Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: Expectant_Philosopher on 29/08/2014 06:48:37

Title: Wouldn't it be neat if our socks had embedded RFID tags?
Post by: Expectant_Philosopher on 29/08/2014 06:48:37
Wouldn't it be neat if our socks has RFID tags imbedded in them? We could have an app in our mobile device to track missing socks and to locate matching sets.  How many times have you lost socks after laundry day?  How often have you tried to distinguish between the black socks and the blue ones?  How many time have you tried to find matches in the dark? 
Title: Re: Wouldn't it be neat if our socks had imbedded RFID tags?
Post by: Expectant_Philosopher on 18/09/2014 19:01:00
I should've searched the net first, apparently there is a company that has this product since 2012, Blacksocks, but according to their limited sizing they must believe that only men with extremely small feet lose their socks.
Title: Re: Wouldn't it be neat if our socks had imbedded RFID tags?
Post by: alancalverd on 19/09/2014 07:14:46
The simple solution is to buy lots of dark green socks. They are acceptable with black or brown shoes and even with sandals, and work OK with any business suit or shorts. I reckon this saves me about 40 seconds a day getting dressed and maybe 10  minutes every wash day. 10 working hours per year at £50 + VAT..... much better than RFID. 
Title: Re: Wouldn't it be neat if our socks had embedded RFID tags?
Post by: vampares on 21/09/2014 04:52:16
My electronics educational text book covered RFID a little bit.  I was able to "read" from an oscilloscope keystrokes from a keyboard just by placing the probe near the electronics in the keyboard.  Amazing.

Cellphones are too fast for me to read directly off of a CRT, although I can see something like a disturbance.  Cellphones I assume are cleaner transmissions.

RFID's require an input of EMF.  They then charge and discharge a response.

Finding socks may well be more difficult with RFID than just looking for them.  RFID is cheap enough for socks.  The backend translation would need to be in place as well.  I think the backend is far more of a challenge than the frontend RFID device.

Because RFID is an widely available technology, and because it is simply an ID, it could be copied with ease.  Credit cards also provide blunt info.  Not many forgeries, AFAIK.  RFID would be much more readily accessed however by would be criminals.

Alternatively you could always UPC your socks.  I had a lawyer show up with two different shoes on one time, so there is a market out there.

It's kind of extreme to just pass a screws and socks test.  DOH!