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RFID: The New Big Brother ?
Makarand writes "The possibility that we could be tracked not because we have a microchip implant but
merely because we wear clothes, eat and carry objects around is real
according to this article on C|net news.
A technology called RFID (radio frequency identification) consisting of miniscule microchips
the size of a single grain of sand that listen to a radio query and respond by
transmitting their unique ID can make this possible.
Most RFID tags use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response and hence can be placed anywhere imaginable.
Retailers are adoring this concept and soon
everything more expensive than a Snickers bar will sport RFID tags
making tracking possible through our own personal possessions.
The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store and currently the RFID
industry seems to be giving 'mixed' signals about whether the tags will be disabled
or left enabled by default."
Microwave clothes before wearing.
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
I think it's going to be my personal challenge to find a way to "short out said devices" I'm thinking a microwave oven should do the trick. THe hard part, defeating an ingested tag, hmm... this could be a real problem, tracked until your bowels process the dammed thing out...
3000 dead over past 2 years, still no free Palestinians, still
That's nutty. Soon anyone who cares about privacy is going to have to EMP themselves before they can go anywhere...
Hi... I'm Larry... the shivering chipmunk... brrrrr!... I'm cold... I need a sweater...
"so is that a RFID tag in your pants, or are you just happy..." Sorry.
However, perhaps with this technology the need for a Private Investigator to track your cheating honey is eliminated. Did he/she REALLY stay late at the office, or were they calling you from the forbidden zone?
I pulled a jack move to cop this sig
Put your tracking enabled underwear in the microwave for 30 seconds and not only will they be toasty warm but you will be able to wear them anonymously. The problem comes when certain establishments mandate that you wear trackable underwear!
Lasers Controlled Games!
Easy, figure out what frequency they receive on. Apply large near field signal at that frequency and ...TADA... no more RFID tag.
I believe that the majority of recently born puppies have a tiny microchip embedded in the back of their necks for similar purposes. I was shocked when I first heard of this practice (about a year ago), but I hear its quite accepted among dog owners. I can see the benefit for pets... ...but for humans? Scary.
"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Jack Nicholson
Now I've got a reason for advocating nudity....
If you find a Snickers wrapper on the ground you could read its RFID and track it back to the person who bought it and fine him for littering.
Such is the infinite Grace of Popeye.
This is actually just what I've been wishing for. You know when you've misplaced something in your house (my favorite pencil, for a recent example from my own life, though "house" is maybe being charitable), and you spend hours tearing everything apart and then it turns out that it's just lying there somewhere in plain sight?
I always wish, both during and after such a quest, that I could have just whipped out a tricorder (or device of a similar form factor) and scanned for whatever I'm missing, and it would start beeping or blinking on the screen or whatever. It would save hours of time for all but the most type A people.
It would also be a boon on the golf course. And for finding your kids when they wander off at Disneyland. Really, all I can think about is good applications of this technology, so bring it on!
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
The submitter is acting like this is the first time He's heard of RFID. The idea has been around for years and they're only now getting to the point where they're going into.
RFID tags need to be printed on paper, so unless you have something like a magazine you'll be able to get rid of the RFID tags just by removing the wrapper or sales tag. Duh. It's not like these things are going to be attached to everything permanently just while they're in the store. It's basically a replacement for the barcode.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Topless Bars and Horsetracks will likely be the first places to devise RFID shields, offering safe havens for their customers!
Anything you say will be held against you.
Coat yourself with hundreds of thousands of the little tags. A chaotic radio shout in reply to a sensing whisper should make the devices less than usefull. Bury these buggers in information.
Karma: Excellent^(-t/Tau), Tau=Wittiness/Trollishness
Welcome back to The Gap...
...wearing my tinfoil suit, but who's laughing now?!?
I read somewhere (forgive my CRS) that something like this was tested in the food packets we dropped over Afganistan. The author said all there is left to do is play pacman and gobble up all of the blinking dots.
Just as long as they put the following warning label on the Clothes:
WARNING!!! Hand Washing of this Material Could Cause Electrocution Resulting in Death.
Or Even worse make your hair stand up all Funny and stuff!
currently the RFID industry seems to be giving 'mixed' signals about whether the tags will be disabled or left enabled by default.
Of course they are. Why alienate either end of the market, especially retailers or other commercial interests? You know that right now it's more important to court them anyway to build interest and revenue for development. Leave all possibilities possibilities, and all kinds of parties will step forward.
- DDT
So long, michael. Don't let the door hit you...
...Hmm I might try making a whole suit out of tinfoil since they can read my clothing now (and not just my thoughts)!
There\'s no place like ~
I'm not much of a "holy roller" (or at all for that matter), but this one made me think:
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, freeman and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no-one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom, if anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person and it's number is 666." Rev 13:16-18
RFID Tires
Imagine the possibilities... There's a video on that site for anyone willing to dig. I'd rather not slashdot it (28 megs). This technology was initially used to ship and track tires as a replacement to the old bar codes, but now, the boys in the tinfoil hats are detecting RFID activity on the freeways and border crossings...
Auto manufacturers are programming the VIN number into the tire at assembly. It is only a matter of time before this becomes a requirement.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Just routienely carry something that reflects the signal back with ID's all across the board. These things are the size of a grain of sand? Ok, a credit-card sized device composed of millions of the grain-of-sand device should create enough noise and complication to be a fairly effective way to combat this.. Issue new ones every now and again, with some various verified ID's mimicked, perhaps of government officials who think this sort of thing is a good idea, and viola.. Too much obfuscation in the system to be effective.
Er. Patent pending, patent pending, patent pending..
Coming soon: Dulcolax PE (Privacy Edition)
Now we'll have real, techno-savvy fashion police. Geeks beware!
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Cost: $.50 per tag.
Range: 15 feet "optimally oriented in front of a reader in free space."
While the chips themselves are small (grain of pepper is mentioned), the antennas are 1/2" to 4" long.
Sure, this is interesting news (from a technology perspective), but I for one don't fear their use by big brother just yet.
.... a repeat?
4 4&mode=thread&tid=126
See http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/17/03272
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
So I made the seventh post under this story with what I thought was an original idea. However two of the previous posts, including the first post (!) had the same idea. Before you mod me as redundant, notice that I included the extra steps of mentioning that your underwear would be toasty warm and the scary eventuality of mandating trackable clothing.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Maybe that will be a great incentive for people to stop buying crap that they don't really need. I've seen this neofrugality happening in computers for awhile now. I believe it's also happening in the public at large. Not that there's a problem with buying stuff but it can't be the fundamental basis of society.
Laws are for people with no friends.
I hope My New Tracking Enabled T-shirt Has a Wear Anonymously Checkbox!
...a tin-foil suit?
Not to mention the transmit range is very low. Everyone's reacting as if these things pulse out miles of signal. It just aint so.
These things are meant to be picked up from within the store, not after you get down the street. Rip off the damn tag and get on with your lives.
I can picture the conversation with my wife now:
"Hon, do you like this dress?"
"Yeah, it's really nice... WAIT DID YOU MICROWAVE IT BEFORE WE LEFT HOME!?!"
"Micro - huh? What the hell are to talking about?"
"RFID SAND CHIPS! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! They've probably tracked us here. Better take off your clothes until we can get to some underground consignment shops and hook you up with some aluminized disco stuff from the '70s."
"We're through."
Everyone knows that you can just wrap yourself in aluminum foil! Duh! It works against the aliens.
I work in the packaging industry and have seen firsthand some of the RFID application processes on folder gluers. First of all, the defect rate hovers around 10%, which makes relying on this technology a dubious proposition.
