FourQ's RFID

A little about me...

I bought a house in 2001 and have been retrofitting it with a home automation system since the birth of my son in December 2006. Of course, anyone who's bought or built a smarthome will know that it doesn't stop with the lights, before long you're receiving e-mails when the dishwasher has completed it's cycle and having the e-mail forwarded to your mobile phone. You'll have the Christmas lights on automatic so that the outside lights are only on after sunset and the tree lights turn off when you go to bed. Your aspirations include the central heating and ceiling fans to keep the temperature at the right level for when you wake and save money by turning it off when you're on holiday. In the first five minutes of planning the integration of your latest gadgets you've given thought to RFID, those little plastic tags that you swipe to get in to work, and the other applications you can use it for. There's so much more beyond door entry but do you have any real need to track the location of your IT hardware once it's home? Well, no if you're honest but hell, it sounds like a good idea - tag things you're likely to lose, you're always leaving your house keys in the wrong jacket so finding them with a tag on will be a breeze by taking a reader across each jacket before it dawns on you that you've got an RFID door entry system and your house keys are now redundant. Idiot!

So what have you done with your RFID? Well, for starters it's tied in to the door access, yeah, okay, everyone uses RFID for door access. The thing is, how many RFID tags will adjust the lights (on/off/dim/bright) depending on the time of day, power up the entertainment system, announce how many new e-mails you have, turn on the coffee percolator etc?

What are your plans next?

Well, the truth is that there are hundreds if not thousands of uses for RFID in industry but realistically how many uses are there for home use? Seriously, what would you use RFID for in your own house? It's got you thinking hasn't it? If you have any suggestions please visit me on Twitter and drop me a note with your suggestions.