豆知识 2011-01-16&01-22 电子标签

 How doyou go shopping? You get in your car and you drive to Walmart. You grab youritems and fill up your cart. When you have all of your items, you go to thecheckout and wait in line. The clerk scans each of your items, and totals them up and bags them. You swipeyour credit card. You thank the clerk. You leave Walmart, get in your car anddrive home.

It'seasy, right? But don't you ever wonder how Walmart gets all those millions ofproducts to you?

To helptrack and coordinate² all those products, we use a technology called RFID.

RFIDstands for Radio Frequency Identification. RFID technology starts withelectronic tag. This tag can store and process all kinds of information. Toread the information of the RFID tag, it must pass by a RFID scanner.

Walmartuses RFID technology throughout its supply chain. Walmart's vendors³ like Kellogg's attaches RFIDtags to its pallets of goodscontaining information about that pallet. That pallet gets transported to oneof Walmart's distribution center. Walmart then scans the pallet and breaks itdown. The pallet then gets transported to the Walmart’s store. Once the palletreaches the store, the pallet is scanned again. The product is then placed on thestore shelves. As the pallet passes through the supply chain, information aboutthe pallet is added to a computer tracking system. The tracking system helpseliminate errors and ensures quality.

But whatdoes the future look like for RFID technology?

The sizeof RFID tags will decrease significantly, resembling a grain of sand on one'sfinger. Eventually, the size and price of RFID tags will get so low, they willbe incorporated into every product thus replacing bar codes. RFID tags havealso been incorporated into credit cards to expedite purchases. Eventually, RFID tags will be in everything,and systems will be developed around them to completely eliminate the checkout¹.No more lines, no more waiting, no more checkout.

With allof this technology, let's see what shopping might look like in the real world.

In thefuture, RFID technology will affect the shopping experience of everydayconsumer. When you shop, long lines and scannable bar codes will be eliminated.Instead, items are scanned by the RFID tags and they’re added up by theshopping card. When a shopper leaves, the scanner reads RFID tags at the doorand automatically charges the shopper's credit card read by the RFID scanner. RFIDwill make the shopping experience faster and better for everyone.

1 checkout   

n.（超市等）收银台，付款处

参考例句：

• Could you pay at the checkout.你能在结帐处付款吗。
• A man was wheeling his shopping trolley to the checkout.一个男人正推着购物车向付款台走去。

2 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

3 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