Mar 28, 2010

New RFID Tag Could Mean the End of Bar Codes

Shawn Patton pointed me to this WIRED article about new RFID tags that can be inexpensively printed right onto cereal boxes and potato chip bags. Of course, we could be playing more and better games with our grocery shopping right now, but this new tech should help grease the way to the coming Gamepocalypse.

2 comments:

  1. ...but THIS one sure looks creepy. Sure, I will be having fun using my mobile phone to check out what other people have in their bags, but I'm not sure if I want them to sniff ME out.

    ""And for those who would rather not have their food broadcast radio waves after getting it home, fear not. Tour says the signals can be blocked by wrapping groceries in aluminum foil."
    ...ah, sure. Then I'll just have to wrap everything I buy in aluminum foil, yes?

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  2. Actually what I envision is a corporation (say General Mills) giving kids a free USB or Wifi device similar to say the Pokewalker that rewards the kids for walking but also gives them additional points for scanning various General Mills codes (only usable once per device) that might be in their home. Donuts, cakes, cereal, soup, Green Giant veggies, General Mills does it all.

    Imagine how that could even influence eating behavior in children. If you get 5 points toward an online reward for a bowl of cereal but 30 points for a bowl of green beans, we could be on to something. Of course, people are prone to lie so it couldn't work without some kind of verification of what they actually ate...

    They'd have to come out with some real form of incentive too. My kids have had their Pokewalkers for about 3 weeks and have shortened their neighborhood walks quite a bit already.

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