Barcode Scanners easily accessible

Carrefour, a retail chain in Belgium, has recently implemented Re-Vision's MyScan software solution, reports Barcode.com.

Carrefour conducted a pilot program to test the point-of-sale (POS) system in 2009, high levels of customer acceptance were reported and Carrefour has begun roll-out of the self-scan POS to their stores across Belgium. Self-scanning is an innovative shopping concept thought to increase customer loyalty and optimise customer flow by placing barcode scanners in the hands of each customer.

"Introducing self-scanning increased the supermarket's popularity with the customers, because this option offers them more control over the time spent in the store. We at Carrefour are quite happy with the results of the project; our main goal was to make the shopping trip quick and enjoyable, from the moment our customer enters the store and until the check-out. We feel that now they are getting a better service and benefit from a more relaxed shopping experience." Says Walter Simons, Director Business Solutions IT-Stores at Carrefour, Belgium.

More advanced versions of radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems could collect all the information about the contents of a store in an instant, letting a retailer know where every package is at any time, according to the Futurity

The technology described in the March issue of the journal IEEE Transactions onElectron Devices is based on a carbon-nanotube-infused ink for ink-jet printers first developed in the Rice University lab of James Tour, a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science.

The ink is used to make thin-film transistors, a key element in RFID tags that can be printed on paper or plastic. “We are going to a society where RFID is a key player,” says Gyou-jin Cho, a professor of printed electronics engineering at Sunchon National University in Korea, who expects the technology to mature in five years.

If RFID tags become less costly at a rate of one cent per piece, barcodes may decrease at a much faster rate than expected, states RFID World

Currently RFID tags cost about ten cents apiece but it is not unrealistic to see the price drop down overtime. Now South Korean researchers say that they have the technology to print RFID circuits on plastic film as a result ink that contains nanotube, capacitors as well as diodes.

The first printed RFID tags made of printed transistors based on carbon nanotubes are expected to come up later this year and will be the first of its kind on the market. Printing in the context of RFID tags means an application of nanotube ink, capacitors, diodes, as well as different layers of antenna coils.