Hi Doug, We have, indeed, considered RFID and have actually started preliminary talks with some people involved in the industry. Here are a few notes on the topic that you may find interesting.
DEPLOYMENT One of the barriers to the general implementation of RFID is the cost of the labels. The current price of VHF and UVHF tags varies between 5 and 25 cents, depending on the frequency involved. The tags with longer antennas are more expensive because they have considerably larger surface area and internal material. The tags with shorter antennas are perceptible at about 18 inches, the larger ones at as much as 30 feed, If the tags are applied to individual consumer packages, obviously the cost of the tags (plus the cost of using the tags plus margin) is going to have to be added to the cost of the product. At Wal-mart, tagging is performed at the carton and pallet/overpack level. RFID is also currently employed in other applications such as rail car identification, guidance paths for robots, etc. where the cost of the circuitry can be easily absorbed because it is not one-time use. One possible application of the tags would be at the shelf level. There are, as you point out, some issues with disambiguating the readings from multiple RFID tags in the same location, which brings us to the question of how RFID really works. USAGE METHODOLOGY RFID tags are reflective passive circuits; product location typically works by triangulation from multiple sensors. For your reference, RFID generally use GTIN numbers. GTIN is a superset of EAN, which is, in turn, a superset of UPC. Our Digit-Eyes database actually contains GTIN numbers that we are scaling down as needed to interpret EAN or UPC. What you do if you are running (say) a warehouse where you want to read the GTIN numbers from the pallet and the individual cartons on the pallet is to position sensors throughtout your reading area and tune them so that you can computationally understand the area where they overlap (sort of like adjusting the sprinklers on your lawn to get good coverage without drowning a single area). You can then, as with any triangulation exercise, determine the position of the pallet and of the reflective tag of each box by comparing the readings in two or more sensors. When you have a single sensor (for instance, one that was sited in a reader) the issue would be measuring the reflections from each of the GTIN tags, determining which is closest, creating a transaction to the database with the GTIN number and having the system return the result. IMPLEMENTATION So, in response to your question "How do we determine a product when we have a number of products in one area, a covert full of cans and bottles, each presenting a signal that has a 30 foot radius?" the answer is: a) you wait until the cost of RFID tags drops to a point where they can be put on a single item or b) you use, instead, shelf tags that are situated where the product is and either use an ancillary unit scanning methodology like visible light scans to identify the unit c) to execute either (b), you need to get the store to agree to do RFID shelf tagging d) in the case of either of the options above, you also need a portable RFID scanner that (say) can communicate with your phone. Cordially, Nancy Miracle On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 9:10 PM, Doug Lawlor <doug.law...@gmail.com> wrote: > That's interesting, RFID would be much better for identifying products > because you would not have to point a device at the product in question to > identify it. Just get a reader in the general direztion of the of the > product and we should be able to identify it. As I understand it, the range > of RFID is quite large, something in the range of 30 feet. How do we > determine a product when we have a number of products in one area, a covert > full of cans and bottles, each presenting a signal that has a 30 foot > radius? > > Doug > > Sent from my iPhone > > On 2010-07-11, at 9:33 PM, Scott Howell <scottn3...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Doug, > > > > I do not know how many products have them now, but I suspect more than we > know. For example, I recently learned that the recycle bins our county > provides us has a RFID chip imbedded in them. Apparently the data collected > from the chips let's the county know how often we put the bins out. RFID > chips are being used more now because of the speed and ability to collect > data on products being shipped and received, etc. > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<macvisionaries%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<macvisionaries%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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