RFID is here!

Grocery stores seem to have a lot more self-checkout registers lately.

My grocery cart is usually full and then I am expected to act like a cashier because I have to scan each item myself, then pay a machine. I have estimated that I spend an extra 12 hours a year working as a cashier for the grocery store at the self-checkout register. I wish I could walk up to the register and in a split second, my basket is instantaneously scanned without ever having to remove an item from the grocery cart.

The technology available to make my wish come true is called Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID).

What is it then?

A tag contain a unique identifier similar to barcodes.

Tags are read by an RFID reader like barcode tags are read using a barcode scanner, however RFID readers use radio frequencies to communicate with a the tags instead of a line-of-sight scan as does a barcode scanner.