Re: ID tags in rental / high-priced retail suits?

[Darren Reed <avalon () caligula anu edu au>]

> If it is any conciliation,  an IBM rep stated to me in a meeting about 
> wireless that they are working on a similar project for Wal-Mart and 
> SAMS Club for inventory check-in purposes.  This was a few weeks ago.  
> He also mentioned the bit about the dry cleaning houses and tracking 
> which uniforms should be replaced after so many trips to the dry 
> cleaner.  It is true as far as I'm concerned.  I see no reason what the 
> representative would have to gain by lying about it.  This is cutting 
> edge technology that is just coming to surface.

There's one thing about the RF ID tags that doesn't quite match up with
barcodes and that is you cannot have more barcodes than you have items.

If I throw half a dozen RF ID tags into one box of something, then when
it goes through the scanner, it'll show up as being more than 1 when there
is only one.  I suppose there are other indicators of incorrect id tag'ing
as it'll show up as more than 1 item as it goes through the checkout
counter in the store.

But unless ID tags can be fab'd "on the spot" by sales staff as they
wrap up the half dozen pieces of fish you've just asked for, barcodes
are going to be around for a while yet.

Darren

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