Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Will the RFID-enabled pen have the write stuff?

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 in Library


This article originally appeared in a 2005 issue of RFIDOperations.

A pen that was first used on Apollo 7 in 1969 and made famous again 3 decades later on the Seinfeld sitcom because it could write upside down, is now able to do much more.

Fisher Space Pen of the U.S. and Dutch pen designer, Allwrite BV, have developed an RFID-based Hi-Pen so users can walk through electronically controlled doors and gates, operate restricted computers or get snacks out of an enabled vending machine. The pen could be used as a marketing tool for companies attending trade fairs or any company wanting a long-lasting novelty advertisement. At about $50, the Hi-Pen combines RFID tag technology with the writing performance of the Fisher Space Pen, which writes upside down, in space, underwater and at the top of Mount Everest.

There are 172 words in the rest of this article …

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