Mir:ror - RFID for the Home
I’ve been wondering when these little RFID gadgets will start to make a presence in the home. Big companies have done pretty amazing things with their supply chains using RFID, but what use will a geeky household be able to make of RFID. There hasn’t been much.
I was interested to see an email this morning from Violet, the makers of the Nabaztag. This company is definitely “out there”. I’ve tried explaining the Nabaztag to visitors and they just look funny when you tell them “it is a WiFi Rabbit”. Then it starts talking and moving its ears and they really wonder. Both Violet and Ambient Devices, makers of the Ambient Orb, are doing some really interesting things bringing the web into the real world.
Mir:ror is Violet’s newest product. This video explains it best.
It’s interesting. In essence the stamps are just RFID tags and they have made a consumer friendly RFID reader (the mirror). I can think of a couple of neat things to do with this, particularly if you keyed it with home automation. For example, take your keys and swipe them on the mirror to turn off all the lights in the house when you leave. I would love that.
It will be interesting to see what kind of applications people think of for RFID in the home. This is a cool first step.
Update: My friend John Riedl just posted about this on his blog as well.