An End to Ski Thefts?

27th June 2005, by Chris Gill

A division of the Swatch watch group has come up with a technique for combatting thefts of skis - and making renting easier at the same time.

The new system is based on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), which is going to be big across all sorts of industries. In essence, it is a battery-less transponder that is embedded in the ski at the point of manufacture. When read (a bit like a bar-code) it identifies itself, although it can be read at a much greater distance than a bar-code, so RFID readers could be built in to ski lifts to spot stolen skis.

No doubt, professional thieves will find a way of dealing with them, but RFID will certainly make opportunistic thefts more risky. RFID will also make it easier to process rental skis as all the details can be read straight from the ski into the shop’s computer.

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