Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!synsys!jeffj
From: jeffj@synsys.UUCP (Jeff Jonas)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: re: Stock control tags
Message-ID: <433@synsys.UUCP>
Date: 16 Oct 90 06:09:16 GMT
Reply-To: jeffj@synsys.UUCP (Jeff Jonas)
Organization: Jeff's House of Electronic Parts
Lines: 27

I've dissected a few "inventory" tags myself.
A shoe store has a square tag that has the price on it.
Pull it off and you see a square spiral of foil forming an antenna.
It's detuned by the foil backed "PAID" sticker directly
over the center.

The video store uses strips with two holes exposing a foil.
I just peeled one open and I'll be darned:
there's a surface mount something in there (perhaps it's a diode?).
A "gun" apparently blows the "thing" with a jolt of electricity,
thus detuning the circuit (a self destruct mechanism?).

The clothing stores have the most effective device: the big
plastic buttons/tags that come off only with the special tool.
Once I bought something with TWO of those tags, and the cashier
took off only one.  The alarm sounded, but I was let through with
NO HASSLE since I was just at the cashier.  At home, I had a
heck of a hard time getting it off!  Under normal circumstances,
they're infinitely reusable, they're built like the proverbial
brick outhouse.  Even without the alarm, it's quite a
deterrent.

Jeffrey Jonas
jeffj@synsys.uucp
synsys!jeffj@uunet.uu.net
EOF
echo "DONE !"