This is just too good not to point out. RFID is one of those technologies that has shown all kinds of promise for consumer-oriented applications, but has never really reached the tipping point. Kind of like location-based services before the iPhone 3G. But it has always had a place in industry.
In the video above, RFID chips are placed in collars for pigs. The RFID tags enable a computer-controlled feeder to know which pig has come for its meal. Because these farmed pigs can only eat once a day, a return for seconds will be picked up by the RFID reader and the feeder won’t dole out the goods. Trouble is, pigs don’t find these collars particularly comfortable and rub them off.
The odd enterprising pig has somehow figured out how these RFID collars work. When others rub the collars off, the pigs blessed with higher IQs pick them up and bring them to the feeder, thereby overriding the system and netting them a second meal for the day.
Brilliant!
