RFID in Pubs and Bars?

Need a free drink? If your friend was the barman chances are he would pass you one friendly drink absolutely FREE. Did you know that acts like these lead to losses estimated close to $7 billion every year in sales of liquor alone.

Until now there was no effective way of checking this. Lets face it you don’t expect the owners of a five star hotel to come sit at the bar each night and watch how many free drinks the barman was passing to his buddies. But all that is going to change thanks to RFID technology. A San Francisco based company called Capton has developed Beverage Tracker software.

How does it work?

The beverage tracker has a active RFID enabled tag on the liquor spout and an RFID reader. Whenever drink is poured, the tipping of the bottle turns on both the tag and the measuring device, allowing the spout to measure the volume of liquor poured before the bottle is tipped back up. The information is transmitted to the interrogator's antenna.

It possible to track the details of every drink poured or spilt at the counter. This can be used to ensure you collect for every drop dispensed if the system is configured appropriately. The unique tag on each bottle will transmit its code to the RFID reader which can then decide how much the customer has to pay based on a pre decided rate card stored in the software.

Although setting up such a system - presently on a trial basis - costs approximately over $20,000 many would agree its a drop in the liquor ocean compared to the $7 billion that’s lost in annual sales.

So the next time you want to be extra sweet talking that lady bar tender into passing you a free drink, remember the only thing you need to ensure is that she doesn't spill any enamored by your charm. For sure you will pay for every drop dispensed. After all like lunches, its getting to a stage where we can say THERE ARE NO FREE DRINKS too.

Does RFID ensure you eat safer food?

Any outbreak of animal borne disease and the first reaction is to stay away from the affected product be it meat or eggs until it get a clean chit once again. Given the deadly nature of these diseases, its not surprising that none of us want to take a chance and rightfully so.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has plans to use RFID amongst other methods to track all livestock with the hopes of quickly identifying and localizing affected animals in the event of future epidemics. This would result in quicker identification and quarantining and in containing the wide spread trouble.

Using passive RFID tags (i.e. tags without a battery within) that are attached to a particular lot of hens or cattle, the RFID readers will quickly be able to scan from a distance all details pertaining to that particular shipment. Perhaps the biggest advantage of using RFID in this case instead of the conventional bar code system is that in the event of requiring a re-check to confirm which shipment has been loaded on the truck, there isn't a need to unload the truck to scan each bar code.

Using today networking possibilities, such shipments can also be quickly tracked down even after it has crossed international borders into a foreign country. Quarantining such affected shipment coming in from many sources from across the world can be a Herculean task if each shipment had to be opened and checked. However with use of a suitable RFID scanner in the shape of a wand or a stationary object (say, the gate on a cattle pen), scanning and isolating the shipment can be achieved very quickly.

Its not surprising then that big retailing Giants like Walmart and Target have been quick to see the benefits and insist that their suppliers ship with RFID tags. For now it may seem like only the big players utilizing the RFID way of tracking. However, with a few more Bird Flu’s and not to mention demands of government-mandated animal tracking by 2009, more will follow quickly.

RFID to Foil Shop Lifts

Surely at some stage in our lives we have all seen the electronic article surveillance (EAS) alarm getting triggered at some mall when some one tried to walk past with goods he had lifted.

Starting from June 2006, RFID will be integrated with existing EAS measures to form a more effective surveillance system to curb and check shop lifting. This new system from Vue Technology and Tag Co. will provide up to item-level visibility of high-end items in the store, and possibly catch a theft in action, before the product leaves the store. It will also give the store keeper trace where products are moved within the store which will not only help stop fraud but also improve in locating it location and in logistic upkeep.

This means that if a new employee at the shop decided to shift a large quantity of a certain item fro its original shelf to elsewhere, this change would be picked up and be seen as tantamount to shop lifting and would lead to setting off alarms. Alarms need not always be audible to let the person know his act has been noticed. According to Tim von Kaenel, Vue's senior vice president of product management and business development the alarm could be a message appearing on the store's computer screens to convey shift of certain items has taken place giving full details of the exact location too.

Since these RFID tags cannot be read at distance more than 12 inches they will be ineffective at the doorways. Therefore it is felt that the combination of the two methods EAS (with a 9 foot range) and RFID will give the fool proof solution to check fraud both at the shelf level and at the door way.
Finally the new system with its advantages has one BIG plus point in its favor - there is no need to chuck away your existing EAS readers but merely need to upgrade it to a better solution provider. This along with the new tracking software called IntelliManager will be provided and integrated by Vue Technology at a reasonable price.

World Cup Security - RFID way

Come 9 June 2006 and the world will see such huge concentration of use of RFID tags in one place than ever before. Yeah you guessed it - It must be in Germany and it must be Football season.

This years world cup foot ball tickets all have an embedded RFID tag. A rough calculation taking into consideration sixty four matches and the seating capacity of twelve stadiums, it works out to approximately 3.5 million tickets. This is undoubtedly the first ever use of RFID in such a large scale and the organisers are aware of the sort of hassles they are going to encounter. There are going to have a large number of scanners installed to read that many tickets and also to validate them.

Enhanced Surity Measures:
The RFID tag will contain the name, address,nationality, and ID card or passport number of the person who bought the tickets.On family tickets, the name will read the same on all the tickets purchased. This is a delibrate move to ensure your ticket cannot be sold or stolen.
The security plan being engineered by German police, Interpol, and other intelligence services will ensure that all are kept under constant surveillance. Camers with biometric facial recognition capabilities will also assist in spotting the known suspects easily.

While all this sounds very exciting and possible, it is interesting and perhaps to note how the security loopholes often pointed out by experts have been looked and the controversial technology is put to better the security management of the World Cup. I suppose thats where reasoning ends and Football mania begins.