TBILL1's SMY PostSomeday there will be smart shelves in the home. Smart refrigerators anybody.
The future
Mobil’s Speedpass success has caused other companies to stand up and take notice. Shell Oil is rolling-out its version of RFID, called easyPAY. Shell’s service will operate at different radio frequencies than Mobil’s, so, at least for now, they won’t be interchangeable at each other’s stations. But that’s where SAMSys comes in.
SAMSys Technologies of Ontario, Canada, is taking RFID to the next step. Basically, its readers can translate not only Speedpass tags, but also any company’s RFID tags. The readers work regardless of frequency or protocol.
According to SAMSys Chairman and CEO Cliff Horwitz, what that means is with his company’s reader technology you can not only use your Speedpass at McDonald’s, but also use your Shell easyPAY or any other RFID that McDonald’s enters into agreement with. Same for buying gasoline. Or anything else! You won’t be restricted by carrying one particular company’s key tag with you.
Horwitz envisions a world in which RFID competes with and replaces bar codes. His company’s SmartShelf technology allows product tracking from the earliest steps of manufacturing to retail sales in a store. Unlike barcodes, which have to be applied before sale, SmartShelf RFID tags can follow the product at every step “throughout the supply chain.” He says RFID “removes operator intervention” and makes product tracking “simple and efficient.”