• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, January 21, 2016

If nothing else, Internet of Things technology is starting to get good at tracking things.

There are, of course, the IoT gadgets that track activities of people, such as wearables like fitness trackers.

And there are things that track people themselves, such as by using beacons or WiFi connectivity in stores.

But another tracking need involves actual things, such as inventory in stores.

I saw several examples of things tracking at the NRF Big Show in New York this week.

One display highlighted the tracking of how many pieces of clothing went into a dressing room, which was used simply for tracking dressing room activity.

Another presentation, by Scala, involved RFID tags on all clothing so that a specific item heading to a dressing room could trigger a video screen with additional items that would go with the clothing selected.

Most interesting is what Levi Strauss is doing with sensors in clothing.

With RFID tags, which are now down to costing just a few cents, placed in all jeans in a store, the retailer can track the real-time status of inventory, from the time a consumer or salesperson takes a pair of jeans from a shelf to when it leaves the store.

The retail sensor platform from Intel includes a round, inventory tracking devices at the top of a jeans display. As clothing is moved, the sensor tracks it, including specifics, such as size and style.

The information is then instantly shared with Levi’s, the store operations team and linked into inventory tracking systems.

The Levi’s deployment is in a pilot program in three stores.

If the constant crowds at the demonstration at NRF are any indication, interest in this sort of tracking is high.

If it’s part of The Internet of Things, a moving object likely can – and will – be tracked.