RFID And Shopping

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an important complementary technology. In the 1980's, there was a push to barcode all items at stores. The change in the shopping experience was dramatic. You no longer needed to wait for check-out staff to tabulate totals or compute savings from coupons. For management, prices could be set at a central location.

GPS and RFID

Passive radio frequency tags are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and embed with a small amount of binary information. This allows them to become a “Swiss army knife” solution to a multitude of problems, such as inventory management, pet identification, or personnel tracking. There seems to be few places the tags aren't being put.

RFID is very much needed in Pharmaceutical Supply Chains 

According to the Office of Compliance at the Food and Drug Administration, 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients in the U.S. today come from manufacturing facilities outside of the United States.  The number of pharmaceutical ingredients produced at foreign facilities doubled between 2001 and 2007.  What previously was an American drug supply is now a world drug supply.  Why did this happen?  Cost pressures drove manufacturing costs overseas where overhead costs and labor are less expensive.  Therefore, pharmaceutical drugs that many of us rely on every day and pick up at Walgreens and CVS come from a foreign manufacturing facility. 

Guest Post by JOHN R. JOHNSON:

I’m really excited about the impact that RFID technology is going to have on the retail sector in the years to come. RFID is already helping retailers to track goods from the point of manufacture to the store shelf, allowing them greater inventory visibility.

What this means for the consumer is that retailers like Walmart, Macy’s and JCPenney will be able to keep more products on store shelves, therefore lessening out-of-stocks that are so frustrating for shoppers. All three retailers are strongly pursuing the technology.

RFID Touch Panels of the Future, named SKIN

Personally, I think this is pretty cool. Siemens headquarters in Vienna, Austria has a 34 foot long set of interactive, RFID reading, motion sensing, touch screens in their lobby. These touch screens have a motion sensing camera set up so that they can detect when someone is walking by and attempt to engage them with relevant content. These touch screens seem to be able to access the internet with their own search engine ability.

In addition, these screens have a RFID reader. If the person carries an RFID tag recognized by the system (such as a Siemens visitor card) the content can be customized for them. This content can be custom created on the spot by a specified Siemens employee.

RFID refuses to take a backseat

Have you ever had to go through the absolutely grueling process of renting a car? The service can be extremely friendly, but the process is still extremely extensive and painful. This was the motivating thought behind Avis Rent A Car’s new on-location car rental system.

The system, created by I.D. Systems is made up of two parts. The first part, called a Motor Vehicle Asset Communicator (MVAC), is installed into the car itself and runs off the car’s battery. The second part, called a Wireless Asset Manager (WAM), is a RFID transceiver which runs off of a 110-volt power source.

RFID, allowing you to sleep easier.

The Nürburgring Motorsport Complex has been a famous German raceway for years. In fact it opened in 1927, way before many of its new neighbors came to town. The course now runs through several residential areas. Because of this, noise restrictions were put in order in 2001. However, up till now there has been no real way of ensuring the noise level throughout the track.

RFID, helping take out the laundry, and so much more

RFID technology is so adaptable, it continues to amaze me. It is flexible enough to be used in healthcare, surgery, retail, and general business applications. Today, I read about one of the most creative uses for RFID technology. Invotech is using RFID to actually track uniforms and linens in their casino hotel business. This is such an ingenious idea! Presently, it is used primarily for tracking large amounts of uniforms from the laundry service back to the perspective owner, as well as decreasing the time needed for sorting.

RFID, James Bond’s Newest Foe

Pretty soon James Bond is going to have to deal with not only hidden lasers, guards, and trap doors, but RFID secured enclosures as well. This may seem far-fetched, but actually it is very much reality. Armed Response Team (ART) uses UHF Gen 2 RFID tags to secure electrical service boxes of local businesses. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/8667/1.