I doubt that the practical size is approaching "half a grain of sand," which would make application a nightmare to try to control. And most importantly, RFID tags are like UPC barcodes: they're coded to a single frequency and product, not to each instance of the product! If an RFID tag is enabled on your North Face jacket and you walk in a store, they may be able to tell that you're wearing the jacket, but that doesn't tell them who you are.
So if I've helped reduce the paranoia level a little bit, I'll now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
So, who is going to be tracking these tags, or will they just be dormant until you are in the range of a scanner of some sort. If so, how does this do the retailers any good? I hardly think this is worth the time and money if it is no more than a glorified bar code. On the other hand, if the range is larger than what I'm thinking, it does suck that they can track your purchases anywhere it goes.
Lead-lined backpacks and clothing.
Just think of how many you could sell....
Your target market could be:
the list just goes on and on
Life is too short to proofread.
Back a few years ago when I was involved in some biometric technologies, I had heard of this technology already in use in of all places, on livestock farms to keep track of animals that would wonder away from the herd. It was referred to at that time as "fairy dust"
While it might be a good way to keep our children from being abducted, I'm also not to keen on being seen as livestock.
--- have you healed your church website?
This might be the next step but it isn't a big one. Having the right priviliges one can be tracked down allready. When I look at my daily routines it's quit easy I think
* In the morning I check my mail (IP logged by ISP of course)
* I drive to work in my car equiped with a GPS-device. (could the lease-company follow me?)
* On the way I stop at the ATM to get me some cash for the day. (The bank should be able to trace this)
* At work I log on to the corporate network
* During the day I have a couple of phonecalls with my cellular phone (hello telco!)
* I drive back home again (hello again lease-company)
* Coming home I order some food (again I leave my name, number etc.)
* Spend the evening surfing around (IP logged everywhere)
And just how anonymous am I?
/(bb|[^b]{2})/
Now pardon me if I don't have the sort of camel-looking face that the guy who wrote the article does but doesn't this defeat the stated purpose of the tags? Retailers are saying that these tags will cut down on theft from stores because all packages can be easily tracked. If the tags are easily removed and on the packaging, what's to stop me from just taking the product I want for free out of the package and walking out of the store? I don't think this guy thought out his four little demands too well. Probably he just likes the number four, I know I do.
1. Create portable RFID-Destroyer, that kills all RFID transmitters embedded in a product.
2. Market product created on step (1) to paranoid geeks (such as me)
3. ???
4. Profit!
Easy, don't you think? A little bit like the some Neal Stephenson novel on nanotechnology.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
For its part, Alien Technology says its RFID tags can be read up to 15 feet away. "When we talk about the range of these tags being 3 to 5 meters, that's a range in free space," said Tom Pounds, a company vice president. "That's optimally oriented in front of a reader in free space. In fact if you put a tag up against your body or on a metal Rolex watch in free space, the read range drops to zero."
only works for 15 feet away? Whats the problem here? Also if you just cover this thing up it covers the tag completely? whats the point, if you want to steal something, cover up the tag and walk out.
The idea is cool, but is there any need for a product like this? Isn't the current system working just fine?
Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
I once got hold of 5-10 stickers that would trigger most shops alarm systems (the check points at the entry and exit points). It was a real laugh to put these stickers on peoples belongings and watch them set of alarms at the local mal...
Seriously, I think that it would become a problem to have these devices enabled after having been used. This requires the security system to verify that the mark is 'one of ours' before sounding the alarm. Kill the marker after the payment has been done and everything is plain sailing.
of where all the missing socks go.
Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
The problem comes when certain establishments mandate that you wear trackable underwear!
No... the real problem comes when certain establishments mandate that you wear underwear..
What is the durability of these things? If there is one in the new (and most probably hideous) shirt that I bought will it survive a trip through the washer and the dryer? If these things aren't all that durable how would that affect the privacy concerns?
Never disturb your enemy while he is busy making a mistake.
Wow, so someone will know I'm wearing Timberland boots, Dockers pants, Oakley sunglasses, and an Izod shirt.
They won't know my name, address, phone number, age, social security number, sexual preference, number of pets, or marital status.
So what the hell's the big deal? Or are we all just being slash-paranoid?
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
...on how to fry these things? Maybe jam the signal? Discuss amongst yourselves...
You slipped up, friend kspaltter, you didn't post to a privacy story as "annonymous coward". You're going on the list!
They think they can track me? Ha! I plan on wrapping myself from head to toe in tinfoil.
Trolling is a art,
cnet lays of 80 more on the way out?
it won't be nearly as difficult to repossess robbIE et AL?
eye DOWt he's bilt many towers of self-adulation, yet?.
what a sham/shame.
It's Browser specific, so you're probably running IE 5 or 6. Or AOL. Opera users usually get IBM ads and Mozilla/Phoenix Users usually get Sorceforge Ads.
buy clothes for a friend and swap them. Any association from purchaser to RFID tag is lost.
Even better, get your clothes marked as yours, commit a crime, and drop your clothes in 3 different cabs/busses as you change into your other set, kept in a metallic wrapper. Police follow 3 red herrings as you escape.....
Wasn't this basically the technology in Enemy of the State?
And with the great numbers of RFID devices that are being proposed, how will channels be shared? I am doubting that these pieces of paper are going to be intelligent enough to run some sort of sensing protocol to prevent stepping on each other's feet.
The network infrastructure is going to need to be impressive. I doubt these RFIDs have much of a transmission range if they are being powered by RF. Are stores going to be placing access points on each shelf in a store?
I guess that I really am a geek, since I find the technical challenges to RFID to be so nifty. As for the ethics of RFID, I will leave that to other posts on this list!
Like I want an 'Enron' to happen with a company that controls distribution and/or access to these.
I suggest a hi-watt jammer to make the use of them impossible.
The knowledge of my whereabouts is copyrighted, and I have every right to disable, interfere, block, divert, or otherwise impair the unauthorized distribution, display, storage, or reproduction of this copyrighted information.
God, I hope they don't put these in tin foil. What will I make my hats out of?
Why don't you just build a jammer that works at that frequency? Wouldn't need to use much power...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
They do this with mobile phones,
In a built up area with lots of cells they can track where your going.
There's also a legend about being able to turn the microphone on, and eves droping without the user doing anything. (I know people who won't let you in if you have a mobile phone on you, paranoid people, not drug dealers or smugglers)
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Clothing tracks YOU!
Oh, wait a minute...
Why bother.
This help me with an idea I have been kicking around. Suppose every Isralie citizen and tourist carried one of these with them at all times in the public. In public areas, computers with, basically, webcams use video to locate where people are, then radio recievers use these RFID tags to triangulate where people are. If the cammera sees a person where the radio does not, that is a person who is not authorized to be there. This person would then be photo'd and checked against known terrorists or questioned by the police, as he might be a suicide bomber.
I can't see how else Israel will stop suicide bombing unless they only allow their own citizens in public areas, and this method would not be too expensive. And as much as I care about privacy, the situation there is life or death, and so more important.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Material possesions do bring unhappiness! And an FBI/CIA/SS file. Nuke 'em for enlightenment!
Don't act surprised people, until there is NO freedom and NO privacy this sort of thing will not stop.
All in the name of 'safety' it is..
Once its gone its hard to get back, stop offering to give it to them willingly..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I predict an increase in crime from all of these newly out-of-work actors with fake law-enforcement training.
What do u think the range of a transmitter the size of a grain of rice is that has no power of its own? Not far.
Here's where the RFID in your sweater falls apart... Think about your family Christmas gathering, sweaters chaning hands all over the place, with nobody telling the central database what is happening.
