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Few days back, I read about RFID applications, but very common like human tracking, inventory management etc. Just wondering what can be done with this technology which is really exciting and newer.
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RFID chips could be implanted in babies when they're born. Authorities everywhere are drooling at the idea.
[/tinfoilhat]
I'm still waiting for the "automatic checkout" at the supermarket. Scanning bar-codes is too slow. They promised us this half a decade ago and they still haven't delivered.
So that's not really new, and not super exiting either.. but useful.
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It's a matter of cost - printing a bar code on every product costs next to nothing, RFID devices are a lot more expensive, even in bulk. And don't forget that they would have to be implanted in the packaging for everything: even a 33p sweetie would need it's own chip. Until the price drops to less than 1p each, you won't see them embedded in all consumer units. Some UK traded units do (or did - I'm a little out of touch with the industry these days) have RFID tags - notably the re-usable fresh produce trays in supermarkets because the cost can be amortised over the life of the tray, rather than each product.
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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OriginalGriff wrote: 33p sweetie This is the Netherlands. You can only buy a bag of 10 or so at the cost of 20 or so.
Besides, they'd just pass the extra cost on to the customers, as always. And of course the savings from not needing so many employees to work the cash registers are not passed on to the customers.
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The trouble is that you end up needing to pay about the same - if you don't need till staff, you need more (more expensive) security people to make sure that people like you and I aren't robbing them blind.
And I don't know about the Netherlands, but the "operator-less" tills we have in the UK are a PITA - and need staff to supervise them to fix the bad scans, age restricted products, etc. Every time I use one, I'm just glad Tesco doesn't sell sledgehammers, or I'd be arrested for criminal damage...
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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I have yet to see a security guy.. but whatever. I don't even care whether it's feasible or not. That's their problem. They promised it.
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They promised us jetpacks, and robot maids as well.
Mine have yet to be delivered...
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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And flying cars by 2000. And a space colony. And a moon base. And a cure for cancer. A cure for old age even.
Instead we got mobile phones that kept shrinking and then started growing again.
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harold aptroot wrote: A cure for old age even.
There has always been a cure for old age[^]
harold aptroot wrote: mobile phones that kept shrinking and then started growing again.
I know what you mean: iPhone7[^]
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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OriginalGriff wrote: There has always been a cure for old age True,
"... bacon's not the only thing
That's cured by hanging from a string." - Hugh Kingsmill[^]
All that is necessary for Evil to succeed is for Good Folks to keep voting for their Party. - Cornelius Thirp
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OriginalGriff wrote: doesn't sell sledgehammers
But Home Depot does, and they have self-checkout.
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That may be one reason why I don't go there...
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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OriginalGriff wrote: And don't forget that they would have to be implanted in the packaging for everything
Or a potato.
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That's going to be a real PITA when you come to jelly beans at the Pick'n'Mix...
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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For der Joden!
(Or whichever religion/caste/sect is being pounded on by our nice, civilised governments du jour)
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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It's a matter of cost (as already mentioned), but also limitations in the technology. Different materials can reflect or absorb the signal. This causes a lot of problems; especially for automatic checkout situations.
Some large retailers like Walmart had some high hopes for RFID when RFID was the hype. Unfortunately, they didn't have an understanding of the requirements or limitations of the technology. For example, they had a ridiculous expectation that a pallet of any material could have a 100% read rate at 100 ft/minute if my memory serves me. There are things you can do to assist in the read accuracy such as air gaps (in and out of the container), spacing, label placement, reflectors, et al., but its difficult and expensive to manage and test.
Inventory management or asset management is a good fit. You could put an RFID tag inside a computer and place readers to cover what you need. That would allow you to define areas where the computer is allowed to go. Not physically obviously, but as an additional level of security. Whether the expense is worth it depends on how many areas you're going to manage. Basically you'd assign antennas at every portal you needed to track. And the number of readers required would be based on that and distance since the cabling can only be so functionally long.
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Hi WajihAhmed,
I think they could be quite useful at home: for example, helping you know the name of the person you awoke sleeping next to, without the embarrassment of having to actually ask them.
Or, helping you remember your own name, when you wake up in a place you believe you've never been in before.
yrs, Bill
"We live in a world ruled by fictions: mass merchandising, advertising, politics as advertising, instant translation of science, technology, into popular imagery, increasing blur of identity in realms of consumer goods, preempting any free, original, imaginative, response to experience by the television screen. We live in an enormous novel. For a writer it's less necessary to invent a novel's fictional content: fiction's already there. A writer's task is to invent a reality." J. G. Ballard, 1974
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BillWoodruff wrote: Or, helping you remember your own name, when you wake up in a place you believe you've never been in before
Seriously, I hadn't thought about it,what an idea!!!
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Thank God I'll no longer have to write all this down on my arms. Honestly, the cost in Biro's is crippling me.
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I hate RFID tags.
Or maybe it's just the people who haven't got a clue how to use them.
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WajihAhmed wrote: Just wondering what can be done with this technology which is really exciting and newer.
"Newer" than what?
Why?
I somehow doubt that you'll "find" a new killer-app in the Lounge.
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You need some excitement? I was thinking of planting them in Grizzly Bears to track there movement but need someone to plant them on the bear. How fast can you run?
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One problem is that the price of receiver installation is relatively steep, so it only makes sense when you have lots of tags.
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I use it to track the tin foil hats I sell. (They never suspect it!)
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