RFID for Wine Aficionados
A California startup has developed WineM, an RFID-enabled wine rack that lets aficionados and sommeliers manage their collection visually.
By Beth Bacheldor
You've built a wine cellar and stocked it with bottles of your favorite reds and whites. Now how do you find the 2005 Australian merlot in your collection, and is it the right wine to serve with beef stew, or should you choose a 2004 French Bordeaux?
ThingM, a California startup specializing in ubiquitous computing, says it has solved the problem of searching paper logs or spreadsheets for information about wines and how they are organized. The company developed WineM, an RFID-enabled wine rack that lets aficionados and sommeliers manage their collection visually.
Each cell, or slot, in the wine rack is equipped with an RFID antenna; a specially designed RFID interrogator can read six cells. Each cell is also fitted with four RGB LEDs that can display a broad range of colors. Before a new wine is stored on the rack, a 125-KHz passive, read-only tag from Trossen Robotics is affixed to the bottom of the bottle. When a bottle is placed into a cell, the tag is read and the unique ID number is uploaded into the WineM software and database. The system also includes a Nokia touch screen to access the software. Search for, say—California chardonnay, Sonoma, 2005, $30—and all the cells holding bottles that meet that description will light up.
You've built a wine cellar and stocked it with bottles of your favorite reds and whites. Now how do you find the 2005 Australian merlot in your collection, and is it the right wine to serve with beef stew, or should you choose a 2004 French Bordeaux?
ThingM, a California startup specializing in ubiquitous computing, says it has solved the problem of searching paper logs or spreadsheets for information about wines and how they are organized. The company developed WineM, an RFID-enabled wine rack that lets aficionados and sommeliers manage their collection visually.
Each cell, or slot, in the wine rack is equipped with an RFID antenna; a specially designed RFID interrogator can read six cells. Each cell is also fitted with four RGB LEDs that can display a broad range of colors. Before a new wine is stored on the rack, a 125-KHz passive, read-only tag from Trossen Robotics is affixed to the bottom of the bottle. When a bottle is placed into a cell, the tag is read and the unique ID number is uploaded into the WineM software and database. The system also includes a Nokia touch screen to access the software. Search for, say—California chardonnay, Sonoma, 2005, $30—and all the cells holding bottles that meet that description will light up.
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