If you're wearing an outfit bought for you by somebody else, then the computer will falsely identify you as that gift-giving friend or realitve. Too many false-positive IDs and this system gets considered useless.
Besides, we still use cash to buy things around here. I don't think we need to get paranoid until we see serious proposals to knock that off...
Declan McCullagh has a column on this on CNet. How long will it take Poindexter to merge this database with the supermarkets' databases of purchases, so you can be tracked electronically, all the time?
RFID must be a Microsoft technology: "We already know where you were today."
Thats right, go to your local walmart and buy all the clothes, shoes, hygene products, etc, that you will use for the rest of your life. Then spend the rest of your life laughing at how the rights of others are abused. Hey Tom Ridge is trustworthy right?
So... If they use radio signals, they will probably not be shielded against magnetic / electromagnetic fields. So how about having an electromagnetic field generator that would give a couple of extreme high power impulses. Such a device should be easy to build by yourself even from something like an old washmachine engine. Even a noob could build it. :) Aply a few such shocks to everything you buy by placing your bought goodies near the gizmo and shock 'em a bit. It should fry them instantly.;)
This would also tell me what tools I left in the attic, the basement, etc... Where did I leave the cordless drill?
The tags cost >$.50 each, but how much do the readers cost? Where can I buy them?
Bit off-topic but you wonder when the ads are going to become time and region specific, i.e coffee ads in the morning, food ads at lunch, jolt ads at 4 in the morning, and tin-foil hats for the getting back on topic.
I see a rise in home grown food and materials.., besides, how long will it be before this tech starts to cause biological problems because we're turning ourselves in to RF transmitters.... oh joy,
The biggest problem that I see is the simple fact that the first and most logical use of the RFID tag is in shoplifting prevention. Granted that it would be a great way of tracking and ensuring that some klepto doesn't bugger off with as much merchandice as they can get thier gurbby hands on, but if they are debating whether or not the tags should be disabled after purchase there could be problems arising here.
...how many times have you bought a DVD had it 'cleared' of the security tag only to get beeped at the door? ...what if you buy something, thier computer crashes and they have to pull fro ma backup from the previous day? Won't the RFID tag be in the database again?
Say I buy a winter coat from Walmart in the fall. Then near the end of winter I go back to buy a windbreaker for spring's warmer weather. Am I going to have to keep a recipt in my pocket to prove that I bought the jacket?
Or I go and buy a PDA from Circuit City then come back a week later and buy a printer (using the PDA as my check register)...how do I prove that it is now mine and not lifted?
Sure some of you are going to say "the security tags get removed at checkout" or "The RFID signature will be removed from the database and will not exist anymore to bother you", but consider...
Good idea, but I'm too familiar about the quality and the ability of the people who try to implement it. Some of these people can't pour sand out of a boot with instructions on the heel.
Phoenix
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
Nothing's so bad that it can't be used for some good...
In Murphy We Turst
After first encounter where your tyres had been scaned and at the same time you've been legitimized for say too quick driving or say "quick check whether you are terorists or not - you know, we're at war with terrorists".
After that you either buy and install new tyres or you'll be precisely at the beginig (when you got your RFIDed tyres with the car).
hany
..that this is exactly the kind of technology currently being implementeed to make U.S. airports a 'safer place' - unique RFID tags are being attached to passenger bags at check-in so they can't get lost, be switched for other bags, get put on the wrong plane etc. At least that's the theory.
"You heard the man, Tubbs.. get undressed."
that is if you use the 2450 mhz chip from Alien technology
You don't need to nuke your clothes ....
.... j/k
:)
Just wear a faraday (sp???) cage!!!
Ya know, the wire mesh inside of your microwave that prevents the radiation from escaping!
This way, you have a bullet proof vest on while you're running from the store you just stole 3 shirts from
Besdies, nuking some clothes might be bad since they may shink when heated too much
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
Putting them through the microwave instead fo the drier... Now for the electronics this will be a problem.
Before anyone panics there are several things to consider:
1. Unless the receiver can determine the distance to the RFID tag (and this is usually not the case), the tag's location cannot be determined with any greater accuracy that the distance to the nearest receiver. To "locate" a tag, there must be many expensive receivers no how many cheap tags there are. Remember, we live in three dimensions.
2. The range of passively powered tags is only a few meters, and they all tend to reply at the same time when a bunch are pinged, causing interference.
These difficulties can be solved, but not soon.
In related news, Procter & Gamble still wonder why RFID embedded in Springle cans can be read from 100 meters instead of the regular 3 to 5 meters ...
...in a totally consumer driven economy. Eventually when you walk by the "smart ad's" (like the ones in Minority Report) all the advertising companies have to do is scan your clothing, shoes, belt, etc.
From this one can find out not only what you like to buy, but how long you have had what you are wearing and how much you paid for it, possibly even where you bought it.
Include this with a retinal scan and a database of past product scans of the individual (not to mention other purchase profiles sold to advertisers by your supermarket/travel agent/etc.) and you start to build a fantastic database on the buying habits of the individual in question.
The "smart ad" accesses the database, crossreferences you and your buying habits.
Couple of instants later and *POOF* a personally tailored, computer generated ad pops up and starts calling your name using those trick directional ultrasonic sound generators...subliminals and throbbing music lulling you into a state of complete fiscal abandon...Showing you the way to the nearest store that will painlessly seperate you from the next sizable chunk of your no-longer-disposable income.
Sounds like a corporate driven police state where every purchase you make is tracked and logged to provide clues to allow companies to exploit your weaknesses for fine fragrances, goat porn, or cheap little southeast-asian made plastic trinkets.
Think I'll start making my own hemp clothes right now...gonna need some practice.
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
... by Vernor Vinge. Go read it, especially the part where he talks about nanoscale "localizers". Second scariest part of the book, in my opinion, the scariest being "focus" - we'd better hope mechanical AI is feasible, because if it isn't, "focus" almost certainly is feasible, and would make RFID-based totalitarianism feel like a walk in the park.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
ato
How big an EMP generator do you need to fry such a radio chip within 10 feet?
Read Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness In the Sky". One of the secret weapons is a cloud of chips similar to the ones described. Each chip is a low-res imager, microphone, memory, GPS-type locator, and router. Power is provided by a once-a-second microwave pulse. Once released through the space station on a gust of air, they stick to things and people, and build themselves into a routing mesh. Administrators of this network can then eavesdrop on anyone, anywhere...
And buried in this surface functionality are extra layers of usefulness hidden from the people who originally deploy them...
my tinfoil suit is getting more and more usefull all of the time.
first this
then this
then some more
even more of the same stuff
oh some more stuff
and finally this article.
1. market for tinfoil suit, see above.
2. Mass produce tinfoil suit
3. Sell it on thinkgeek
4. profit!
Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
This thing is going to be hacked more than anything else before.
--Mike--
If the transmitter uses the radio signal itself as a power source, how strong can the reply be?
I think we'll need a BIG satellite for that one.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
I'd rather have legislation mandating tag deactivation when they leave the store, but am I right about all this?
Maybe in near future we may see marks like this:
WARNING! All citizens without RFIDed underwear are going to be bombed into stoneage instantly without further notice! WARNING!
Or even some EULA like marks like:
By entering this subway you agree to following terms of service:
...
...
x) If your underwear is not RFIDed you'll be thrown out of vehicle right after it reaches its full speed.
(such mark may be best hidden^H^H^H^H^H^Hplaced somewhere here all superparanoid people with microscopic vision Xmen ability(TM) can find it and read it)
hany
Strip naked with your friends and commit barbarous acts in the vent system of the battle school.
I'm thinking about it, therefore I might be.
One application for these is that you enable RF on your fridge and hey presto, when you're running out of beer your fridge orders some more.
