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Bulk laundry service using RFIDs. The economics of scale are different when you can just throw all the fabric into one giant washer/dryer, like the type they us
by traverseda 3y ago
Bulk laundry service using RFIDs. The economics of scale are different when you can just throw all the fabric into one giant washer/dryer, like the type they use in hospitals, and let robots sort out who owns what. My province has one central laundry facility that services basically all government buildings (hospitals, prisons, etc) using giant washing machines. RFIDs let us turn something like that into something that can service an entire community.
Of course last mile transportation remains a problem.
- raylad 3y agoThey do that in Mumbai, sorta, but using tags they put on the clothes. You drop off a bag of laundry, it gets picked up and taken to this central washing area in town. Someone labels every piece of clothing, and then throws all the clothes together with everyone else's clothes for washing. After washing they fold and separate all the clothes and you get everything back (at least I always did). I think this has been going on since at least the 19th century.
- warrenm 3y agominus the RFID ... sounds mildly similar to cloth diaper services: you subscribe to X many per week, and they're delivered with the soiled ones picked up in exchange Of course ... you're not guaranteed to get the same cloth diapers back on the next delivery :)
- traverseda 3y agoThat is one inspiration of course. My town is too small for something like that but if it can work for something as specific as diapers I think it would work for all kinds of other stuff.
- warrenm 3y agoIt definitely works on less "personal" / more standardized items (like diapers, uniforms (the cleaning service would come once a week when I worked at Hertz, dropping off X-many pants and shirts in the right size, and take the dirty ones to be cleaned), etc)
- schwartzworld 3y agoMost restaurants that use cloth linens do the same.
- squeaky-clean 3y agoThere are mesh/fabric bags meant for holding delicates that you want to machine wash. I wonder if you could just make a jumbo sized laundry mesh that could fit a whole load? Maybe with some sort of agitator in the sensor? My concern with rfid based laundry sorting is how do you get the rfid onto my clothes? If it's a sticker, it can come off in the wash or leave residue if it remains on for the whole wash. If you're using something like clothespins, I don't want small puncture holes added to my clothes each time they're washed.
- traverseda 3y agoI was imagining they be permanently sewn into the clothing. Sure, a privacy nightmare but not really any worse than the tire pressure monitoring system already in most cars.