Voice-enabled RFID chips: get ready for an amazing future
By Futuretalk
Wearable computer maker Vocollect believes their voice-enabled machines can team up with RFID (Radio Frequency ID) chips, used to identify items, and create an enormous array of exciting applications.
RFID chips transmit information that identifies objects like food, drugs, clothing, cars, machines, and documents, even animals and people. Vocollect VP Larry Sweeney says, “Voice is good at directing people, while RFID is good at capturing data; together they can make our lives more efficient”.
By as early as 2010, experts believe the following scenario could happen in a store near you:
You enter the supermarket, grab an electronic cart that recognizes you from your touch, toss in some bags and begin shopping. The monitor on your ‘smart cart’ displays products, price, and total amount spent; and even subtracts items returned to the shelf.
As you wind through the aisles, the cart’s voice recognizes products you’re running low on, and offers special discounts just for you. When finished shopping, simply tap a ‘chipped’ finger indicating payment preference and walk out the door – no more lines or grocery clerks to deal with. On exit, select an option to deactivate or encrypt all chips, which protects your privacy by preventing evildoers from tracking you or your merchandise.
As you put items away at home, the milk might say, “I expire in two weeks, would you like a 24-hour reminder”, or the hat you purchased may say, “Hey ***, why not wear me now, you know how great I make you look”.
Milwaukee futurist David Zach agrees that voice-enabled RFID will increase efficiency. Clothes could remark, “Don’t wash me with colors”; cars may cry out, “I need oil”, and a glass might tell the bartender, “he’s had enough”.
Though these futuristic scenes may seem like an episode from The Jetsons, Albertson’s Chicago and Dallas stores are experimenting with ‘Shop ‘n Scan’, a wireless scanner shoppers use to ring up groceries as they take them off the shelf, which could become the precursor to futuristic ideas like the ones described above.
RFID systems lower retailer labor costs; help customers shop more efficiently, and reduce thefts. Las Vegas casinos believe they can lessen cheating by ‘chipping’ their chips; and if a certain Beverly Hills store had been ‘chipped’, a famous actress would not have suffered an embarrassing shoplifting scandal. Sensors would have detected items she selected and automatically charged her credit card.
Chips implanted under the skin provide foolproof identity of who we are. Florida-based VeriChip makes an FDA-approved chip the size of a grain of rice that keeps Alzheimer’s patients from getting lost and prevents abductions of newborns from hospitals.
Future implants will automatically start cars, unlock doors, and when connected to ‘glasses-cams’, will identify people we meet on the street. By 2020, these electronic marvels could provide genetic information to doctors, monitor our wellbeing; even deliver electric shocks to dangerous criminals.
One thing for sure – RFID implants are paving the way towards an amazing ‘magical future’. British scientist Kevin Warwick, with an arm already ‘chipped’ looks forward to the future when he can ‘chip’ his brain and transfer memories and other data from his mind to the office. How cool is that!
This article will appear in various print media and blogs; comments welcome. See other published work by Futuretalk at http://www.positivefuturist.com/archive.html