SMART PORTAL equipped with an RFID tag reader identifies and inventories
an incoming shipment of foodstuffs stored in crates fitted with computerized
smart labels. The high cost of RFID tags currently limits their use to labeling multicomponent loads of goods rather than individual items.
Image: COURTESY OF TIBBETT & BRITTEN
Suppose you could go to the supermarket, fill the shopping cart with goods, and then just walk out the door without having to stand on a checkout line. Like an automated highway-toll collection system, an electronic reader at the store's exit would interrogate radio-based smart labels affixed to each item in the basket and ring up the purchases on a networked computer. Sometime later you would receive the grocery bill, perhaps by
e-mail.
This article was originally published with the title Penny-wise Smart Labels.
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