RFIDiva

I’m pretty sure that when everyone dreams of that perfect product that has yet to come out that will completely change and improve their lives, they were thinking of this- a soda machine that could produce ONE HUNDRED AND SIX different flavors of soda, juices, and teas. Think about it, you could potentially only have to drink the same flavor of soda only three times a year! (Roughly.)

Coca-Cola hired a few tech companies to come up with a prototype of a soda machine called the “Freestyle” fountain system that carries Impinj’s RFID chips inside for managing, maintaining and monitoring the ingredients. It also collects this data so that Coke could use the information to analyze what and how much people are drinking and what the most popular drinks are. The prototype came out two years ago, and they started installing them into a few airports and fast food restaurants. In the next few months you are going to start seeing them at a lot more locations, especially McDonald’s and Burger King, and other similar spots.

From a consumer point of view, it’s pretty cool because you can combine as many flavors as you like. Orange Diet Coke? Sure. Raspberry Sprite? Why not. Vanilla Iced Tea? Absolutely. Your options are pretty much endless. From Coke’s point of view, it’s also beneficial because it’s like their own personal data tool that collects information on the spot. The little RFID readers inside the machine picks up the information instantly and sends it directly to their databases which lets them know if new flavors are catching on and which drinks need to be put to rest, saving them money on advertising and marketing. While it may be expensive to make these computerized soda machines, we all know that Coca Cola has plenty of money to spare to create something like this and people are going to love to play with it and personalize their beverages.