The rise of unmanned retail stores and analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of RFID technology and application cases
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The security industry and RFID technology are inseparable. RFID technology plays an important role in the application of products and solutions such as intelligent transportation, intelligent parking, intelligent access control, and radio frequency anti-theft. RFID is one of the key technologies for security and the Internet of Things. At present, related products and system solutions are becoming more abundant, the market application is gradually deepening, and the application field is continuously expanding and extending. The establishment of unmanned convenience stores has improved the role of RFID technology as an important interface for the Internet of Things.
1. “Unmanned retail stores” on the tuyere
After the concept of “new retail” was put forward, innovation in the retail industry accelerated. With the penetration of artificial intelligence in various fields, the concept of unmanned vending stores has entered the public eye. In December last year, the global e-commerce giant Amazon launched the AmazonGo unmanned store. Although it was in the internal test, it still attracted great attention in the industry. Recently, in China, unmanned stores have also been pushed to the forefront by capital and public opinion.
At present, unmanned retail stores can be roughly divided into three categories technically:
1. Both AmazonGo and TakeGo use current popular cutting-edge technologies, such as machine vision, deep learning algorithms, sensor fusion technology, convolutional neural networks, biometrics, etc. Count customer shopping information through infrared sensors on the shelf, pressure sensing devices (to confirm which products have been taken), and load sensors (used to record which products are put back), and the data of the products purchased by the user will be transmitted to the AmazonGo store in real time The information hub, customers can leave the store directly when they pay the bill.
2. Representatives of the second category include Bingo Box, EATBOX, etc., which mainly use RFID tag technology. RFID has more advantages in the identification and anti-theft of goods, and the solution is relatively mature in technology.
3. The third category, such as small e-micro stores, mainly uses QR codes to complete the identification of goods. The advantage is low cost, which is closer to traditional retail.
In terms of shopping experience, Bingo Box, etc. obviously cannot achieve a “take and go” shopping experience like AmazonGo and TakeGo. The technology it uses is relatively simple but more reliable. The Bingo box mainly uses RFID technology, face recognition technology, etc.-RFID tags are affixed to the packaging of the goods in the store, which avoids the need for complex image recognition processes like AmazonGo and TakeGo, but it can also save manpower. , May well be a way to transition to the first category of “unmanned retail stores”.
2. RFID technology and analysis of its advantages and disadvantages
RFID (Radio Frequency IdenTIficaTIon) technology, that is, radio frequency identification technology, refers to a radio-based information identification technology, also known as electronic tags. The working principle is mainly to automatically identify target objects through radio frequency signals and obtain corresponding data. , The whole process of work operation is automated without manual intervention. It is a non-contact automatic identification technology.
Conceptually, RFID is similar to barcode technology. Barcode technology is to attach the barcode information to the article, and scan the barcode on the article through a scanner to obtain the information of the article. The RFID technology attaches the RFID tag to the item, and reads the information in the tag into the RFID reader through the radio frequency signal, thereby obtaining the unique information of the item. Compared with traditional barcodes, the advantages of RFID technology are as follows:
1. Quick scan
The RFID reader can identify and read multiple RFID tags at the same time. In contrast, only one barcode can be scanned at a time.
2. Penetrating and unbarred reading
When covered, RFID can penetrate non-metal or non-transparent materials such as paper, wood, and plastic, and can perform penetrating communication. The barcode scanner must be at a close distance and there is no object blocking the situation before it can read the barcode. The reason why “unmanned retail stores” can achieve unmanned cashiers is mainly due to the use of this feature of RFID technology.
3. Large data memory capacity
The capacity of a one-dimensional bar code is about 30 characters, the maximum capacity of a two-dimensional bar code can store 2 to 3000 characters, and the maximum capacity of RFID is several trillion characters. With the development of memory carriers, the data capacity is also expanding.
4. Small size and diversified shapes
RFID is not limited by size and shape in reading, and does not need to match the fixed size and printing quality of paper for reading accuracy. Unlike barcodes, they are prone to deformation and damage, which can lead to unrecognizable problems. In addition, RFID tags can be miniaturized and developed in various forms to be applied to different products.
But in fact, although the current low-frequency and high-frequency bands have been widely used in China, such as campus cards, ID cards, mobile phone NFC modules, etc.; but in the consumer field (usually applied UHF RFID electronic tags), barcodes ( One-dimensional, two-dimensional) can basically meet the description ability of a single item, and there is a mature supporting system when it is promoted. RFID tags cannot replace bar codes.
There are several major challenges in the popularization of RFID:
1. Cost
Although the cost of RFID tags, readers and software has been declining, the cost of RFID deployment is still unaffordable for many companies that want to track product inventory. And the current application of RFID technology is almost always upstream investment, downstream benefit, which greatly undermines the enthusiasm of upstream companies to invest in RFID technology. Especially in the country where labor costs are relatively low, many companies will choose to increase staff deployment instead of reforming the system.