Dunstan
The last scintilla of doubt just rode out of town
In 1984, it was governments that were the "oppressor."
Now we see how willing business is to cut losses via shoplifting, make collecting data from customers easier, and make money from resale of privacy data.
Maybe they should just call these "RL cookies" as they serve the same function... except not edible like the namesake of the online tracking token.
Futurist Traditionalism
Business 2.0 had a feature on RFID tags just under a year ago. The feature talks about how companies are planning on using the tags primarily as a means of better inventory tracking internally, and how other devices like laundry machines will be able to make use of the tags in order to determine, for instance, what types of fabric are being inserted. Most of the tags planned for use in commodity items are "passive tags" which don't broadcast their identity.
A sidebar talks about how Walmart plans on being an early adopter.
Privacy concerns? Pish. Do you REALLY think that people out there care enough about whether or not your clothes are a dacron/polyester blend to go around scanning you? I'm totally for the idea of allowing products to answer a "What are you?" question from devices like store checkouts, laundry machines, etc. Saves me the time from "asking" and "answering" the question myself.
Don't forget to sue the people who are making these ID's at some point after you get cancer.
Karma: Excellent^(-t/Tau), Tau=Wittiness/Trollishness
to quote from cryptogram: "If you have ever wondered how the special anti-shoplifting tags you see on merchandise work, this article is a real eye-opener!"
ato
This is very similar to how the existing anti-theft system found at most retailers works (you know, those little flat rectangular stickers on higher-value merchandise).
The sensors at the store's exits transmit a weak radio signal. The devices attached to the product contain a very simple circuit designed to receive on that frequency. It converts the energy from that frequency radio wave to electricity used to broadcast a new signal at another frequency. When the sensors detect a transmission at that output frequency they sound the alarm.
The devices at the cash registers that disable the security system do so simply by transmitting at the same frequency as the sensors by the exits, except at a much greater power. This overloads the circuit in the security tag, and basically burns it up so it no longer functions.
All this article refers to is the same system, except that it sends additional information such as an ID. I would imagine that it would be prone to the same input overload, so that if you transmitted a very strong signal at the input frequency it would damage the device so it would no longer function.
Also, we are talking about extremely weak output from this device. It would be extremely easy to jam this signal with a simple transmitter.
Finally, the logistics of such a system would greatly limit its use. Imagine broadcasting a signal to power the devices, and getting back a response from the several thousand items closest to you in Wal Mart. It would be raw static. The only usefulness of such a system at non-trivial ranges would be to track a handful of objects.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Imagine that your state requires you to carry a drivers license that has an RFID chip in it that returns your SSN when it is scanned by the police from a nearby police car.
I don't think that that technology is too far fetched.
While drivers licenses might be a bit tough for people to swallow, imagine requiring them in all US passports? Then customs/immigration would be able to track anyone while they were inside of the designated security zones inside of airports. Great for tracking terrorists!
Anyone want to patent this to keep it from ever being used?
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
Ok, if they're going to be tracking me, I want to be able to track them.
It's their decision, either share their location information with me, or don't try to track me.
Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but copyright will always protect me.
Jealous Husband> Where is my wife now?
RFID Tech> Well, I'm not sure where she is, but her panties are on the floor of Shaquil Oneal's bedroom.
Would a localized magnetic pulse disable them, for instance? I'm not so bothered by the tags themselves because there will almost certainly be a way to easily disable them once you have your goods at home... unless of course they apply the DMCA circumvention provisions to that too.
So does this make Neal Stephenson a prophet? So far so good.
The top of the line models include a state-of-the-art spectrum analyzer that's useful to track down the femtochip before zapping it, so only the affected area can be "treated" and that the zapping can positively be ascertainted, not to mention the power savings afforded by the unit.
* Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo (any /.er from there can attest that the sign at the station is still up?).
It sounds like the RFID technology is similar a
famous Russian listening device.
This device was totally passive, but when hit with a specific RF frequency (via a very directional beam) it would reflect the beam back but modulated by the sound in the room. The Russians could demodulate the signal and get the audio back. They hid the device in a carved wooden Seal of the United States that they presented to the US Embassador to Russia who proudly hung it above his desk. The Russian were privy to all conversations that took place in his office.
After a while the American figured his room was bugged so they sent in technicians to find the bug. The Russians weren't stupid - they knew when technicians arrived and simply turned off the directional RF carrier beam. They would turn it back on when the technicians left. Finally the Americans got smarter and all left but one who hid in the office with RF listening gear. When the Russians turned the RF carrier on, he detected it and figured it out it was embedded in the Seal. It was quite a scandal.
I found an interesting paper on the history of the luddite movement.
Perhaps that is the way to go - escue all technology and move to the woods - collect our own cotton and wool and build human powered looms (even that is a bit too much technology...) to make our RFID-Free clothes...
Ok, where did I leave my PDA?
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
easier than scanning a retena A La Minority Report.
Just imagine walking through the mall and haveing target ads through interactive billboards pusing products to you based on the socks your wearing...
also, how long before we have to start registering our pants??? Will Microsoft actualy come out with the long fabled "Smarty Pants"?
The Code Ninja is swift with his tool, precise in his delivery, and deadly accurate in his execution.
since cars already have license plates that identify them from a distance. I can't see why anyone would want to read RFID's out of tires on the freeways when they can just read the license plates of the cars instead.
Back around the time of the Oklahoma bombing, there was talk of requiring taggants in all explosive, and that some had them, already. Of course Oklahoma would have required taggants in fertilizer, as well. I don't know if they were seriously proposing that.
But with the amount of fireworks and roadwork going on, wind dispersal and all, it seemed to me at the time that we'd rapidly get to the point where *every* environmental sample would include some background level of taggants. At that point, tracing explosives would become a statistical process, and certainty would be long gone.
IMHO, the problem with RFID in everything would be the sheer data volume. Assume each and every RFID had a unique number, and then imagine the size of the database to track all of that, not to mention the monitoring infrastructure. Then remember that they can't even track election results.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
is a 'Bond' style detector so we can check if any of our clothing has one of these babies before we decide what to do about it.
Nick
Working for a rather large corporation that is working heavily with RFID technology, I can atest that this article is entirely FUD (and misinformed FUD at that).
RFID tags are not the size of "grains of sand" but rather the size of an oversized stamp. They are based on passive RF technology. When probed, they absorb a little of the energy and use it to respond. Outside an RFID scanners range, they are just circuits and have no function.
The price point the article quotes is also very wrong. Costs are much lower but still 2x - 3x what they need to be.
So what is this technology being developed for? To replace UPC labels! Instead of having to scan a bar code, you bombared an RFID with energy. An RFID is just as useless as a bar code in the absence of a scanner. The only difference it's a lot harder to mess up scanning an RFID than a bar code (not to mention that bar codes can degrade much easier than RFIDs).
This article was absolutely FUD. Just someone trying to cause a ruckus over nothing.
First of all the $.50/tag price will drop to zero just like for any electronic product. Second, a 1/2" to 4" antenna that can read the tag from 15 feet away is concealable and potentially extremely invasive. Do you really want receivers on every streetcorner, retail store, etc. to be able to take a complete inventory of everything you're wearing or carrying as you walk by?
For this statement of the obvious, there is no charge.
Or maybe it was 64 bits. Either way it's more than enough to assign a unique number to every individual jacket, wristwatch, or candy bar that leaves a production line.
Hmm.... I wonder... They're operating in the VHF/UHF range. How well will these little tags survive when I am transmitting Microwave/VHF/UHF/HF?
I'll set all my belongings in a pile and transmit a kilowatt at them with a beam antenna.
