Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) --
@Lexmark United States:
Lexmark introduced the first and only RFID laser printer . . . . In fact, it was recently recognized by the RFID industry as one of the best new RFID technology innovations for 2008 by RFID Switchboard and was first runner-up for Best of Show at the 2008 RFID Journal conference."
ID cards for everyone who works in a high school. Students, teachers, admins, janitors. How's that for security?.....
Added May 20, 11:49 EDT:
A sincere thank you to George Alexander of Beyond Print for helping me get this right. Lexmark is still cool, but doesn't rate a Wow. Here's what I found out:
Don't be misled by the confusing Lexmark announcement. The machine does NOT print RFID tags. It prints on paper that has an RFID tag embeded in it (not "regular paper"). Here's a description of the printer from the Lexmark site:
"The T640rn has a radio and an antenna integrated into the printer. By adding up to four additional drawers, you can print multiple sizes and types of media. It can print, program and verify RFID media as well as print your current business documents all on the same printer. With this solution, the tag that is embedded into the media is parallel to the long edge of the paper."
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A little picky there, as you still can't name another vendor that can even do this and it'll be a good 6+ months bare minimum before anyone does this.
ReplyDeleteThe potential behind this is huge with exhibitions, people tracking, security, product tracking in distribution and legal/financial document tracking. Having seen an example of this in person, the ability to program and print onto an RFID tag is very impressive. If they can improve the technology to print onto multiple RFID tags on a page, then they're going to be streets ahead of other vendors in relation to this technology.
Dear Anon,
ReplyDeleteNotice I didn't change the headline. I still think it's way cool. It's just the engineer wanna be in me that loved the idea that it could print RFID tags complete.
I agree that the new applications are awesome. The one I'm interested in finding out about is anything that is happening in bottom of the pyramid high schools.
I'll do a post describing the opportunity in a little great length than is appropriate in this comment.