Wireless Barcode system

The barcode system is really out of date. While it’s kind of cool that stores now let us scan our items on our own, that still seems behind the times. Here is how grocery store shopping and life should be:

You walk into the store. First stop produce. There you find a produce inventory kiosk. This kiosk has all of the stores produce indexed with a map showing you where each item is. You take out your cell phone which has been synchronized with your computer with your grocery list (more on this later). Placing your cell phone on the kiosk lights up the map showing you where the produce items you need are, and how much they cost. Now go get your produce.

Next stop is an aisle inventory kiosk (can be any aisle). It works exactly the same as produce, you put your phone on it, it shows you where the items you need are on that aisle and off you go. Is someone taking a really long time at your aisle’s kiosk? That’s ok, don’t wait in line. Just walk down the aisle with your phone in monitor mode and when you get to a product on your phone’s list it will flash the product name for you.

But, wait there’s more. Your shopping cart has a rfid reader on it as well. As you put items in your cart it “scans” them and keeps a running total of the price. When you are ready to checkout you push you’re your shopping cart up to the front, choose your method of payment, and leave.

Now when you get home your items are still tagged with rfids. That’s great. Your fridge and cupboards have readers. They keep track of all food in and out and send reports to your home computer. With this information your computer keeps track of eating habits, items nearing expiration, and anything you are out of. The computer also predicts your next shopping day and prepares shopping lists. You can also use the computer to generate recipes based on the ingredients you have or on ingredients nearing expiration. When you are ready to go to the store you sync your phone with your computer and off you go. What do you think? How long before we could see something like this?