7 ms·

Any ideas whats stopping it from becoming much cheaper? RFIDs on everything seem like a good move in the robotics age.

by parhamn 3y ago

kjkjadksj 3y ago
Seems like a lot of ewaste to me for marginal convenience otoh
- pcchristie 3y ago
  Agreed. It would be cool if you could recycle them then and there for re-use.
- teruakohatu 3y ago
  There has been at least one study on just this question https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350413738_A_Model_of_the_Environmental_Burden_of_RFID_Technology_in_the_Slovak_Republic https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350413738_A_Model_o...
b112 3y ago
I don't want rfid tags in my apples, and putting them on the outside of each one seems costly. And things like onions have a loose outer skin, which falls off. And grocery store clerks peel the outside (wilting) leaves off of things like local lettuce daily. Seems like rfid on groceries would be hard for fresh produce, and we don't need everything wrapped in plastic.
- tempest_ 3y ago
  This is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. Sure an apple or a squash is hard to track, but a large (probably a majority) of a modern grocery stores selection is prepackaged goods. It it is a lot easier to run a veggienet or whatever on a small subset of the goods purchased.
  - ianstormtaylor 3y ago
    Some would argue that trying to eliminate self or manual checkouts from groceries stores is letting the perfect be the enemy of good.
- awelxtr 3y ago
  You won't have it anyway. An rfid tag tag placed on any conductor (apples are conductors because of their water content) 'detunes' the tag and makes it impossible to read
SkyPuncher 3y ago
It’s not very expensive to being with, but it’s magnitudes more expensive than a print tag. Print is either free (a package being printed anyways) or extremely cheap (sticker). Materials alone provide a huge challenge.
awelxtr 3y ago
I forgot to add that rfid tags placed on conductors are hard to read so food is a specially hard product to work with

Any ideas whats stopping it from becoming much cheaper? RFIDs on everything seem like a good move in the robotics age.

kjkjadksj 3y ago

Seems like a lot of ewaste to me for marginal convenience otoh

pcchristie 3y ago
Agreed. It would be cool if you could recycle them then and there for re-use.
teruakohatu 3y ago
There has been at least one study on just this question https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350413738_A_Model_of_the_Environmental_Burden_of_RFID_Technology_in_the_Slovak_Republic https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350413738_A_Model_o...

b112 3y ago

I don't want rfid tags in my apples, and putting them on the outside of each one seems costly. And things like onions have a loose outer skin, which falls off. And grocery store clerks peel the outside (wilting) leaves off of things like local lettuce daily. Seems like rfid on groceries would be hard for fresh produce, and we don't need everything wrapped in plastic.

tempest_ 3y ago
This is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. Sure an apple or a squash is hard to track, but a large (probably a majority) of a modern grocery stores selection is prepackaged goods. It it is a lot easier to run a veggienet or whatever on a small subset of the goods purchased.
- ianstormtaylor 3y ago
  Some would argue that trying to eliminate self or manual checkouts from groceries stores is letting the perfect be the enemy of good.
awelxtr 3y ago
You won't have it anyway. An rfid tag tag placed on any conductor (apples are conductors because of their water content) 'detunes' the tag and makes it impossible to read

SkyPuncher 3y ago

It’s not very expensive to being with, but it’s magnitudes more expensive than a print tag. Print is either free (a package being printed anyways) or extremely cheap (sticker). Materials alone provide a huge challenge.

awelxtr 3y ago

I forgot to add that rfid tags placed on conductors are hard to read so food is a specially hard product to work with