Do they really want to know where some peoples' underwear has been?
-- taking over the world, we are.
Don't wear clothes. When you're in court for indecent exposure, tell them that RFID tags have made current clothing violate your right to privacy/anonymity...
That, or you could advertise a protect using your body...
I think this is a great idea... but it would need some further development to make the product stronger... hear me out.
Imagine if we could shrink down GPS to this level, or at the very least, to the size of the pet microchip. Would you be opposed to having the chip implanted into your childs clothes and personal items in order to find them in case of an abduction??? or to keep tabs on them in general?
I wouldnt.
The Code Ninja is swift with his tool, precise in his delivery, and deadly accurate in his execution.
Interesting someone should mention RFID, as I've recently an article which mentions it's use on a site we've already seen today.
Seems Prada (because every woman needs a $600 plain black purse) is trying all sorts of new tech in their newest New York store (and failing from the sound of it). The relevent bit comes from their experience with using RFID's in all the items' sales tags (to link up to the DB, to inform consumers of other products, to PROFIT etc) Unfortunately, the computers, monitors, power cables and data cables in the store interfere with the RFID tags so badly that all sorts of location-specific tuning of the receivers needed to be done to get them to work - and they only worked passably when every cable was well shielded.
The upshot I suppose is that RFID simply can't be ubiquotous enough to be worrying for a few years anyway.
credo quia absurdum
Besides, wouldn't it be handy to grab a few items from store shelves and simply walk out, with the purchase automatically debited from your (hopefully secure) RFID'd credit card?
This ought to scare the living shit out of any married man. When the wife finds out about this, they might as well declare bankruptcy now.
One of the requirements of the RFID technology is that you logically need a receiver within X distance of it, to determine within an area at least 2piX^2 where you are.
If we are worried "they" will know where we are, "they" will need a sensor wherever we are. A very unrealistic concept.
More likely will be sensors on toll booths on interstates, and things of that sort. Whereas using license plates from those cameras that are everywhere would still suffice to do that type of tracking.
In an effort to combat shoplifting the state legislature passed a law that basically makes it a misdemeanor for you to "POSSESS A THEFT DETECTION SHIELDING DEVICE..." (read aluminum foil underwear or Deflector Beanie)
Our duly elected represenatives go on to define them as" "...INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, ANY LAMINATED OR COATED SACK OR CONTAINER THAT IS CAPABLE OF AVOIDING DETECTION BY A THEFT DETECTION DEVICE."
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, "Make us your slaves, but feed us." - Dostoevsky
In 10 years, all those cell transmitters we see every water tower and radio tower will have many new uses. The infrastructure is there for Big-Bro to take advantage of. All it would take is a couple more terrorist attacks of any size, before the government goes nuts and citizens approve of it in the name of stopping terrorists. But, like toll roads, and hurpies, once put in place, they stay.
Pretty soon you won't even be able to jay walk or even step on the fricken cracks in the pavement.
-BDL
- Just because you can't, doesn't mean you shouldn't
Besides, I think candy wrappers are the least of the problems the enviornment has. First I think we should find ways to reduce toxic waste dumping, etc.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
When RFID tags are used to prevent theft, what's stopping a thief from bringing a jammer, or a device that nukes the RFID tags, to the store? RFID tags are more easily defeated than the current (larger) RF tags.
While the privacy issue is a big factor, I have to say this could make tracking of stolen good much easier especially after the time of purchase if done properly.
Imagine your house getting burglerized and all the objects are tagged as yours. They couldn't be sold anywhere legitamently or even carried anywhere that detects the tags and runs their ID's through a stolen goods database.
Still this will get highly abused since people arn't responsible and/or ethical enough to not abuse that type of system.
Another thought that occured to me is that content industries could enforce stricter viewing practices on their materials with these tags. It would be possible to even detect who's watching what and where and if they don't like the outcome of that formula they could ban or remove the content depending on the medium. This would really kill fair use.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
All technology (hell, even nuclear technology) can be used for good and bad purposes. I can imagine many uses for RF tags that I would actually appreciate. For example, as I walk to my car, it automatically unlocks and starts the engine. Or, the front door of my home automatically unlocks for me as I grasp the doorknob. When I enter a room, the lights automatically adjust to my preferred lighting level. Provided the tag is embedded within my body, there's not much risk of it being stolen.
But as everyone here points out, there are many possible nefarious uses for such a device. And indeed, there are nefarious uses for any technology. I could use wall current to electrocute you, blind you with a laser, or carve an "anarchy" symbol into your forehead with the sharp edge of a broken silicon wafer (ok, that's a little facetious, but you get the point).
My question for everyone is, how much are we willing to limit our technological advancements because of possible risks?
Let me give another example that might sound silly. Scientists are, right now, dreaming up technology to move asteroids around. One day we might use this to bring them closer, and mine them for materials. We could also use it to push an incoming asteroid out of a collision course with Earth.
A sufficiently funded terrorist, however, could also use this technology to take the world hostage. Or, if he's having a bad day, he could endanger the survival of the human race by actually doing it, and flinging a huge rock toward Earth. Should we stop developing this asteroid-moving technology because of this risk?
When does scientific and technological advancement become irresponsible?
Do you realize how lame your life is ?
Can't you cook yourself ?
Do you have to drive to work ?
Can't you spend your evening in a theater ?
Don't you have a significant other IRL ?
RFID technology has been around for years. Have you purchased a CD or DVD in the last few years? Remember the check-out guy "beeping" it before you left? That's an RFID tag at work. In this instance, it's just a proximity tag that will alert the store if you (ahem) neglect to purchase the product. (The official term for this is "inventory shrinkage.")
Checkpoint Systems makes RF Electronic Article Surveilance (RF-EAS) tags (the US site is not responding, but the Japanese one is, showing the bulk tags.) And here's a company that sells machines to auto-insert the RF-EAS tag into DVD carriers.
An amazing amount of effort has gone into reducing the cost of the RFID anti-theft tags. They're typically screen printed, and usually are destroyed when you purchase the product. It's not cost effective to make it re-programmable, as the retailers are playing a statistical game - they're weighing the probability of someone stealing a returned (or defective) unit against the reprogrammable cost that burdens EVERY unit going out the door.
One step up from this application is the ubiquitous personnel badge that most of us drones are required to wear at the orifice. Here's one from TI (PDF datasheet.) This costs a little more, and is definitley capable of identifying who you are.
Just curios, but wouldn't EMPing your clothes constitute a breach of the DMCA somehow?
"Sir, you are not emitting a signal, are you aware that this is in violation of the DMCA? You will have to come with us Sir."
[Still not sure wehter I'm joking or not}
"GNU's not Unix....it's Linux" / Kami "kokamomi" Petersen
I hope the RFID tags can survive the ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) nightmare that is my clunky old dryer. It would be kind of humor to see this come to fruition, only to be wiped out en masse by clothes dryers.
Maybe I should call Maytag and see if they have some type of gauss gun add-on.
That raises the disquieting possibility of being tracked though our personal possessions. Imagine: The Gap links your sweater's RFID tag with the credit card you used to buy it and recognizes you by name when you return.
You mean like, using one of these?
But if that's the case, you can't use the system to track the RFID chips after the sale is complete. You don't want the scanners telling you about the pants the customer bought last week, just the stuff he's buying now.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
Great now I'm going to have to carry a microwave around in my pants if I want to shoplift! They've talked about using a microwave for small clothes driers for years. I'm sure anyone whose seen Uncle Buck has tried it at least once. Works fine on cottons. Just make sure you don't have any change or anything metal in your pockets.
scenario one:
You enter a store, a scanner reads all rfid tags on your clothes and other products you are carrying and produces a "profile" of you and stores this profile in a database. Possibly your "profile" is tracked through the store and traffic patterns are created that show where you go and how long you were in each department or area (good measure of finding what areas in the store are most effective) When you exit the store you are once again scanned. This scan is compared against your stored profile and if articles that you now have did not go through a cash register you are then apprehended moments after leaving the store.
