Skip the checkout lines with RFID-enabled groceries
29 March, 2010
category: RFID
Imagine a time when you never have stand in a grocery store checkout line again. You simply place items into your cart and your transaction is processed as you walk out the door. Researchers from Sunchon National University in Suncheon, South Korea and Rice University in Houston, Texas have constructed an RFID tag that can be printed directly onto grocery items such as cereal boxes and potato chip bags, according to Wired.
Still in a proof of concept phase, the tag is said to replace traditional bar codes at the grocery store. The tags can instantly transmit data about a cart full of groceries, and possibly do away with the checkout line altogether.
Officials say you just run your cart by a detector and it tells instantly what’s in the cart, then a customer pays and walks out.
The tags use an ink laced with carbon nanotubes to print the electronics on paper or plastic grocery items and researchers are hoping to squeeze 96 bits into the tag about the size of a business card.
The new tag cost about three cents to print, and the team is still working to bring the cost down to below one cent.
To read more click here.