RFID tags printed with carbon nanotube ink could let you check out an entire cart of groceries instantly.
Rice researchers, in collaboration with a team led by Gyou-jin Cho at Sunchon National University in Korea, have come up with an inexpensive, printable transmitter that can be invisibly embedded in packaging.
It would allow a customer to walk a cart full of groceries or other goods past a scanner on the way to the car; the scanner would read all items in the cart at once, total them up and charge the customer's account while adjusting the store's inventory.
The technology is based on a carbon-nanotube-infused ink for ink-jet printers that can be printed on paper or plastic.
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