Scenario two:
Grocery store (or any store with shopping carts or baskets). All carts or baskets have a unique ID associated with them. As shoppers place goods in the baskets it is known almost instantly how much "sales potential" is in the store at any time. Store management can set quotas on an hourly or better basis. When the amount of goods in shopping carts is not high enough management can trigger sales announcements to help increase the dollar amount of goods that shoppers are carrying and that will eventually go through the checkout.
Scenario three: An article is left behind at a crime scene. It's rfid tag is found and read. A search is then done and data found that shows the life of that article to date - where it was bought, by whom, what other articles are regularly in its presence (this glove has been regularly detected with this coat, these shoes, and this white Ford Bronco). An arrest is made and presented with all of this information a jury has no choice but to find the accused guilty beyond all 'reasonable cause'.
Welcome to the 21st century.
The perfect excuse to get a Van De Graaf generator.
I remember in high school science, we played with one of these. We were told that removing all watches, etc. beforehand would be a good idea.
One person forgot... The watch didn't survive playtime.
One of the things I remember was forming a ring of people, with the VDG being one "person" in the ring. Interrupting the ring (or something like that) in the right way would send a jolt through EVERYONE. I'm pretty sure this little pulse was the watch killer.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
At least I'll finally know who moved my cheese...
Looking for my keys that I am holding in my left hand... (Habitually, they're always in my right hand during the trip from pocket to door/ignition and back)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
"Long time privacy advocate Winona Ryder says that these chips are a severe threat to privacy..."
He's talking about using such a device as a form of DoS attack.
It won't protect YOU specifically, but it'll make life a living hell for whoever runs the sensor you're jamming.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
With a huge database and some smart programming:
You walk into a store wearing a set of cloths, even if you have not purchased any of them in the store they could target advertise you based on the value, brands, style. That could be useful. They could tell me about the best deal on the cheap no-brand stuff I need to buy today rather than the over-priced stuff I'll never touch anyways.
OTOH, I'd rather the store NOT know what I'm carrying in my bag - I don't need some ad telling me about a new 'better than Viagra' drug because I just happen to have my, ahem, friend's stuff along with me.
I don't have much hope of avoiding the second situation, since marketing goof balls are not known for their sensitivity.
W9x:Thanks for the make-work project Bill.
Hm sounds like its time to build that portoble static emp feald generator. no my clock is meckanical its not afected. [I now that i cant spell]
I'd guess retailers see these things as incredible timesavers. Imagine a wal-mart store - now imagine that consumers have left items all over the place.
How do you know something is out of place? Or where it's supposed to go?
Just counting inventory is a PITA.
Of course, the tags have to work, but if they do, they'll be an incredible time saver.
Time to come back to reality, little Timmy. You're taking a movie, which wasn't that great to begin with, and confusing it with things that actually happen.
Fine. Down to your level we go... You think Minority Report is bad? Holy shit, check out Nemesis!! They can suck you right out of your vehicle with those 'transporter' thingies, even if you're moving!! Whoa, and if you really piss off the Hitler-mustache-wearing, baby-fucking Americans, they'll call up their British bitch and have him send James BOND after your ass! Dude! Yer goin' to HELL!
- leather - MURDER! UN acceptable!
- cotton - economically subjugates poor workers in tropical third world countries! Strongly advised against!
- wool - subjugates poor little sheep in the name of man's clothing! STRONGLY advised against!
- fur - MURDER! UN acceptable!
So it's best to just go naked, like Gaia intended. Screw all you fuckers that live where it snows!It is time to develop the ECM RFID Jamming Wrist Watch.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
Wow, so someone will know I'm wearing Timberland boots, Dockers pants, Oakley sunglasses, and an Izod shirt.
You mean velcro closure Reeboks, sweatpants, prescription glasses, a Slashdot shirt, and a Members Only jacket.
They won't know my name, address, phone number, age, social security number, sexual preference, number of pets, or marital status.
Who cares, your parent's house, your parent's phone number, 16-40, who cares, who knows, 3 cats, and single.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
On the other hand, having ID tags in things I buy would make it easier for the shops to tell me how good quality the product is, and how little (insert your favourite nasty thing here) was involved in its production. If they don't, you go elsewhere to a shop that gives you this information.
The potential for misuse of this technology is immense, as you may already suspect, and the most intriguing finding is that all products sold worldwide can be uniquely tagged. It's the perfect tracking device. Mind you, you can embed an RFID tag on bank notes.
However, they are stuck with a technical problem which is delaying widespread usage, because RFID tags work fine when one tag is passed at a time through a reader but it simply does not operate properly if you try to pass multiple items at once.
Every one agrees that this kind of technology is a menace to civil liberties so, WHY such researchers insist on doing such kind of research?
Accenture has also teamed with Microsoft... I guess you get the picture.
Think of a beowulf cluster of these. (ducks)
Good thing I have my stash of the old dotcom t-shirts that I can wear.
Municipal governments drag their feet on fixing potholes and streetlights. WTF are you smoking that you think they'll bother maintaining RFID antennas every 30 feet?
And keep in mind that even if they *do* pony up the cash and time to install thousands of antennas (haha), these things are gonna have to be kept in theft-proof, break-proof containers or they'll be vandalized immediately. Cos you can get them to overlap at 30 feet, but only at ground level.
All you'd have to do would be to spray some metallic paint on the damn thing, and it'd be useless. Or some spray paint with some of those little chips in it, even.
You need to get your head out of your ass and realise that in the improbable event this does happen, it can be defeated so easily it's not even funny.
Here's an article and press release about the company doing it. Fortunately they have it patented, which should impede progress in this direction for a while.
How long before someone either sells or puts up a instructions on creating a personal "white noise" generator (for lack of a better term) that has an ultra limited range, but scrambles incoming RFID inquiries.
Even better, how about a device that responds before the RFID can to all requests with erroneous information?
It was over a year ago that Motorola announced this exact same thing. Sweaters with RFID? People laughed.
Motorola, Enemy of Privacy
EOM.
Implanted chip is different because it makes it impossible to exchane the IDs with friends, because it makes you tied to your ID.
The primary reason for implanted chip is financial transactions and fight with grey-economy
I don't know about you, but I remove those tags from all my stuff.
This sounds like a William Gibson invention.
- Don't move, I think you got DUST on your coat!
- Damn! They are tracking me!
- Yeah those pesky (D)igitally (U)nique (S)erial (T)ags sure are a nuisance!
One thing to be said, if RFIDs make it into everyday clothing, the (color) blind can find out what (color) article of clothing they're wearing.
Oh, and a second benefit would be I could use my shoes as a "token" for authentication. (No more logins, automatic screen-saver activation, etc.)
Not to say that I'm for RFIDs, I just like to make lemonaide from my lemons.
What I'd like to know is if anyone has a source for hobbyists like myself to get RFID tags and scanners. I'm just itching to build a Smart Fridge and get it on Slashdot :)
My wife just recently had a baby and the hospital where she gave birth has a security system that involves the attachment of a clip to the newborns umbilical cord. This clip has a security chip that emits a radio signal. If the baby is removed from the nursery/obstetrical area, an alarm is sounded, doors are locked and elevators are stopped.
