With growing concerns regarding antibiotics and pesticides in our food, there has been a big push among health enthusiasts to go organic and buy local. Sometimes, even if you do purchase organic food, it’s still hard to track exactly where it came from. Well, now there’s an app for that.
The Living Goods Program is a conceptual app that was on of the 18 Greener Gadgets finalists. Basically, the app allows users to scan the barcodes on products and instantly provides details on the producer, how far the food has come, if the product is in season, historical pricing, detailed consumer ratings and even your own purchasing history.
By using the Living Goods Program, eating local becomes promoted and consumers soon realize the impact they make with each and every purchase, in real-time. Buying local food reduces your carbon footprint, helps the local economy, and can even mean higher nutritional values. The intentions of the app are also to help out farmers, allowing them to better market their products to distributors and customers. Providing information about the farm, how far the food traveled, nutritional value and average pricing allows consumers to make much more informed decisions about what they are putting in their body.
Thermal barcode printers use a fixed width print head that presses onto the label via a rubber roller called a platen. Between the print head and the label is a think thermal transfer ribbon, which is basically a polyester film that has been coated with a wax, wax-resin or pure resin “ink.”
The different types of resin are made to print on different labels for different applications, such as harsh environments. Wax ribbons are primarily for printing onto paper labels, but it is important to note that they must be kept in a dry environment, not subjected to chemicals or oil that would dissolve the wax image.
Wax-resin ribbons produce a finer image when paired with smooth paper or coated paper labels. Wax-resin is much more durable than wax, but should still avoid contact with water.
The Motorola WT4090 VOW is a rugged wearable terminal for voice-directed task workers that enable high-performance hands-free applications. The key voice features of the WT4090 VOW include support for voice recognition, text-to-speech engines and Voice-over WLAN, giving workers up-to-date information at all times. The WT4090 VOW supports wireless 802.11a/b/g in addition to:
When you think of a library, the words “cutting-edge” and “high-tech” might not immediately come to mind, but libraries throughout the UK are receiving an upgrade to advance their check-in check-out processes. Rather than using manned checkout counters, visitors simply use RFID kiosks to check-out, return or renew books, and even pay fees.
In order to return a book, patrons simply place the book in a tray on the kiosk, press a “return” button, and then the screen indicates which bin the book should be placed in. For checkout, the library card just needs to be held near the kiosk’s barcode scanner, and then the books/media can be placed in a tray. The 13.56 MHz interrogator captures their ID number and then transfers the data to the library management system (LMS). With RFID technology, the items’ status in the LMS is automatically updated and instructs visitors on how to sort the returned items, ensuring that they are placed back on the shelves with the utmost speed.
Such RFID implementations are rapidly increasing throughout the United Kingdom, in addition to other parts of Europe. Adoption in North America and Asia has been slower, but on an international level, approximately 5 percent of all libraries are now using RFID technology, with annual growth rates expected to be over 25%.
In addition to facilitating check-in check-out processes, RFID technology also assists libraries with their security systems, allowing the to integrate with the LMS. Can you see your local library implementing RFID within the next few years?
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The Zebra P4T is a mobile thermal transfer printer with RFID capabilities (RP4T). It allows long-life barcode labels up to 4” wide, in addition to having the latest Bluetooth 2.0 or 802.11b/g wireless connectivity, battery monitoring, large LCD, center-loading media and large memory. The P4T boasts itself as being extremely user-friendly, all while maintaining a sleek, ergonomic design that’s able to withstand even the toughest of environments. These features make the P4T ideal for a variety of different applications, particularly in the government, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, mobile workforce and field service.
