July 12, 2006
Innovation In Hybrid RFID Technologies
While straight-up RFID-based items are starting to become commonplace - things such as smartcards, toll road + , biometric devices - there's a new wave of gadgets and devices being produced that combine RFID with other technologies, particularly a variety of sensors. In such hybrid applications, RFID often becomes a component of a communication network and the sensor plays the key role in the device's function.
For example, Japanese researchers are looking into sensors that could be dropped over a disaster area and sense heat or seismic shifts, then communicate data via the RFID components of an array of sensors. The PPIC (Public Policy Institute of California) produced a paper suggesting ways to defend the US border and seaports. In it, they indicated that RFID-enabled sensor devices could be deployed in shipping containers for both pedigreeing shipments, as well as for security and possibly detecting stowaways via heat and other sensors.
In the hospitaliy industry, a Miami company has come up with an RFID-enabled tilt switch that measures how much alcohol is being poured out of a bar's liquor bottles. The system is tied to the POS till (Point-of-Sale), and verifies other ingredients being used. It also learns over time how to judge the length and style
of pouring.
Besides ensuring that bartenders aren't giving away freebies, the RFID tilt-tracker covers a bar legally by ensuring that drinks do not have more than legal amount of alcohol. Although, this system would not stop a bartender from combining the contents of two separate glasses into one drink.
Interestingly, the cost of the system is based on a per unit price (including housing, attachments, battery, etc.), plus nearly 1% of revenue of the bar. Not sure if bar owners are going to accept that, especially if they are busier, and especially since there are other measuring solutions that don't involve this "subscription" fee. However, several large chains in the hospitality biz are already testing this RFID system.
This tilt-switch tracking system might possibly be modified and applied to control the balance and motion of two-legged robots. Failing that, a potental app might be in a system hybridizing robotics with sensors, RFID, and other technologies. For example, an array of security robot equipped with heat or light sensors could be trained via a neural net to recognize objects. The RFID component could be used to collect and/or communicate data across a Wi-Fi network of devices such as other
robots, security cameras, etc.
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