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Izzy's Ice Cream Shop Shows Real-Time Scoop Levels With RFID Tags

by Caleb Johnson on May 11, 2010 at 05:27 PM

RFID ice cream tracking
Have you ever ventured to the ice-cream shop for a few scoops of your current flavor du jour only to find that they're all out? St. Paul, Minnesota residents might never experience that kind of heart-rending disappointment again.

According to TechLand, local shop Izzy's Ice Cream has implemented a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag system for its ice cream inventory. Simply by visiting the shop's Web site, Facebook page or Twitter account, you can check and see what flavors are currently in stock. At the store, each nameplate -- from Lemon Custard to Norwegian Chai -- is embedded with an RFID tag, like the kind found in embeddable pet-locator chips. An antenna monitors and broadcasts whenever an employee replaces one flavor with another. The Web site features a table of flavors, and you can find more about availability by rolling over each one. The shop also projects flavor availability in real-time on a screen inside the store, in case you can't bring yourself to walk over to the real ice cream tubs. [From: TechLand and Izzy's Ice Cream]

Tags: antenna, cool, facebook, food, ice cream, icecream, IzzysIceCreamShop, rfid, SocialNetworking, top, twitter, web

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