AIDC

AIDC is a European Centre of Excellence for Automatic Identification and Data Capture. They basically work in the barcoding, RFID, smart cards, biometrics etc world and are located in Halifax:

http://www.aidc.org/

The building is absolutely fantastic. Covering two floors it's built in a tv / film set style with physical rooms representing different scenarios whereby visitors can walk around and see the technology in practice. Room scenrios include:

* A hospital where you can scan equipment used for surgery to see how many times it's already been used in the past.
* A farm where you can follow stuffed sheep (i.e. cuddly toy :-) ) round the farm with their tags, and even take apart a stuffed lamb (!) and see where the different parts go enabling a supermarket to know not only which farm a piece of meat comes from but even which particular animal on that farm.
* An airport where you can pick up a small tag and walk around the room while watching a moving dot on a screen representing you. This shows how exact an airport can pinpoint luggage moving around its building. The airport room also had smart technology that identified if a runway light needed replacing.
* Town hall, this has a machine that allows the general public to vote using electronic polling stations and their ID cards, this technology has already been used abroad.
* Supermarkets, there are obviously various uses for the technology in a supermarket, my favourite included a smart shelf that knows exatly what products are on the shelf and therefore knows when it needs restocking.

More info about the different room scenarios can be found at:

http://www.aidc.org/page.asp?pageid=74&pagegroup=AIDC&pagetitle=Demonstrators