On Fri, 14 Mar 2003, Trei, Peter wrote: > You're not thinking this through. As the item goes through the door (in > either direction) the check is made "Is this individual tag on this store's > 'unsold inventory' list?. If so, raise the alarm. The tags are not fungible; > they each have a unique number. When you purchase an item, it's tag > number is transfered from the 'unsold inventory' list to the 'Mike Rosing' > list, or, if no link to a name can be found, 'John Doe #2345'.
I hope you're right because the amount of engineering work that will be required to make this work is huge! That's a lot of job security for EE's. > As you walk up to the counter, the tag in your jockey shorts is read, > and you are greeted by name, even if you've never been in that store > before. And who's going to pay for that info? The tag is made by TI, but the store you walk into buys from Phillips. That means the reader has to recognize all the standards (and there aren't any right now, so it has to recognize every individual frequency and data stream). Then there has to be some kind of _central_ database that *everyone* has access to. You can't determine who the customer is if they aren't in your database, so a centralized database would make sense. The bandwidth on that is going to be a nightmare. > What's more, for stock control, they have 'smart shelves', so they can > also say 'Mary, go get some more black hipster jeans in 34x34 and > put them out - the shelf says it's empty." Yeah, that's easy. It's still within the store's control > As for RFID tags vs bar codes - you missing out the labor cost > differential - RFID tags can be read by a fixed reader at several feet, > while bar codes must be indvidually scanned. Yeah, and it takes a second or 2 to find the bar code. That's got to cost a few pennies doesn't it :-) > The tag cost is already down to under a dime. When it's under a > nickle, these things will be in everything. Think about them in books. Our library already has a tagging system. You put your card down and the bar code on it gets read, then slide the book barcode over it and the book is checked out, assuming you don't have any fines. So it's already in place. But for those who have a clue, mylar is going to be very popular :-) Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike
