I don’t mean to seem critical- I like the idea of replacing all the mishmash of current register tech, but I don’t think this is the solution. I think it needs more thought.

Also, I don’t really have privacy concerns with this setip, so as long as a company doesn’t irritate me, or nag me, I don’t mind a helpful suggestion here or there. If they know me better, they can help me more. I get what I want (products), and they get what they need ($). I’m probably in the minority on that one, though.

I like seeing concepts, though… even if something doesn’t completely “work,” it can still be inspirational, no doubt!

Further, 10% (of max) energy use while sleeping is not unreasonable, as computer peripherals use as much as 40-50% of max power while sleeping (see links below). My laptop uses about 28W, and about 2W when sleeping (~10%). So, if Intel calculates their own energy reduction between on and sleep (90%), they have a repeatable number they can use for marketing. From there, if would be up to the customer to determine how much energy they would save (ie how much of the time their registers were running, and idle).

for energy use in sleep mode, see:

http://www.kipbusinessreport.com/index.php?view=article&catid=86:leading-managing&id=168:sleeping-computers&option=com_content&Itemid=192

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/computers.html

The RFID part makes sense- it’s an improvement (at least for the retailer) on the shoppers’ club card- with RFID, the retailer would eliminate the possibility of a customer forgetting to scan the card, and thus preventing the retailer from gathering shopping habits from the customer.