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Self-Checkout Gets RFID Upgrade
NCR demonstrates its RFID-enabled FastLane self-checkout register at Metro Group’s RFID Innovation Center.
By Jonathan Collins
Aug. 13, 2004—To demonstrate how RFID tags on individual products can speed customers through checkouts, retailing technology provider NCR has installed an RFID-enabled self-checkout register at Metro Group’s RFID Innovation Center in Neuss-Norf, Germany. To create what NCR says is the world’s first self-checkout solution with an integrated RFID reader, the company took one of its existing NCR FastLane units, which come with a built-in bar code scanner, and fitted with it an RFID upgrade kit. NCR designed the kit specifically for Metro’s RFID Innovation Center, a stimulated store that Metro opened in July so its suppliers could experience RFID technology in a retail setting (see Metro Launches RFID Test Center).
Back in October 2002, Dayton, Ohio-based NCR first unveiled its prototype hybrid register, which reads both RFID tags and bar code labels, but that device included an UHF RFID reader from Alien Technology. The new system for the Metro Group uses a 13.56 MHz RFID reader manufactured by Feig Electronic. The reader works alongside the unit’s existing bar code scanner. “This means the RFID tag on an item can be read at the same time as the bar code,” says Dan White, who is known as the “technical evangelist” for RFID in NCR’s retail solutions division.
At Metro’s Innovation Center, the hybrid checkout system’s RFID capabilities are being used to deactivate the security function of an item’s RFID tag at the same time the unit scans the item’s bar code label during the checkout process. In a store setting, that would enable the customer to exit the store without triggering a security alarm. The Metro Innovation Center has security gates that can detect if an item’s RFID tag is still activated and, if it is, signal a security alarm.
However, NCR maintains that theft prevention is just one of a number of RFID-enabled applications the system can be used for. The hybrid registers could also be used to kill an item’s RFID tag so that the tag could no longer be read after the item has been purchased. In addition, retailers could use an RFID tag’s additional item-specific information, such as the item’s expiration date, to ensure that customers are alerted to any problems with their purchase.
Metro says that it has no immediate plans to install the hybrid self-checkout registers in its Extra Future Store, the supermarket that Metro opened in Rheinberg, Germany, to showcase a range of emerging technologies. The reason, the retailer says, is that there are currently too few individually tagged items in the store to make it worthwhile. The Extra Future Store does, however, already have 15 NCR FastLane self-checkout stations, which customers use to check themselves out by means of the unit’s bar code scanner. In addition, by early 2005, Metro will install FastLane self-checkout units at 50 of its Real and Extra stores in Germany to supplement the stores’ conventional checkout lanes.
NCR believes hybrid checkout registers that read both RFID tags and bar code labels will become increasingly common as RFID tagging grows at the item level. “We see hybrid systems as the first step for RFID checkouts as individual and item-level tagging progresses over the next 10 years or so,” says White.
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Aug. 13, 2004—To demonstrate how RFID tags on individual products can speed customers through checkouts, retailing technology provider NCR has installed an RFID-enabled self-checkout register at Metro Group’s RFID Innovation Center in Neuss-Norf, Germany. To create what NCR says is the world’s first self-checkout solution with an integrated RFID reader, the company took one of its existing NCR FastLane units, which come with a built-in bar code scanner, and fitted with it an RFID upgrade kit. NCR designed the kit specifically for Metro’s RFID Innovation Center, a stimulated store that Metro opened in July so its suppliers could experience RFID technology in a retail setting (see Metro Launches RFID Test Center).
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| NCR's RFID-enabled FastLane self-checkout register |
Back in October 2002, Dayton, Ohio-based NCR first unveiled its prototype hybrid register, which reads both RFID tags and bar code labels, but that device included an UHF RFID reader from Alien Technology. The new system for the Metro Group uses a 13.56 MHz RFID reader manufactured by Feig Electronic. The reader works alongside the unit’s existing bar code scanner. “This means the RFID tag on an item can be read at the same time as the bar code,” says Dan White, who is known as the “technical evangelist” for RFID in NCR’s retail solutions division.
At Metro’s Innovation Center, the hybrid checkout system’s RFID capabilities are being used to deactivate the security function of an item’s RFID tag at the same time the unit scans the item’s bar code label during the checkout process. In a store setting, that would enable the customer to exit the store without triggering a security alarm. The Metro Innovation Center has security gates that can detect if an item’s RFID tag is still activated and, if it is, signal a security alarm.
