It’s so tempting to take exciting new technology and go in search of problems. However, it’s often the pragmatic applications of new tech that ultimately wins the day and ushers in broader acceptance.

Take RFID. It’s certainly not a new technology by any stretch, but the practical application of RFID within the context of in-store digital media is still somewhat unproven, or at least far from mainstream. If we drill down even further to the banking vertical (the world John Ryan works it), it becomes even more challenging to imagine how RFID chips can be used to enhance the customer experience or further the dialogue between bankers and their customers. Sure, lots of visions about the “bank of the future” involve RFID, which identifies customers as they enter the branch, etc., etc. But that’s way off, for a host of reasons, including privacy issues and cost.

So, what can be done with RFID that doesn’t require millions of dollars, complete branch overhauls and (gasp) the involvement of IT?

In the spirit of our last post on DIY digital signage technology, I’d like to draw your attention to some strange RFID technology that I found on a gadget blog and that seems to be ripe for integration with digital signage.

Mir:ror is a personal RFID scanner that connects to any PC via USB. When used in conjunction with its accompanying software, Mir:ror is able to trigger different actions on it’s host PC, such as launching software or running macros. The Mir:ror costs around €50.

Violet, the company behind Mir:ror also sells colorful RFID tags (cost: €20 per dozen), which users can affix to any object, such as file folders, coffee mugs, etc. The tags themselves can be assigned attributes, so that once you’ve tagged an item (say, your car keys), you can drop it on the scanner and it reads the RFID tag and then prompts an action (e.g., email your loved ones that you’ve arrived home safely).

So, back to the question of using RFID in a digital signage context: it seems that a product like Mir:ror opens up all sorts of possibilities for letting users (customers or employees) interact with on-screen content. For instance:

• Sales staff with RFID tags on their badges could interrupt regular programming to launch guided sales content.
• Staff or customers could wave brochures or objects representing different products in order to launch specific content about that product.
• Sales staff, identified by their own RFID tags, could launch guided sales content that is tailored to the products that rep is licensed to sell.
• Customers could interact with content by waving different tagged items in front of the Mir:ror scanner. For example, in response to a survey question, such as “Where do you live?,” a customer could wave a card with the Union Jack printed on it to register their answer as England.

With this form of interactivity, it would be possible to turn any monitor into an interactive monitor (good news, if your budget doesn’t allow for touch screens). That is, if your digital signage platform allows for interactive content.

What’s more, by having users move objects to interact with the screen, we introduce a kinetic element to the UI — a dimension that is lacking in many interactive experiences.

What would you do with cheap RFID scanners and tags? Please let us know in the comments section!