4 ms·

This doesn't work with groceries because the tags can't be read through liquids, right? Any solutions? It would be delightful to just push my cart through a sca

• Gigachad 3y ago
  I had always assumed it was because the tags cost too much for low value items. And that it would be difficult to standardise with all the suppliers.
  • Maxion 3y ago
    I'd say another challenge with grociers is that each item is of such differnt size, shape, material. You have tiny flexible plastic bags, bananas, basil plants, round glass beer bottles, self serve orange juice machines operated by third party companies, the meat and deli counter and so forth.
  • Animats 3y ago
    Yes. The last time this idea came around, RFID tags that could be read in bulk without interference cost about a dollar. Now they're US$0.04, says the article. Each RFID tag needs to be queried separately. If two of them send at the same time, neither gets received. So there's a recent and clever polling scheme which sends polls to which only certain tags reply, and tags also reply in multiple time slots chosen semi-randomly. It's a cross between two old ideas - slotted ALOHA, and the scheme used to make plug-and-play work for ISA cards. This is what allows just dumping all the stuff into a box and scanning all the tags at once. Uniqlo sells mostly Uniqlo stuff, so they have control over tagging. Also, clothing tends to be RF-transparent. If you're selling canned goods, this might not work. [1] https://www.hindawi.com/journals/wcmc/2021/9967739/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/wcmc/2021/9967739/