and healthcare. The company led what was at the time the largest deployment of UHF RFID readers, a project for the Spanish Postal Service that was eventually adopted by the Universal Postal Union.

He continued his academic career at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain), where he has been a faculty member for the past 17 years. During this time, he gradually shifted his research focus toward RFID, robotics, and the Internet of Things.

Just prior to joining UPF, he co-founded Keonn Technologies, a company that develops and supplies RFID-based solutions for the retail industry, including inventory systems (handheld readers, smart shelves, robots, and overhead readers), loss prevention, payment, and customer engagement solutions. Keonn is widely regarded as a world leader in RFID solutions for retail, offering one of the industry’s broadest portfolios and serving customers in more than 60 countries across all continents. The company has achieved the world’s largest deployment of overhead RFID readers for perpetual inventory in terms of number of stores, customers, and geographic reach. Keonn was recently acquired by Novanta, a Nasdaq-listed company based in Boston.

As a Full Professor at UPF and Director of Innovation at Keonn, Rafael Pous leads research and innovation initiatives that combine RFID with complementary technologies such as computer vision, RTLS, and AI. His work focuses on developing sensor-fusion solutions that push the limits of data accuracy and fidelity, enabling new use cases that are set to transform the retail industry.