huge bin filled with bar-coded cases and a robot arm
that picks up each case
examines the barcode and then if it's not the correct one drops the case
into another huge bin. When the robot is through sorting the bin then you
have two pieces of information the, identify of all of your chips and an
inventory.
We really should think of elegant computer solutions for problems that deal
with computers instead of simple mechanical ones. This solution would
involve robots, computer vision, barcodes, scanning and databases. You
could create an entire industry to solve a simple problem, start a company,
have a IPO, make millions, laugh all the way to the bank.
Two words: Lego Mindstorm. :)
g.