InfoWorld says some cafes and retail stores in Seattle will begin individually marketing products and services to bypassers in Seattle using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. The first target group is visually and hearing-impaired individuals who can benefit from positioning and navigation applications.
Individuals carrying a key-fob style active tag are recognized as they enter public ‘Omni-Zones’. The tag is read, and then are presented with relevant announcements via overhead speakers.
Six wireless public areas, called activation fields, will go live next week throughout downtown Seattle and at the city’s ferry terminal. Over a few months 15 more city areas will be added.
“Speakers are mounted on the telephone booth or the facade of the store. So they will be above the individual s head when they pass underneath or nearby,” said Harry H Hart. III, founder and chief executive officer of Seattle’s Awarea, which owns and manages the system.
Users of the personalized marketing system carry an active RFID tag roughly the size of a stack of four credit cards. When the tag comes within 100 feet of a transmitter sending low frequency signals at 126 kilohertz, the tag transmits a unique identification signal to a receiver connected to a monitoring and execution server.
AXCESS International, a provider of Active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, is being used by the program. It’s managed by the Awarea Corporation in Seattle. AXCESS’ patented ActiveTag RFID product uses small, battery powered “active” tags that when automatically activated, transmit a wireless message typically 30 to 100 feet to hidden palmsize receivers.
” Using active RFID for an advertising solution was a completely new application, but we have successfully evolved our technology to take advantage of the opportunity,” commented Ben Donohue, VP of Business Development for AXCESS. [Obviously, Donohue hasn't seen "Minority Report"]
Customers needing more information can push a tell-me-more-button, explained Donohue. Data about the customer can be mined and sold to the retailers, Donohue said. It can also be used to personalize marketing and map customer behavior.
One hundred thirty active RFID tags have been in use at a test site with only one transmitter at Pioneer Square in Seattle for a year. Beginning June 1, when more transmitters are activated in downtown Seattle constituting six tag activation zones, more tags will be sold and rented.
Awarea plans to market the system at the National Federation of the Blind’s Washington legislative luncheon this weekend.
Other possible applications might be for tourists who might want guidance in the downtown Seattle area.
Thousands of WiFi-enabled clients can be simultaneously tracked using Cisco Systems’ Wireless Location Appliance 2700. It uses RF fingerprinting capabilities to accurately locate authorized or unauthorized 802.11-enabled devices to within a few meters. This includes wireless laptops, PDAs, voice-over-wireless LAN (VoWLAN) handsets, rogue access points and clients.
Audio Beamforming might be a good match.
HyperSonic Sound uses an ultrasonic piezoelectric transducer to emit sound at frequencies above the human ear’s 20,000-cycle threshold. Unlike low-frequency waves, the high-frequency signals don’t spread out as they travel through air. These waves combine with normal audio from a CD or MP-3 player, interfering to create an audible signal, focused into a beam. American Technology currently sells the HyperSonic Sound System for $600.
Over the next few years we can expect a huge use of the HyperSonic Sound system. Thousands of soda machines in Tokyo will soon bombard passersby with the enticing sound of a Coke being poured, and several U.S. supermarkets will promote products to shoppers as they walk down corresponding aisles.
Seattle’s Talking Signs currently use infrared transmitters and receivers that announce directions and locations for the sight-impaired who can’t read signs.
Talking Signs transmitters provide labels and directions such as “Reception Desk”, “Conference Rooms Ahead”, “Public Telephone”, or “6th & Main”. The messages are spoken by a Talking Signs receiver which is held in your hand. The receiver, similar in size to a remote control, plays the announcement.
Elevators, stairs, passageways, crosswalks, bridges are popular places to put talking signs.
Meanwhile, license plates with embedded RFID tags can be read from 300 feet and in rapid succession by readers embedded in the road or by other vehicles. Traffic engineers in Washington State are tracking cars through nine cameras to see how drivers are using the roads. License plate reading software has been available for several years.
DailyWireless has more on Seattle’s Talking Signs as well as RF-ID articles including; Real ID, UWB RF-ID, Real-ID Passport, $10B Contract for People Tracking, Visa Tracking, Container Tracking, Port Security with RF-ID, RF-ID Tracking Pills, Mad Cow RF-ID, Handheld RF-ID Readers, Airport RF-ID, Tracking RF-ID, Digital Angel, RF-ID: From Soup to Nuts, Tracking Ship Movements – And You, Homeland Insecurity, Marathon RF-ID Tagging Port Security with RF-ID, Intelligent Transportation, RF-ID Tracking from Space?, Handheld Facial Recognition, Minority Report, The Matrix, the Matrix Expands and Matrix Shrinks.
C/Net editor Charles Cooper recalls the McCarthy Era from 1948 to about 1956. Here’s Edward R. Murrow (ram) on the junior Senator from Wisconson.
Good night and good luck.