Specifically, companies need to paste the printed RFID tags on each item that needs to be identified, and at the same time need to be equipped with related identification equipment such as channel machines, handheld devices, etc. In addition, companies also need to integrate RFID with the original ERP system. The business process will be more complicated than before, and production, transportation, and warehousing must be coordinated. Therefore, the initial investment cost of RFID deployment is relatively high, and it requires a certain amount of motivation and courage to advance.
2. Technical standards are difficult to unify
For RFID technical standards, it is currently difficult to achieve uniformity in the world, making product development and application positioning chaotic. Mainstream technical standards are trying to continuously strengthen their influence in promotion, especially the promotion of RFID technology in China in the future, which once appeared The five major organizations responsible or leaders of ISO/IEC, EPCGlobal, UID, AIM-global, and IP-X appear almost simultaneously in Beijing and China’s RFID field in charge of contacting agencies, trying to strengthen their own in the field of RFID technology through China’s joining. International leadership. As far as China is concerned, it is also actively seeking its own technical standards independence to protect its own technological, economic and security interests. Therefore, there is a bottleneck problem in the unification of RFID technical standards.
3. The accuracy of reading needs to be improved
Data integrity and correctness are important factors that determine the performance of the RFID system. When multiple tags within the scope of the reader send data to the reader at the same time or one reader is within the scope of another reader, the signals interfere with each other, leading to reading The data received by the device is wrong, that is, the label cannot be completely identified, or the wrong label is identified. Therefore, multi-target recognition is not only the biggest advantage of RFID, but also a technical difficulty that needs to be solved urgently.
Although as early as 2009, AA American Apparel claimed that its single-product RFID inventory management system can provide 99% store inventory visibility, but in actual operation, misunderstandings caused by algorithmic reasons, personnel problems and process problems are still It is a stumbling block on the road to popularization of RFID technology. Some media reported that during the experience of the “unmanned retail store”, there were also cases where only one product could be identified after buying two identical products, and the metal can products could not be identified because of the tight pasting.
Three, RFID application case
On the whole, the main markets for domestic RFID applications are in the fields of identity recognition, traffic management, military and security, asset management, and logistics and warehousing. In the application of RFID in foreign countries, retail and transportation logistics occupy the absolute main force. The sum of the two is about 40% of the entire market. Clothing and retail leaders such as Wal-Mart, Metro and Zara have fully deployed RFID applications.
For cost and other considerations, although many RFID tags are produced in China, their applications in the consumer field are mostly seen in foreign companies. A typical case is Decathlon, which uses RFID tags in more than 85% of its global stores and products. In the domestic consumer sector, in addition to “unmanned retail stores” full of gimmicks, some companies in the apparel industry have also begun to experiment with this technology.
In 2014, Hailan House officially launched the research and development of the RFID streamlined reading system, and selected three companies as the label suppliers of the Hailan House RFID streamlined reading system. Hailan Home provides selected RFID tag suppliers with SKU information such as product item number, color number, specification, and quantity. The RFID tag supplier is responsible for writing this information into the chip and sending it to the clothing manufacturer, and then the clothing manufacturer Tie the tag with the RFID tag to the garment. In 2017, Hailan House held a bidding meeting for RFID electronic tag suppliers, and the scale of the electronic tag procurement project reached 150 million pieces.
To sum up, in the consumer field, the current application of RFID tags is still limited to logistics and sales, with fewer applications in the production process; large companies and entrepreneurial companies have a strong driving force, and small and medium-sized companies and companies with more intermediate links are less willing to promote. .
In the long run, with the decline in the cost of RFID tags, the rise in labor costs, and the unification of international standards, RFID tags can replace barcodes in more fields. At the same time, it can be expected that the first action will be the leading enterprises in the industry (it will take 3-5 years from the beginning of the test to the volume), and it will gradually spread to the small and medium-sized enterprises in the industry.
In terms of related suppliers, in the initial stage, users are more inclined to hire smaller RFID R&D companies for preliminary trials. However, as the use of RFID becomes more and more widespread, large companies will switch to large-scale, more reputable business technology partners because they Has a good software and hardware development capabilities for a long time. ABI Research predicts that although Avery Dennison, TI, Philips, Zebra, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and other major companies do not use RFID as their main business, they will be the biggest winner in the RFID wave. Currently, RFID is the main item. The small companies are hard to be their opponents. But because these big companies are not the most proficient in RFID, they will form partnerships with small companies specializing in RFID, and even merge to obtain higher technology as soon as possible.
In the short term, “unmanned retail stores” will hardly become the next explosive point of RFID technology, but it is a new attempt by RFID technology in the consumer retail field. Of course, RFID technology is just one of the many reasons why “unmanned retail stores” attract attention. The value of this new form of retail lies in the collection of big data on offline customer consumption. On the whole, unmanned retail stores are still in the early stages of technological exploration, and it is too early to be truly unattended. The Bingo Box experience store built by “fully enclosed glass”, under the high temperature of 35 degrees in Shanghai a few days ago, the indoor temperature was as high as 40 degrees, and it could only be “temporarily suspended due to technical debugging.”Therefore, compared to “unmanned retail stores”, RFID chips may be the first to appear in our wardrobes
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