What can smart labels do for us?

31.10.2024 Smart labels – electronic tags increasingly used by supermarkets to display prices – are becoming ever more commonplace in everyday life. The team at the Technology Park of BFH’s School of Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering considered the question: can this technology’s benefits be applied by production companies, too? They decided to develop their own application project from scratch.

Smart labels provide clear benefits in retail. There is no longer any need to label price displays and special offers etc. manually, as the relevant information can instead be sent to store shelves wirelessly. Technology that can send information directly to employees so they don’t have to retrieve it themselves is extremely attractive to companies – information is delivered rather than collected.

The ‘who-what-where.app’ (in German: wer-was-wo.app)

The application project at the Technology Park in Biel is based on an in-house web app for the reservation and management of tools and equipment, known as the ‘who-what-where.app’. This solution, which was successfully launched over three years ago, enables staff and students to reserve tools and equipment via their smartphones. Any damage or problems with the equipment can be logged to ensure they are repaired by staff.

The system has now been upgraded by integrating smart labels. Andreas Hämmerli, Head of the Technology Park, chose this application project because it significantly improves the existing system: ‘The smart labels on the shelving units now clearly indicate which item of equipment belongs in which compartment. The added value over static labelling is provided by booking information and the fact that any problems can been seen directly on the shelves, with critical information highlighted in colour. This allows staff to see at a glance whether equipment is available for a reservation or who has borrowed the missing item from the shelf and when it will be returned. It also indicates whether any problems were identified during the previous loan period that have not yet been rectified.’

The smart labels can act as NFC (near-field communication) tags, too, so that, in addition to the NFC tag on the device itself, the label can be read by smartphone. Holding the phone over the label takes the user directly to the device page on the ‘who-what-where.app’ where additional information can be viewed and bookings made. The smart labels and web app work in perfect harmony.

«We can share our experiences with students and research partners.»

Andreas Hämmerli
Andreas Hämmerli Head of the Technology Park BFH-AHB

The SmartLabel system was created using the labels and software of a market leader in the field. The interface to the externally hosted web app was added by BFH-AHB. ‘It’s important to us as a university of applied sciences to gain our own experiences with this technology so we can share it with students and research partners,’ explained Hämmerli.

The application project presented here aims to highlight one of the many options for use of this technology in production companies. Hämmerli believes there are many other beneficial applications and that he will develop further application projects relevant to the everyday working environment in future.

Find out more