RFID on Tap
A technology company has developed a unique RFID solution that measures how much alcohol bartenders have poured, which could boost a bar's liquidity.
By Mark Roberti
Feb. 1, 2006—Bartenders giving away free drinks. Employees dipping into the till. It's enough to drive some bar owners to drink. Now, a company called Nuvo Technologies has developed a high-tech spout with an active RFID transmitter and sensor that measures how much liquid is poured from each bottle.
Nuvo's BarVision system includes wireless spouts, radio receivers and software that runs on a Palm personal digital assistant. Each spout has a unique serial number that's associated in the BarVision software with a particular bottle—say, Grey Goose Vodka. When a bartender pours a drink, a tilt sensor in the spout records the bottle's angle and the amount of time it was inverted.
That information is stored in a memory chip on a printed circuit board in the pour spout. The active RFID transmitter in the spout sends the data to a receiver after each pour, or when the spout is removed from the bottle. (The battery in the spout should last around three years, or 2,000 pours.) A bar manager can download the data from the receiver to a PDA via a serial cable. Sophisticated software calculates the amount of liquid poured, based on the time, angle and type of liquor.
Feb. 1, 2006—Bartenders giving away free drinks. Employees dipping into the till. It's enough to drive some bar owners to drink. Now, a company called Nuvo Technologies has developed a high-tech spout with an active RFID transmitter and sensor that measures how much liquid is poured from each bottle.
Nuvo's BarVision system includes wireless spouts, radio receivers and software that runs on a Palm personal digital assistant. Each spout has a unique serial number that's associated in the BarVision software with a particular bottle—say, Grey Goose Vodka. When a bartender pours a drink, a tilt sensor in the spout records the bottle's angle and the amount of time it was inverted.
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| The BarVision system lets restaurant and bar owners track their inventory and control costs. |
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