81–90 of 113 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hotel towels, to prevent theft.
How do they prevent theft, exactly?
RFID is one of those things that seem cool until you start playing with it and then it turns out that the only uses for it are really boring. Like, you can't use it to locate stuff because the range is too short; you can't rely on stuff to have chips (food, or clothes or whatever) and it's a major time sink if you'd have to start tagging stuff yourself; it's cumbersome to install readers everywhere and not being able…
Wait, sorry... what?! You had an RFID chip implanted in your hand??? I think that story deserves a little elaboration. EDIT: Wow, this is apparently a thing. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchip_implant_(human)#Hobb...
I went to a piercing study, girl stamped a hole in the upper layers of my skin, made a small cut to open it up a bit further, slid in the ampule (which had been autoclaved first of course). Band aid on it, done. It was strange being in a studio with a bunch of people with facial tattoos and horn implants and discs the size of my wrist in their ears - and them looking at me like I was a freak from out of space. I do have to say though that I had to search around a bit to find someone willing to do it. There are plenty of places that will take your money to suspend you from their ceiling with flesh hooks in your back, but that won't stick a glass pill under your skin. Go figure.
You can also buy kits online if you want to DIY - basically big needle guns that are used to tag cattle which you just jam into your hand and pull the trigger on, literally. That would've been a bit too hard core for me, tbh.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hotel towels, to prevent theft.
Million dollar startup idea: Luggage with a faraday cage built into the lining.
On the other hand, theft by employees is something they are probably much more concerned about. Before this technology, you have to wonder how many hotel housekeepers had fully furnished their own homes with towels and bed linens at the expense of their employer.
RFID is one of those things that seem cool until you start playing with it and then it turns out that the only uses for it are really boring. Like, you can't use it to locate stuff because the range is too short; you can't rely on stuff to have chips (food, or clothes or whatever) and it's a major time sink if you'd have to start tagging stuff yourself; it's cumbersome to install readers everywhere and not being able…
What I want is RFID tags on all of my pieces of kit for when I go kayaking. Before I leave the house I scan my bag and see if I have missed anything. I was going to write a phone app to do it when I got a phone that had NFC, then I read up and found out the range was way too short.
Wait, towels have RFID tags?! Never heard of that before.
The hotel probably uses a commercial laundry service. All the dirty towels go into a bin, and every few days a van from the laundry service delivers a pile of clean towels and takes away the bin of dirty towels. The bedsheets, pillow cases and duvet covers probably get the same treatment. You can get similar services for mechanics' overalls, door mats, chef's uniforms, and things like that. They'll even put the right…
RFID is one of those things that seem cool until you start playing with it and then it turns out that the only uses for it are really boring. Like, you can't use it to locate stuff because the range is too short; you can't rely on stuff to have chips (food, or clothes or whatever) and it's a major time sink if you'd have to start tagging stuff yourself; it's cumbersome to install readers everywhere and not being able…
If you carry a proximity card in your rear pocket, that's pretty much the same thing except that there's no surgery and it's easy to swap out or discard when no longer useful. Source: the door-opening sensors at my college, many years ago, were all located at the right height for a key in the back pocket to activate them. I referred to it as the "buttprint identification system".
RFID is one of those things that seem cool until you start playing with it and then it turns out that the only uses for it are really boring. Like, you can't use it to locate stuff because the range is too short; you can't rely on stuff to have chips (food, or clothes or whatever) and it's a major time sink if you'd have to start tagging stuff yourself; it's cumbersome to install readers everywhere and not being able…
Wait, sorry... what?! You had an RFID chip implanted in your hand??? I think that story deserves a little elaboration. EDIT: Wow, this is apparently a thing. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchip_implant_(human)#Hobb...
It's the same (exact?) thing as far as I'm aware; rice-sized glass bit with a tiny RFID chip inside.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
alta ski area uses rfid intelligently -- embedded in lift tickets to forego scanning bottlenecks.
Solitude, Brighton and Snowbird also use the same tech. I know Solitude has had contactless lift ticket swiping in place for well over the past decade.
Wait, towels have RFID tags?! Never heard of that before.
The hotel probably uses a commercial laundry service. All the dirty towels go into a bin, and every few days a van from the laundry service delivers a pile of clean towels and takes away the bin of dirty towels. The bedsheets, pillow cases and duvet covers probably get the same treatment. You can get similar services for mechanics' overalls, door mats, chef's uniforms, and things like that. They'll even put the right…
That tag is about the right level of security for towel inventory. The big win in this is managing outsourced laundry costs. Knowing how many items went to the laundry, and how many came back, rather than just counting linen carts, matters a lot. ABS Laundry Solutions overview (with ominous music) [1]