I'm a software developer for quite some time and now I'm going to start developing for Arduino. My question is related to technology I can use. It's also my first time posting here, so if this site is not the proper place for this questions would you tell me which one I could use to get this answer?
My problem:
I need to identify items within a certain range (~3ft). So I thought about a RFID tag on each item and a reader. The problem with that approach is currently the price. The lowest price I found for RFID tags are about US$0.09 per unit. Which is way too much for this project. up to US$0.01 per unit would be acceptable.
Is there any other way I could identify these items, based on range, not being directed to the reader's laser, that would be cheaper?
I though also about something like stores do with their products to prevent theft. Adding a plastic thingy on their clothes and those totems alert if an item with that plastic thingy passed through.
I appreciate any help :)
Thanks
EDIT
Imagine a bag and products being thrown inside this bag. In my mind I'd have a mechanism in which there would be like a rim around this bag that reads the products information. That rim would be a RFID (just for illustration's sake) reader.
Items would be thrown inside this bag, sometimes plenty of items at once. And they all need to be identified.
Something like this:
I'm not actually going to implement this solution on a bag, but I think it perfecly illustrates my point.
I hope I was able to clarify the problem now :)