The RFID reader would also be better served if it could detect the XS bands from a slightly longer distance away from the console.

ENGADGET: Video: Tiny hands-on with Swinxs Hands-on

For example, the RFID reader doesn't work well in games like Countdown where it must read several XS bands within milliseconds of being slapped down together on top of the console.

ENGADGET: Video: Tiny hands-on with Swinxs Hands-on

What you see pictured here is Maxell's Picochet RFID card reader.

ENGADGET: What's up with Sega's RFID card reader?

What they used is a two way RFID chip, and they designed a reader, a really low cost wireless reader that would work with any device, and they created 32 unique characters that had these RFID chips in them.

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The firm has sold tens of millions of add-on toys which offer new content when they are placed into a RFID (radio-frequency identification) reader attached to a console.

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Then there was the North Yorkshire community school which had turned the Pi into an RFID (radio-frequency identification) reader to measure lap times in their cross-country races, and the London independent school whose pupils had come up with Teacher's Pet, a way of delivering homework via USB sticks plugged into the tiny computer.

BBC: The life of Pi - clever ideas with a tiny computer