Coca-Cola to use RFID Readers
Seems like the life of a Japanese consumer just got alot easier. Coca-Cola Japan has just announced that 200,000 of their vending machines across the country are going to be given RFID reading functionality.
The new vending machines will allow consumers to buy a coke using RFID-chipped wallet phones (and other kinds of digital wallets). The vending machines will also have networking capability to gather data from vending machines for inventory management purposes.
This technology has virtually unlimited applications and I nervously look forward to its unveiling here in the U.S. Like anything, these RFID tags have the potential to be used for both good and evil. I am hoping against the latter. Buying drinks with the wave of your cell phone = good; having your global position monitored every second of every day = bad. Feel free to use this as a guideline for future RFID use.
if you would like an interactive lesson in how to swipe your phone, go here and click on a button that looks like this:
Yeah, I remember seeing something like this. It was in the cell phone, only you can use it for more that just vending machines, which are all over the place in Japan. One other thing I remember seeing this application was in a bus. You just swipe your cell phone over a panel next to the change dump bin to pay and your set. I rarely carry cash on me, and when I do it’s usually not singles or something else that might be accepted by the vending machine. So I think a simple slot to accept your credit/debit card and a pin pad for your secret pin would suffice. Allowing me to get all the Diet Pepsi my blood sugar can handle!
Comment by conedude13 — February 17, 2006 @
True that conedude, Pepsi > Coke and DietPepsi > (DietCoke x2)
Comment by leadingzero — February 21, 2006 @