When we first heard about this security system, we thought that the chip was actually implemented in the babies bellybutton. This was due to some miscommunication. After getting the matter clarified, we gave the ok. It is something you can refuse to get, and we definately would have if it had been a permanent chip. But now I'm starting to hear about implanted tracking systems for older children. It is a scary world we are entering.
Forget the whales - save the babies.
This Stanford seminar gave a good overview of the underlying technology.
Let's say a company wants to track the behavior of teens wearing Calvin Klein jeans. They put RFIDs in every pair of pants, then detectors in every store in every mall. The problem with this is, from Calvin Klein's point of view, it also opens themselves up to competitors gathering marketing info on CK customers. Nobody is going to spend millions of dollars to gather data to hopefully gain a competitive edge, only to have the competition have access to that same data.
_______
2B1ASK1
-"What did i do?"
-"You did'nt respond with an rf-tag, let's go!"
-"But i haven't done anything"
-"Yes you did, let's go you terrorist!"
FRA: STFU GTFO
RFID is present technology not new technology, it's already in products available today.
Gillette Confirms RFID Purchase
Update: Gillette has confirmed that it will purchase up to 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology.
Jan. 7, 2003 - The Gillette Company confirmed yesterday that it has placed a major order for RFID tags from Alien Technology. Neither Gillette nor Alien indicated how much Gillette would pay for the tags, or the terms of delivery. Alien's Pounds Still, the announcement is a milestone of sorts because it is the first commercial order for products that incorporate the Electronic Product Code (EPC) developed by the Auto-ID Center. It is also the first multi-million dollar order Alien has received.
RFID Journal broke the news that Gillette planned to purchase 500 million RFID tags on Nov. 15 after Gillette VP Dick Cantwell told a private meeting of the Auto-ID Center's board about the company's plans (see Gillette to Buy 500 Million EPC Tags). Cantwell said then that Gillette would buy 500 million EPC tags from Alien.
However, Gillette's press release indicates that it may purchase may fewer than half a billion tags. It says: "Gillette will begin testing tag technology through its supply chain by placing RFID tags in select products for the US market. If successful, up to half a billion tags could be placed on Gillette products over the next few years."
Tom Pounds, Alien's VP of marketing and business development, told RFID Journal that there are terms and conditions that would allow Gillette to order less than 500 million tags. However, he added that Gillette has committed to purchasing "a significant chunk of that total."
Gillette plans to use the tags with smart shelf technology that was also developed for Gillette by the Auto-ID Center. The smart shelves, which have built-in RFID readers, will be tested in stores in the US and UK beginning this month, as part of the third phase of the center's field test.
mCloak
Then the government would be able to track you into the porno shop where you go to anonymously suck cock through a hole in the wall. That would not be good.
So the paranoid but clued in chicks are naked. Cool.
I know cos I used to use one to go shoplifting
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
The tag IDs are NOT unique.... they are just like barcodes. "They" could only track you as far as to say, "Ok, here comes the guy with the long sleeve Gap blue shirt, and Levi 501 jeans." Each PRODUCT SKU has a unique ID, not every item in a SKU.
According to the article, the European central bank is considering putting RF tags in to money. This is quite a fascinating idea, but it got me thinking...
If all the money in your wallet/purse were to contain an RF tag, would it not then be possible to simply "scan" someone to determine how much money is on them in an effort to ascertain if they're a worthwhile mugging target?
The idea to RF-tag money is probably a good one in theory (much easier to reduce counterfeiting), but something like this would bother me if I were carrying around lots of cash.
So to maintain privacy in the future, the self sufficient person would win out. Would this force a resurgence in "old world" traditions... growing gardens, knitting clothes, hunting for meat and general self invention of hand crafted products? sounds fun, count me in!
A lot of clothing, such as all pants, contains metal parts in zippers and buttons etc. And you can't nuke metal, because... I'm not sure why, but everyone says so.
Especially if that person shops there frequently, they'll still have previous RFIDs on them. You think they're going to sit around and wait for you to figure out what they've already bought versus what they're trying to buy currently? Hell no.
There's no way to differentiate between 'used' and 'new' in that situation.
Read that page more closely...it talks about creating a /standard/ for RFID tires, and talks about them in the hypothetical ("would"...etc.).
Oops, gotta go buy a copy of Catcher in the Rye now...
Faraday cage backpacks, anyone?
So could you put one of these on each bicycle, and have a few sensors at well used bike lanes, and trigger an alarm when a bike that's reported stolen passes by? Or go scan bike parkings? I am so sick of having one bike or more stolen per year!
The big reason you can't have a real LoJack type thing on a bicycle is that there is no way to power it. But these things don't need power.
I guess the big problem would be that thieves can scan for tags too, and remove or replace them. But I'm sure you could come up with some schemes to make that hard.
Of course, this would work theft prevention for many kinds of goods.
From the article:
Privacy worries also depend on the size of the tags. Matrics of Columbia, Md., said it has claimed the record for the smallest RFID tag, a flat square measuring 550 microns a side with an antenna that varies between half an inch long to four inches by four inches, depending on the application. Without an antenna, the RFID tag is about the size of a flake of pepper.
I'm currently programming a chip that has an antenna that is 6mm in diameter. That chip itself is 3mm x 3mm.
This is a really interesting field (not pun intended) to work in, too.
One thing I disagree with is the ability to read and get a response from the chip. There is a certain focus point that must be achieved before the chip becomes active. Using a larger transceiver wouldn't exactly be practical because of the size of the contraption one would have to create in order to receive a signal from the RFID chip. Unless, of course, frying a few humans and family pets doesn't concern them - which, as everyone already knows, criminals hardly seem concerned with anyone other than themselves.
I can see peer to peer money swapping becoming popular. The Treasury Dept will be after us next after the RIAA and MPA are finished with us.
You don't have to support the industry.
Fighting the War on the War on Drugs.
http://smokedot.org/
Actually, I wouldn't want my grocer to disable the RFID tags on purchased food items. If I had my own RFID reader, it would make for a quite convenient way to update an inventory of what food I have on hand. This, in turn, would allow me to do many neat things:
- automatically generate shopping lists
- compare food inventory against a recipe database to see what meal options I have
- automatically track food expiration
- optimize food usage (ie. less waste) by planning meals a week in advance
Of course, this would also require tracking of inventory depletion. However, with recipe planning and perhaps a touchscreen interface, this would be pretty simple and would allow you to track your nutrition at the same time.
As a side-note, these things are nowhere near a threat to privacy:
1.) They are trivially easy to destroy
2.) Regardless of how small the chip is, you still need an antenna matching the wavelength of the RFID detector's transceiver. Simple physics guarantees that the antenna will be plainly visible or else highly inefficient and narrow-banded. (not much use if you're trying to power a chip with it). Sure, these limitations may be slowly overcome by advances in nanotech and ultra-low-power design, but it'll also make the chips more fragile.
The linked article mentions that the tags will have a "self destruct" mechanism, and even mentioned that consumers might have a device that could kill off the tags at home.
So what is to stop a shoplifter from getting a "tag killer" device and using it at the store. After that it becomes a normal shoplifting theft. At best this is only slightly better than the current magnetic tags, good for getting the stupid theives.
Was walking through a dark alley...the mugger was in the shadows with his RFID scanner. He detected at 50 yards that I had those brand spanking new nikes...he knows his target. Me.
Just like shopping...he cruises with his RFID to find out who owns one of those $1000 wallets you can buy on rodeo drive and tags them too..
All this RFID stuff leaks is where I am, and by correlating that with other people's chips, they can find out who I'm with. All that tells 'em is mundane stuff like who I want to have sex with.
