Sun Joins RFID Program

per unit analyzer writes: "C|Net is running an interesting article on Sun's recent affiliation with MIT's Auto-ID initiative. The article is a layman's intoduction to passive RF tag technology. The concept is to replace the ubiquitous UPC bar code with a 5-cent RF-tag. When hit with the right excitation signal, the tag emits its own RF signal encoded with a 96-bit number. The privacy concerns are obvious; items people buy could be tracked anywhere they happen to go. How would you like the security scanners at airports or even the local high school be able to generate a complete inventory of the consumer products carried by each person coming through the door? (OK Johnny, hand over that pr0n magazine in your backpack...) The Auto-ID ilk includes many of the major consumer product manufacturers and retailers. Incidently, the American Radio Relay League is also currently fighting an uphill battle to keep the RF-tag technology of Audo-ID Technology Board member Savi Technology out of the 70cm Amateur Radio band in the US." We have a couple of earlier stories about RFID tags.

Comments

Re:Never happen - frequencies

[Telecommando]

Well, if they are trying to get the 70cm amatuer band, they most likely won't get it.

Isn't that what the amateurs said about the 1.25 meter (220 MHz) band before part of it was taken away?

Re:You didn't sign a contract to give back true ID

[pongo000]

Your idea has already been legislated. In many U.S. states, it's illegal to carry a device known as a "passive radiator," which is a non-powered electronic device that can modify a radar signal and re-generate it (but not amplify it) with slightly different characteristics, which would indicated a speed on a cop's radar gun different from what you are actually traveling.

Give it time: Legislation will no doubt be passed which will prohibit you from carrying on your person RFIDs with the intent of bypassing or otherwise interfering with RFID detection systems.

Actually, you'd be surprised...

[Svartalf]

At 5 cents a chip, they're mass-producing them for that cheap.

They're usually capable of withstanding some 200-500 or so watts of RF power before blowing out the chip's circuitry. The only way to really discombobulate these things is to detatch the chip from the antenna or remove the whole affair from the thing you're wanting it to no longer be tagged.

As for detecting them, unless you're knowing how they make the chip's transponder work, you're going to have a FUN time catching all of them.

There's very few tags out there that are like bugs that can be immediately detected with common stuff.

There's inductive loop tags (a' la Mobil Speedpass)- they will only respond when powered by a magic frequency and when triggered by the right modulation/data sequence.

There's the dual frequency units, where you send one signal and then the chip responds at a different frequency. These will usually only work in the same manner as the Speedpass type of tag.

Then there's the backscatter type of tags, commonly used by the toll tag systems. They act as a special mirror to the RF signal, re-radiating what they're recieving with a modulation carrier on it. If you don't have the right frequency, they don't work at all- and some of the more sophisticated tags (like the ones we're talking about here...) do handshaking with the RFID base system before re-radiating.

There's several other schemes out there, to be sure- I'm just naming the few I've had to work with in the past. (I worked for a division of Intermec (now owned by TransCore) that did RFID systems for parking, ground transportation management, railcar identification, and these little things they called "gamma" tags that they licensed the technology from IBM that are used for this very thing we're discussing- so I know a little something about it...).