RFID Tags

Long checkout lines at the grocery store are one of the biggest complaints about the shopping experience. Soon, these lines could disappear when the ubiquitous Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code is replaced by smart labels, also called radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. RFID tags are intelligent bar codes that can talk to a networked system to track every product that you put in your shopping cart.

Imagine going to the grocery store, filling up your cart and walking right out the door. No longer will you have to wait as someone rings up each item in your cart one at a time. Instead, these RFID tags will communicate with an electronic reader that will detect every item in the cart and ring each up almost instantly. The reader will be connected to a large network that will send information on your products to the retailer and product manufacturers. Your bank will then be notified and the amount of the bill will be deducted from your account. No lines, no waiting.

RFID tags, a technology once limited to tracking cattle, are tracking consumer products worldwide. Many manufacturers use the tags to track the location of each product they make from the time it's made until it's pulled off the shelf and tossed in a shopping cart.

Outside the realm of retail merchandise, RFID tags are tracking vehicles, airline passengers, Alzheimer's patients and pets. Soon, they may even track your preference for chunky or creamy peanut butter. Some critics say RFID technology is becoming too much a part of our lives -- that is, if we're even aware of all the parts of our lives that it affects.

Website: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/rfid.htm

Hi-Tech for Health

Fortunately, Ferrell found out that the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was supporting development of a “personal status monitor” for soldiers. So he wrote a proposal, and by early 1996, the funds started rolling in. A year later a team from ORNL, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK), and the University of Virginia had developed a temperature-measuring telesensor chip.

The chip, which is about one-eighth the size of a postage stamp, uses bipolar transistors whose electronic properties are sensitive to temperature. It can be attached to a finger or placed in an ear. There it can measure body temperature and transmit a reading when queried by a receiver in a remote intelligence monitor.

Although developed for military uses, the temperature chip could be useful at home or in the hospital. For example, a chip could warn of a spike in body temperature that might lead to a seizure in a child or brain damage in a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy. By heeding the instant information and making the appropriate response, such as taking a pill, patients can avert a health crisis.

Wireless monitors could vastly improve decision making by medics in the military. On the battlefield, some soldiers are mortally wounded, some are badly injured but conscious, and others are hurt yet are able (usually with treatment) to resume fighting. While under fire, medics must decide quickly which wounded soldiers must be treated first to get them back on their feet and ready to fight. Medics also must determine which wounded soldiers can be saved from death by rapid treatment and transport to a hospital.

Website: http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/meas_tech/hi-tech.htm

INTERACTIVE “LIVING GLASS” Regulates Air Quality

What if architecture was designed to work for you to keep you healthy? Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin, architects at The Living have come up with a new material called "Living Glass" that will look out for your health by monitoring C02 levels in the air. The new smart material is a thin, transparent, non-mechanical surface which automatically opens and closes "gills" in human presence to control the air quality in the room.

Movie: http://inihabitat.com/2007/0621/carob-dioxide-sensing-living-glass/

Electronic Ink

Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. The priciple components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, about the dameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visable to the user. Electronic ink can be applied to any material that is used for conventional printing.

Movie: http://www.bnet.com/2422-19541_23-266051.html

Movie: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/video/e-ink-cover-video

How Sensors Work

A general tutorial on how sensors work and what object currenlty utilize such technology.

Video: http://videos.howstuffworks.com/nasa/2130-sensors-video.htm

Bendable/Printed Electronics

Electronics are now being created through the process of printing. The machine used to print these circuit boards looks just like a regular printer. One advantage to this is that the circuits are now flexible, leading to new uses and ways to implement technology.

Video: http://videos.howstuffworks.com/sciencentral/2697-printing-objects-video.htm