One of this week’s articles discussed the benefits of the
paper-thin nano-RFID tags. There exist other In 2006, Hitachi announced that it
developed the world’s smallest RFID tag, called “Dust.”* The tiny black speck in the below photo is
Hitachi’s dust.
The almost microscopic size of these new RFID tags makes
them much more versatile than their larger counterparts. The military, for instance, can “dust”
surfaces with these tags to detect movement through the affected area. Because of their size, an individual tag is
practically undetectable. Such a network
of tiny RFID tags is an example of a “micro-electrical mechanical system”
(MEMS). MEMS encompasses a broad range
of technology from accelerometers in cars to highly sophisticated inkjet
printers.** All MEMS share certain
properties; they are all between one micrometer to one millimeter in size, and
they generally contain some sort of CPU that transmits environmental data
received from tiny sensors.**
This technology has tremendous potential for the supply
chain. Through MEMS, real-time inventory
processing is made very possible.
Furthermore, if each product has attached to it a tiny RFID tag,
retailers can track not only the order in which customers pull items from
shelves but also customers’ movements throughout their stores. These data could allow retailers to improve
their store layout.
One Finnish retailer, Rautakesko, has already used RFID to
optimize their store layout.*** While
Rautakesko was able to improve the flow of customer traffic and to better steer
customers to best-sellers, they had to develop a unique layout for each of
their 320 stores.
Are the benefits of stores designed for the idiosyncrasies
of their customer bases’ worth the cost?
*** http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?4437
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