RFID

If you enjoy building or tinkering with electronics, the Kode Dot pocket-sized creator tool or electronics multitool or whatever else you want to call it can help you get wildly creative with your projects, and make it a lot easier to test them.

ID verification tags aren’t much use if someone can just peel them off and stick them to a fake product. MIT scientists have now designed ID tags that use the glue itself as a kind of fingerprint, and will scramble the barcode if someone peels it off.

RFID cat flaps are great for keeping animals from wandering into your house, but they don't stop your cat from bringing dead animals into said dwelling. The ZeroMouse was designed to address that shortcoming, by blocking access to cats carrying prey.

When it comes to locating landing pads or other landmarks, drones rely largely on visual cues. So, what happens if it's dark or foggy, and there's no ground-based power for lights? Well, that's where the Millisign system is intended to come in.

RFID tags wirelessly provide information on products or other items, but they can only be read by dedicated portable devices. That may soon change, however, as a tag-integrated chip and a software update could allow smartphones to do the job.

It can be difficult, digging out your keys or wallet when your hands are full. Well, if an experimental new 3D-printed "smart ring" reaches production, such digging may no longer be necessary.

Rugby is a chaotic game at the best of times, so it can be difficult to gauge when illegal actions such as forward passes occur. That's where a new "smart rugby ball" comes in, which is packed with sensors that record its movements.

Engineers at MIT are developing a way to turn the humble RFID tag into a light-powered sensor for the internet of things.

It was just last year that we heard how scientists from Stanford University had designed a skin-worn sensor that measures stress via cortisol levels in the sweat. Now, researchers from that same institute have announced a similar sensor that tracks other vital signs.

No-one likes to queue at airport check-in lines, it eats into your holiday time, and can be both boring and tiring. Now British Airways has signed up for ViewTags, reusable electronic baggage tags that can be attached to luggage before holiday-makers get to the airport.

Now you can have your wonder material and eat it, too. The lab of James Tour at Rice University has demonstrated a way to etch graphene onto food like bread and potatoes, as well as materials like cardboard and cloth, where it could then act as an RFID tag.

Tracking stock in warehouses is a huge challenge for businesses. Lost items reportedly cost American retailers over $45 billion annually, so tech that makes inventory tracking easier has the potential to have a huge impact. A new MIT system could do just that, using drones and RFID tags.