By JO ANNE KILLEEN .
As if shopping for new clothes wasn’t stressful enough, soon there will be talking mirrors in the dressing rooms. Well, they might not talk, but they will be able to communicate.
These mirrors (some are called MagicMirrors) receive signals from a tag affixed to the hanger or whatever you might have in your hand and help you find matching accessories or outfits.
Technology has advanced to the point where tags on items in stores have a code embedded in them that transmits signals, via radio waves, to a reader that links with a database with all kinds of information.
Some Wisconsin legislators are trying to prevent this technology from infringing on personal privacy before the technology becomes prevalent.
The information received by the reader can be tossed around in a company’s database to send back to you messages about, well, anything. The new technology is supplanting bar coding of items, but up until now, the technology has been used to track inventory while in shipping and distribution channels.
The technology, called radio frequency identification, or RFID, is an emerging product for which business strategists are saying the early birds stand to gain market share for ...   more »