A new printable transmitter to be used in RFID tags could let you instantly scan products without unloading your cart while shopping.
Long checkout lines are the bane of every grocery shopper’s existence. Who among us hasn’t spent at least a full week of our lives in cart-to-cart traffic stuck behind families loaded up with enough food to stock a bomb shelter?
While the self-service check-out counters promised to make such ordeals a thing of the past, they haven’t quite lived up to their potential: it’s rare that you’ll make it through a self-serve line without getting scolded for something by your mechanical cashier.
But imagine how quickly you could zoom in and out of the shops if you never had to unload your cart at all. What if the grocery store’s scanner could simply read your items’ bar codes as you pass through the line, only pausing long enough to pay the bill?
That could be a possibility before long, thanks to a new printable transmitter that can be embedded in products and packaging. The technology, developed at Rice University, uses carbon-nanotube-infused ink to produce thin-film transistors, which are then used in radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that can be attached to any item.
You’re already using RFID technology: if you have an EZ Pass to auto-pay tolls on the freeway, or you’ve ever borrowed a library book, you have an RFID tag to thank. But while current RFID tags are silicon-based and expensive to produce, the new technology can replicate the method on paper or plastic, reducing costs so that the RFID tags can be used on just about anything.
Along with reducing lines in grocery stores, the new tags could prove beneficial to the merchants, too. “The practical distance to have it ring up all the items in your shopping cart is a meter,” said James Tour, one of the developers of the new technology. “But the ultimate would be to signal and get immediate response back from every item in your store—what’s on the shelves, their dates, everything.
“At 300 meters, you’re set—you have real-time information on every item in a warehouse. If something falls behind a shelf, you know about it. If a product is about to expire, you know to move it to the front—or to the bargain bin.”
The new technology’s not quite ready for prime time, but here’s hoping these innovative RDIF tags will help you finally get through a supermarket check-out line before your ice cream melts.