However, NCR maintains that theft prevention is just one of a number of RFID-enabled applications the system can be used for. The hybrid registers could also be used to kill an item’s RFID tag so that the tag could no longer be read after the item has been purchased. In addition, retailers could use an RFID tag’s additional item-specific information, such as the item’s expiration date, to ensure that customers are alerted to any problems with their purchase.
Metro says that it has no immediate plans to install the hybrid self-checkout registers in its Extra Future Store, the supermarket that Metro opened in Rheinberg, Germany, to showcase a range of emerging technologies. The reason, the retailer says, is that there are currently too few individually tagged items in the store to make it worthwhile. The Extra Future Store does, however, already have 15 NCR FastLane self-checkout stations, which customers use to check themselves out by means of the unit’s bar code scanner. In addition, by early 2005, Metro will install FastLane self-checkout units at 50 of its Real and Extra stores in Germany to supplement the stores’ conventional checkout lanes.
NCR believes hybrid checkout registers that read both RFID tags and bar code labels will become increasingly common as RFID tagging grows at the item level. “We see hybrid systems as the first step for RFID checkouts as individual and item-level tagging progresses over the next 10 years or so,” says White.
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READERS' COMMENTS
RFID tag kill feature
The kill feature on an RFID tag is in danger of being oversold. If you kill the tag at check-out, how do you handle returns and recalls? The tag could also be useful for automated recycling processes. Even using the kill feature for a customer who thinks it would help protect their privacy could cause problems. If the item is stolen from the customer, its unique identity has been lost and makes it more difficult to recovery the item. As far as privacy is concerned, the tag is probably one of the least invasive items that we have in society. Compared to the tag, there is much more personal information available in your trash or thru your telephone or thru a computer network.
Posted By: K. ELLIOTT 8/13/2004 at 6:46:03 AM
RE: RFID tag kill feature
Bruce, Your assertion that a tag has uses following item sale (such as returns, recalls, automated recycling) is not correct as this assumes that the tag will remain attached to the product - it is more likely that it will be disposed of with product packaging when the consumer gets it home. Roger.
Posted By: T. Helfrich 8/18/2004 at 5:50:35 AM
RE: RFID tag kill feature
> Bruce, > Your assertion that a tag has uses following item sale > (such as returns, recalls, automated recycling) is not > correct as this assumes that the tag will remain attached > to the product - it is more likely that it will be disposed > of with product packaging when the consumer gets it home. > Roger. >
Posted By: K. ELLIOTT 8/18/2004 at 11:20:59 AM
RE: RFID tag kill feature
> Bruce, > Your assertion that a tag has uses following item sale > (such as returns, recalls, automated recycling) is not > correct as this assumes that the tag will remain attached > to the product - it is more likely that it will be disposed > of with product packaging when the consumer gets it home. > Roger. > Roger, You make a good point about the tag being attached to the packaging, but then the packaging has the potential to be recycled. It is also possible that the consumer could return the item before it is opened with the packaging and tag intact. It is likely as you stated that the packaging and product will be separated, but I can think of situations where this probably will not happen including when the tag is attached to the product which I did not assume was the only possibility. There are a large number of products where direct attachment is possible including clothing, bicycles and tires. With a plastic jug of milk, you will certainly use the product before it is separated from the packaging. A situation where the tag could be used with recycling or recalls.
Posted By: K. ELLIOTT 8/18/2004 at 11:47:36 AM
RE: RFID tag kill feature
Perhaps one way of getting around some of these consumer privacy concerns is to reduce the information stored on the tag. At the end of the day, as long as we can identify the item during manufacture, supply chain, storage and sale the tag is doing pretty much everything we need from a retailer/manufacturer perspective. Additional info such as temperature, packing date, consignment etc can also be stored as required. But in terms of storing info about who bought what - it doesn't matter. Capture that data in the depot/store and stick it in a data warehouse so you can analyse it. Then you don't need to kill the tag when it leaves the store - and if a consumer should return the product or it has to be identified for recycling purposes the tag can just be a standalone item. This way there's no impact on the consumer - so long as the return generates an update of the database. For the issue of whether the tag becomes separated from the item - this is something that should be decided upon by the retailer/manufacturer during the tag placement stage. If it is deemed necessary then the product should be tagged at item level - probably with the tag incorporated into the on-the-product packaging/labelling. If not, just tag the cases/boxes or go a level up and just tag the pallet.
Posted By: P. Green 8/18/2004 at 9:14:50 PM