November 06, 2006
Promoting RFID
Don't know if these are still around, but when I was a kid in the 1970s, there was a "home electronics lab" kit that I had two of. I was into electronics from an early age, seeking out any motorized toy and tearing it apart to see how it worked. So these kits were also a great deal of fun, as were all the other electronic kits I had afterwards. It suddenly occurred to me that despite my desire to experiment with RFID, the cheapest kits I've seen start at about US$150 or so (I could be off by a bit) and generally consist of the ability to do one or two things.
What might spur interest in RFID would be mass-produced RFID kits with some goofy commercial showing kids saying "wow" or "cool" when shown what they could do with RF tech. But having just gone through my weekend quota of sarcastic comedy shows, I have this image dancing in my head of kids using these fictional kits to inject themselves with RFID chips, then annoying family and neighbors with their ability to open and close doors at will.
Maybe such a RFID DIY project kit, if anyone were to make it available for purchase, isn't exactly ready for prime time. On the other hand, some specialized kits might have a market, with the proper promotion. For example, anyone who has a cat or dog knows they like to wander in the yard. And you have to get up and let them out and in everytime, lest they scratch your door. An easy kit to rectify this might help. While the chips used to tag our household pets probably don't have the range to do this, it might be possible to rig a doorway that opens with an RFID-enabled collar. So they can come and go as they please, and there isn't as much concern that some burglar would try to squeeze their way in through some of the traditional pet doors.
Another kit that might be popular, at least among Trekkies, would be an RFID-enabled sliding door a la Star Trek Enterprise. You wouldn't need to have an implanted chip, but something on a watch or wristband. A kit with such a band, and the choice of specific experiments, might be an ideal way to promote awareness of RFID. Just some thoughts.Promoting RFID
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