Rf Tags And Book Inventories

[Toolboxnj]

Just some background. I work for a bookstore and I'm always thinking of ways to make the business more efficient and employees more productive. I heard about the RF technology and was wondering how to integrate them into the business.

Each book has an ISB Number, a book's fingerprint if I may. It's a 10-digit number that is linked to the title, author and even edition of the book (as well as publisher and other data). Two of the biggest problems in a bookstore are inventory control and book placement; the bookseller must have an accurate count of the number of books in the store as well as where to find the book. Many man-hours are dedicated to something called "zone maintenance" which means that the bookseller must "touch" every single book, scan it with the portable data transmitter and see which area of the store the book belongs. There are other reasons why it is done, but this is good for now.

Right now the bookseller only knows where the book should be, not where it is. Forgetting about cost issue for the time being (technology almost always lowers in price), could RF technology be used to "find" the exact placement of the book? For instance, if I assign a frequency to an ISBN would I be able to send a signal out to locate the exact location of a title? This would solve many issues in the bookstore environment.

#1: You'd always have a real-time inventory number regardless of stolen goods, misplaced inventory, receiving problems or incorrect sales procedures.

#2: If the book is in its incorrect place, you'd be able to easily locate the title for a customer or for other purposes.

#3: You'd ensure correct product placement for each title since there are different levels; new books, for example, are usually placed in the front of the store.

What do you guys think? Is this even possible?

[DavidOdden]

What do you guys think? Is this even possible?

Are you asking about this?

[Felix]

Just some background. I work for a bookstore and I'm always thinking of ways to make the business more efficient and employees more productive. I heard about the RF technology and was wondering how to integrate them into the business.

As far as I know, these RFID-chips would cost about 10 cents a piece. I once read that this is a barrier they are trying to break. So this would only be valuable if you could reuse the chips.

They tried to use it in supermarkets so you can take your shopping cart past such a screening apparatus and it calculates the price you have to pay. But the ten cents were too expensive for small goods to make this work.

But for what you want to use them for (finding books you have in store), it sounds like it could work if you can take the chips off the books when sold and reprogram them.

There is the problem:

You have to program the chips and attach them to the books. I don't know how fast this can be done.

You could end up paying more for attaching the chips than for searching for the books.

And what happens if I steal a book and leave the chip there?

[Unconquered]

Most higher cost books in, e.g., Borders, already have the white plastic things (with little wires inside) that trigger the door alarm. Clearly they cost something. The most logical thing to do would be for the book publisher to stick in a tiny passive RFID chip somewhere in the binding that it would not be removable without destroying the book. Then it could be used for inventorying, checkout, and theft detection. I doubt these chips are more expensive than the white things they use now.

There are two kinds of RFID - passive and active. The passive use incoming RF energy to power the chip so that it can emit its own signal, as I understand it. Active ones are much bigger and require an onboard energy source, and are much more expensive. The problem with the passives are limited detection range. But an employee could, I assume, carefully walk around the store, going in near proximity to all of the bookshelves, and mass acquiring the passive RFID data with a portable computer, for a store inventory check. And of course, at checkout or walking out the door, they should be detectable.

[softwareNerd]

1) The chips are small enough for books: Some libraries use RFID tags on their books, and use these for quicker checkouts and self-checkouts.

2) RFID is being used to track location: Some hospitals use RFID readers at entrances to wards, allowing them to keep track of key medical personnel and equipment. In a store, you need more precise identification of location. One way would be to use a mobile reader, as suggested above. Otherwise, you'd need a reader within each zone.

I doubt the current technology allows it yet, but if one could make the small chips powerful enough and consistent enough, and if the readers were able to detect the intensity of the signal with the required accuracy, then one ought tp be able to use (say) 4 readers, placed in the corners of the store, and "triangulate" positions of items, based on signal-strength.