Reports are now emerging of a site focused on Near Field Communications that claims Apple has built new iPhone models (prototypes) that are equipped to support sensing RFID chips. RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification) is a technology that allows a device to sense embedded chips in nearby objects without making direct contact, according to AppleInsider.

Einar Rosenberg, who runs the Near Field Communications Group on Linkedin.com, stated, “A highly reliable source has informed me that Apple has built some prototypes of the next gen iPhone with an RFID reader built in and they have seen it in action. So it's not full NFC but it's a start for real service discovery and I'm told that the reaction was very positive that we can expect this in the next gen iPhone.”

AppleInsider appropriately points out that Apple has already filed patent applications related to a mobile “ID App” capable of using an RFID sensor, a way to use RFID to sense and connect to available WiFi networks, and a touchscreen RFID tag reader. According to the report, adding support for an RFID reader would not only be easy, but also cheap and practical, as the method could be built right into the screen. This assumption is based on Apple’s own explanations, which AppleInsider extracted from one of its patents.

“The efficient incorporation of RFID circuitry within touch sensor panel circuitry is disclosed,” Apple says in the application. “The RFID antenna can be placed in the touch sensor panel, such that the touch sensor panel can now additionally function as an RFID transponder. No separate space-consuming RFID antenna is necessary. Loops (single or multiple) forming the loop antenna of the RFID circuit (for either reader or tag applications) can be formed from metal on the same layer as metal traces formed in the borders of a substrate. Forming loops from metal on the same layer as the metal traces are advantageous in that the loops can be formed during the same processing step as the metal traces, without requiring a separate metal layer.”

With iPhone OS 3.0 already supporting local discovery and networking setup via Bluetooth, support for sensing RFID chips would make sense. However, as AppleInsider points out, to embed Bluetooth devices in units that could use cheap RFID chips would be quite expensive.