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May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
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May 15, 2012
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May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
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The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
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The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
How Stuff Works: How dog ID chips work
By
Marshall Brain
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT)
Last month the Brain family adopted a dog from the local animal shelter. And when we picked her up after being spayed, we discovered that she had been "chipped." In other words, the shelter had inserted a microchip under the skin in her neck. By holding a scanner over her, the vet could read her new ID number on the screen.
The reason why the shelter does this is because the shelter wants to return as many stray dogs as possible. At our local shelter, they have to kill an average of 500 dogs and cats every month because of overcrowding. Any dog or cat that they can return to its owner is one less animal they have to kill. Tags on collars can get lost or mangled. The microchip can't get lost and will last for decades. And it is so small - about the size of a grain of rice - that the dog doesn't even know it is there.
The technology behind these chips is fascinating. They are called Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, chips. Sealed inside a tiny glass cylinder is an even tinier radio transmitter along with an incredibly small computer. The computer contains the unique ID number. It sends the number to the radio transmitter, which broadcasts it to the scanner. Obviously this tiny radio is not very powerful, so the scanner has to be just an inch or two away for it to pick up the transmission. But it is a transmission nonetheless. So the scanner picks up the radio's signal, decodes the number and displays it.
But where do the computer and radio transmitter get their power? There is no battery embedded in the dog's neck. This is the ingenious part of an RFID chip. The scanner actually sends out a fluctuating magnetic field into the dog. The RFID chip contains another antenna that picks up this magnetic energy and converts it into electricity. This electricity then powers the computer and radio transmitter. So the dog's chip is sitting there, doing nothing, until a scanner comes along. The scanner provides the chip with the wireless power it needs to send out its unique ID number. Then the chip goes dormant once again.
It's funny to think that dogs were one of the very first users of RFID technology. Today RFID chips are appearing in all sorts of places because the technology gets less and less expensive every day. For example, you may use a badge at work that lets you "badge in" to different parts of the building. The badge contains an RFID chip, and you hold your badge up to an RFID scanner. You may have a parking pass that works the same way.
If you frequently go through toll booths for a bridge or a road, you may have an RFID chip on your windshield that makes payment automatic. And many cars now use RFID chips in the key.
Lots of credit cards now contain RFID chips as part of a system called Paypass.
You wave the card over an RFID reader to make a payment.
But the place where RFID is expected to really shine is in the grocery store. Right now your local grocery or discount mart is using bar codes to scan items. And you might have noticed that these bar codes are not perfect, especially if you have ever tried your hand at scanning them in a self-checkout line. You have to find each bar code and hold it right in front of the scanner at the correct angle. Even so, you may be to present it two or three times for the bar code scanner to see it.
Soon the price of RFID tags will fall so low that every item in the store will have one. Simply putting the items on the conveyor belt at the check out line will get the RFID chips scanned automatically. Today many stores are already using RFID at the case level in the warehouse or stockroom, because RFID speeds up the whole inventory tracking process.
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Previously:
How President Obama's limousine works
How emergency power works
How aircraft carriers work
How antibiotics and vaccines work
How mucus works
How iron and steel work
How aspirin works
How igloos work
How the Predator UAV works
How retention ponds work
How water absorbers work
How melamine works
How digital music works
How coal mining works
How an economic depression works
How the liver works
How 3D movies work
How oil pipelines work
How jet packs work
How seismographs work
How Olympic technology works
How Personal Rapid Transit works
How 3G works
How the Global Position System (GPS) works
How octane works
How cruise missiles work
How submarines work
How miles work
How octane works
How food preservation works
How beer works
How holding your breath works
How smoke detectors work
How heat pumps work
How your night vision works
How concentrating solar collectors work
How your key fob works
How the common cold works
How the Large Hadron Collider Works
How making a TV show works
How dry cleaning works
How exoskeletons work
How an oil refinery works
How landfills work
How the Orion spacecraft works
The cutting edge in HDTV
Redefining the CD
How the HDMI cable scam works
How glow-in-the-dark toys work
How the subprime mortgage crisis works
How gift cards work
How Tasers work
How giant TV screens work
How foreclosure works
How Air Force One works
How wildfire fighting works
How vitamins work
How ejection seats work
How reattaching limbs works
How hot air balloons work
How paparazzi work
How counterfeiting works
How CDs work
How the Edsel worked
How Stinger missiles work
How hybrid cars work
How sharks work
How mosquitoes work
How diesel engines work
How water towers work
How the Dawn mission works
How Kassam rockets work
How the North American Eagle works
Why aren't we flying to work?
How tofu and soy milk work
How Colony Collapse Disorder works
How airbags work
How the U.S. income tax works
How gum works
How caffeine works
How Daylight Saving Time works
How a cruise missile works
How snow making works
© 2007, How Stuff Works Inc. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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