Burberry London flagship store gets digital makeover

Taking a couple of years for renovation work to be completed, Burberry’s Regent Street store in London, all 44,000 square feet of it, has been digitally integrated seamlessly throughout. We are talking about having full-length screens wrap the store, making you experience a sensory overload as you lose track of when the transition between audio-visual content displays start or stop, no thanks to a clever combination of live-streaming hubs and and mirrors. At certain times, models will walk between video screens, mimicking the “Burberry World Live” experience that was staged in April earlier this year.

Imagine the sight and sound of rain that begins almost silently, where it will gather strength and build up to a crescendo with a cracking thunderstorm as its climax, showing up on all the store’s screens with relevant echoes to boot, even in the fitting rooms. The clever use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips that are attached to certain clothes and accessories allows one to approach screens in common areas or within a fitting room, only to be greeted by a video on how that particular fashion item is worn on the catwalk.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Wakestock festival uses wristbands, ditches paper tickets, RFID tags to prevent birds nest counterfeit,

Keurig Vue V1200 coffee brewer uses RFID technology

I wager most of the offices out there have normal coffee makers where you put in a paper filter, water, and ground-up coffee to get a full pot. Some offices have fancier coffee machines that brew single cups of fancy hot drinks. Some of the coolest single cup makers are made by company called Keurig.

Keurig has a new coffee maker for single cups of coffee with various flavors called the Vue V1200. This particular machine is the company’s newest commercial expansion for single cup brewing systems. The company says that the coffee maker is designed for stronger, bigger, hotter, and smarter brewing. The smart for the coffee maker comes in the form of RFID technology.

If you’ve ever tried to figure out how to use one of these machines for the first time to brew a cup of coffee, you probably know that there are a lot of settings and buttons that you need to push depending on what you’re making. This new coffee maker uses RFID technology with a tag on each of the individual beverage cups that comprises a recipe tag.

That recipe tag allows the machine to set itself at the default optimum setting for the specific brew the person is making. The idea is that the RFID technology allows the person making a hot drink for the first time to get it exactly right. The technology should also guarantee that the person who happens to know how to run the machine in the office doesn’t get harassed with questions.


Keurig Vue V1200 coffee brewer uses RFID technology is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Will Trash Cans That Charge Per Use Just Encourage Littering? [Trash]

The Netherlands is rolling out some 6,000 smart garbage cans that can only be used when residents scan an RFID-enabled ID card. Besides monitoring just how much trash someone disposes of, the cans will also measure and charge the user based on how much refuse they tossed. More »

Cheap NFC-based chips run on your phone’s radio waves, can be read and written

Cheap NFCbased chips run on your phone's radio waves, can be read and writtenA new generation of cheaper, passively powered smart tags could accelerate NFC adoption very soon. Developed at Sunchon National University and Paru Printed Electronics Research Institute in Korea, the circuits could be printed in a similar method to newspapers, but it’s the inclusion of the rectenna that makes the new chip technology so appealing. The combination antenna and rectifier can pick up residual radio waves from your phone to power itself. This new technology could apparently drop the cost of installing NFC to as little as one penny per unit, while offering up additional two-way functionality over its RFID rival. And if there’s a speed boost in the process, well, all the better.

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Cheap NFC-based chips run on your phone’s radio waves, can be read and written originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Embedding an RFID Transit Card Inside Your iPhone

After seeing Dhani Sutanto from London embedding a RFID Transit Card into a ring, Becky from Adafruit thought that it would be a cool idea to try and embed one into her iPhone.

rfid chip antenna iphone embed

The process is pretty straightforward. First, you need to dissolve away the plastic of the card in acetone. Then you need to extract the antenna and chip. This needs to be installed under the iPhone backplate. You’ll probably have to experiment with paper and tape in order to insulate the chip from the guts of your phone.

The result is that you can carry around your transit card without actually carrying around your transit card. Of course, as NFC technology continues to come along, chances are that someday you’ll be able to pay for public transit just by holding your phone up to the reader anyhow. But for now, this is a clever hack and works with today’s systems.

rfid chip antenna iphone embed dissolve acetone

rfid chip antenna iphone embed alone

[via Make:]


Indian researchers invent RFID device that can block a driver’s cell phone

Distracted driving is a big problem all around the world. Many states in the United States have laws on the books banning texting while driving or making phone calls while driving without using a hands-free device. The problem is these laws are difficult to enforce and many drivers simply ignore them. Researchers in India have come up with an interesting way to block only the driver’s mobile phone while the vehicle is in motion.

The system uses RFID technology that can detect when the car is in motion and if the driver is trying to use a mobile phone. When the system determines the driver is trying to use a mobile phone, a low range mobile jammer is activated to block only the driver’s phone from operating. According to the people who designed the system it would allow passengers to continue making calls and texting normally.

Another potential use for the system according to the designers could actively notify police when drivers are trying to use their phone while behind the wheel. That last bit will certainly get the privacy advocates in an uproar. I see problems with the system. It would block drivers being able to make phone calls in an emergency such as to alert police of a medical emergency or a dangerous driver without having to stop the car.

[via Smithsonian Mag]


Indian researchers invent RFID device that can block a driver’s cell phone is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.