Mar 24, 2005This article was originally published by RFID Update.
March 24, 2005—You have no doubt read that RFID will one day blanket the consumer home, making lost remote controls a thing of the past. Well apparently that day is already here. Retailing for $477.95, The "HomeSeer RFID Starter Kit" comes with software, RFID reader, cable, and power source. (Tags sold separately. Sheesh.) The idea, of course, is that you tag whatever object, pet, or - yes - person, you want to keep tabs on, and the system will allow you to monitor its location. The literature offers some ideas:
- Detect if vehicle is in the garage.
- Get reminders to take out the trash if the garbage can is still detected at the house on garbage night.
- Get notified if pets wander outside of a given range.
- Track physical assets and perform notification if one is "removed" from an area.
- Arm or Disarm Security by individual tag.
- Track the location of domestic help or children by logging in to your HomeSeer system from anywhere in the world.
Given its price tag and the abundance of technical jargon used in the product description, it would seem that the HomeSeer is targeted more to the hobbyist than the average joe consumer. But its very existence does make one wonder how long it will take for such an application to go mainstream.
For those of you horrified by the prospect of a "home seer," feat not. Last week we reported on another novel consumer RFID application, the TagZapper!, targeted at HomeSeer's polar opposite demographic. A small handheld device, the TagZapper! "kills" any RFID tag found on the person, allowing the privacy-conscious to party like it's 1983.
The HomeSeer is available on iAutomate.com
