Aussies monitor trash, prisoners
Two stories out of Australia showcase the increasing ubiquity of RFID applications in everyday life.
First, in the suburbs of Sydney, 78,000 residential trash bins have been fitted with RFID tags. When the bins are emptied each week, the tags will transmit data to the truck, letting municipal officials know how much waste is being generated by each address, and whether recyclables are being properly sorted.
One official says the data will be used to target problem areas for recycling, not to generate fines for improper disposal.
But what if particularly poor recycling habits do land Australians in trouble with the law? Alanco Technologies has that covered.
Inmates at the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison in Canberra are now being tracked with Alanco’s RFID technology. The prison houses multiple classifications of prisoner, including juvenile offenders and a mix of males and females. The RFID system monitors physical separation and controls movement between population segments, and hopes to improve staff efficiency and other attempts at cost-cutting.
Alanco plans to market similar systems to the approximately 100 other prisons in Australia and New Zealand.
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