Ordering by RFID at McDonalds... Do I have to?
Interesting stuff that McDonalds is doing in Seoul, Korea, to let customers order food with their cell phones. See here, and if your Korean is rusty, see here. The approach uses a flavor of RFID, which is sounds ok at first -- but it requires a software download, install, and carrying a separate RFID reader (that has to be purchased or given away) that users need to connect to their phones and then aim the reader at a special menu that has built in RFID chips. Wow -- do I really have to carry a special reader to order by phone? I wonder if another approach would work better.
I don't know what criteria they used to select, design the ordering system -- so they may have reasons to do it this way -- but it sure seems to me this would be a much better fit for a 2D barcode. No special chips to embed, no special reader to carry -- just print the bar code on the menu (or anything else) and use the phone's camera to snap the pic. Probably still need the software download, install, but that's a one time deal. From thereon out, the user experience seems like it would be much smoother.
If you're not familiar with 2D barcodes, I've got post here on it you might want to checkout, too.
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About john.mullinax
John Mullinax is a Platform Strategy Advisor with Microsoft's DPE Team. Before joining Microsoft in 2006, John held a vartiety of positions at Ford Motor Company, most recently leading IT services strategy to support explosive business growth in China. Other positions included: Enterprise Architect, Application Portfolio Management, Technology Governance, and Product Manager. Prior to joining Ford, John earned his MBA at the University of Washington. Before that, he was Director of Elections for Douglas County, Washington, where he conducted the first Federal mail-ballot election in the USA. Subsequently, he joined the Secretary of State's office as a consultant working with county election officials in Washington state to improve operational effectiveness, integrity, and security (aka, to prevent the kind of debacle we saw in Florida in 2000).