BTW, last time these things came up here, wasn't everyone all anxious for them to come out, so we could buy things by just dumping them in our shopping carts at the store and walking out, with everything automatically scanned and billed? They'll probably deactivate the chips when you leave the store, just because it would make them useless for price scanning if people were bringing working chips into the store.
Not quite, the most common tags today are the sensormatic acoustomagnetic type, found at a wide range of retailers from WalMart to Home Depot to many cd/movie stores. This type has a number of advantages, over the older RF based tags. In fact, many consumer items can be found with an Acoustomagnetic tag inside the item. Recently, I disassembled an answering machine I had purchased from KMart and inside the case was a (presumably deactivated) tag. Because 58khz acoustic echos are not much affected by the container, (after all these are just sound waves) tags can be embedded rather than on the surface of the item (as with radio frequency tags) where a shoplifter can easily peal them off. Don't expect the RF tags to actually be embedded in too many items, metallic items and objects containing water will either absorb the RF energy or detune the tag, itself a simple LC (inductor-capacitor) network tuned to 8.2 mhz (most common - or 9.5 mhz). The above posts are indeed correct, the common RF tags are deactivated by a high intensity RF signal, but usually of a different (usually lower)frequency that the tag also has resonance at. The fusable link is commonly a crimp across the capacitor which upon deactivation shorts the capacitor out, thus detuning it, rather than burning itself out.
The saturation type strips the parent refers to are actually prone to false alarms from certain metal objects with a low (and abrupt) saturation point. These systems are commonly found in libraries, rather than retail stores. Several other types are in use.
Read here and here.
Would it be possible to make a small device that can detect and scramble these signals? if so that would be a great business opurtunity for some creative individual.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I could see the RFID embedded in playing cards being great for enhancing revenue in gambling operations.
1) steal underwear
2) sell stolen underwear
3) track the undewear and steal it again
4) rinse, repeat
5) Profit!
we've eliminated the "????" phase of the plan
I for one, welcome our new hot grits... PROFIT!
These tags won't work in at least one way - most theft is by employees. They'll have plenty of opportunity to find and remove, disable or destroy tags. There are some tricks that a store owner could play (multiple tags, etc), but the employees will quickly figure out ways around them.
let's round up all those lowlifes who leave their goddamn cigarette butts everywhere.
and while we are at it let's get the bastards who leave their *$%*%$ gum on the ground. we should do it like in Singapore, public whippings for chewing gum!
Even more fun is planting one on somebody without them knowing it!
Go for a buttoned rear pants pocket, or equivalent location they'll never think to check.
Ummm... I make my own tracks, skid marks, smears... you name it. If they want me to prove it, I'll be happy to do so; but *all* my underwear is trackable.
...find all my fscking left socks. Somebody, somewhere, is hording them and I am going to find him.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
Could we be constantly tracked through our clothes, shoes or even our cash in the future?
In order to carry out tracking on the scale that Declan suggests - of a every citizen, on a nationwide scale, - you would need to deploy a vast array of sensor networks.
DARPA has put a high priority on developing such networks in their drive to digitize the battlespace under the "Persistence over the battlefield" philosophy that dominates current military thinking.
Cebrowski sums this doctrine up:
- Retired Navy Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski,
[Office of Force Transformation, February 5, 2002]
First take: Check out DARPAs IXO - The Information Exploitation Office:
http://dtsn.darpa.mil/ixo/
in particular, Dr. Sri Kumar's Sensor Information Technology (SensIT) Program:
http://dtsn.darpa.mil/ixo/sensit.asp
Incidentally, seems to me, one corollary of the Cebrowski doctrine might be, if you can't sense it . . .
http://go.openflows.org/admin.pl?op=edit&sid=03/01 /14/1033209
Ubiquitous Sensor Networks, Next 10 years:
2000: 100 million image sensors sold worldwide (Cahners In-Stat Group)
2006: 1 billion 'mobile' sensors on 21 million telematic-enabled cars in US (Telematics Research Group)
2006: 2.5 billion devices on the Internet (Dr. Vinton Cerf)
2010: 60 trillion wireless sensors deployed worldwide (Ernst & Young)
RF Micro Devices Opens Sales And Customer Support Office in China
One Billion Smart Cards
Walk around naked. :)
Walk around naked..
I'm only going to explain this to you once, because you're not worth the time to explain more than that. Five years from now when the government decides that everyone should have a chip embedded in the skin, you're going to say:
"What's the big deal, we've had these things in our clothes for years already, is it so drastic to have one implanted in the skin? Sure this is interesting news but I don't fear big brother just yet."
It's the thin edge of the wedge and you're just too simple to gauge its slow progress through your ribcage towards your heart. You're being treated like the whore from last night's fraternity gang-bang, and you come in here and tell everyone you're not bothered by it at all.
The RFID will identify the product, not the user. Since it's put on there by the producer in the manufacturing process, it will have a whole bunch of information relating to the product [size, plain or peanut butter, etc.]. When it's scanned at the checkout will help the manufacturer track the speed in which things are being sold through the supply chain.
This helps the manufacturer and grocer a) plan shipments of additional product; b) identify regional markets and locations where products sell better than others; c) identify the efficiency of advertising and promotions w/r/t product sales; d) etc.
The supply chain [from manufacturer->wholesaler->retailer] has many steps, and advertising / promotion is very expensive...anything product manufacturers can do to reduce costs by being more efficient, they will.
They are less concerned about you and whether you litter.
Who put this thing together? Me, that's who.
Here is a good source to get more info on RFID: http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/ Or just use Google. My company is investigating RFID for tracking property - a lot gets "lost" every year. We've learned there are many types of tags and devices; active and passive. Some can store up to 1MB of data. Can be read at high speed (e.g., the guy with the stolen laptop speeding out the gate). The company is talking about putting them on badges with readers in every conference room - automatic attendance list. Many other possibilities + and - as you can imagine. Would not be surprised to see RFID show up in driver licenses, credit cards, etc. Some types can be interrogated at quite a distance too - many meters at least. I admit having the "rice" size tracker installed in my 7 month old Whippet. Includes name, health, ownership info, and so forth in case he gets away. I recently helped a dog who was struck by a car near our house. No tag on a collar, no "rice" rfid - impossible to locate the owners. We ultimately got the dog to a vet emergency room and made it comfortable and out of pain before it died. With the chip - the owners could have been called in time to be there. Like most technology, there are "good" apps and "bad" apps. Much depends on your value system. We all know that "the street finds its own use for technology" (Wm. Gibson) Personally, I am extremely worried about personal privacy in this "homeland security" era. RFID is just a small piece of the picture.
There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about. -- John von Neumann
Alien Technology won't reveal how it charges for each tag, but industry estimates hover around 25 cents. The company does predict that in quantities of 1 billion, RFID tags will approach 10 cents each, and in lots of 10 billion, the industry's holy grail of 5 cents a tag.
Now, didnt gilette order something like half a billion of RFID's for only something ~7.5 each? That is pretty close to their holy grail of 5, which means that any consortium or any company with high production output could attain the RFID's for something like ~9-12. Which brings me to another question, why does the reporter quote higher prices?
Live for the present, learn from the past, and dream of the future!
There's really no need to worry about your privacy if you pay for your RFID'ed items in cash. That way nothing will be linked to you specifically. I suppose if the police or whoever is tracking you finds a way to link you with your possessions, you'll be in trouble, but then there's the whole concept of borrowing.
I wouldn't get your panties in a bunch, the Man isn't watching our every move.
Actual RFID for Tires Here's one example for the curious
Microsoft already did this.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I knew this already.
So do other billions of slashdotters out there.
Soon the "Best dressed Celebrities" list will be automatically generated by data matching RFID tags.
By spoofing the RFID numbers of Guuci suites etc I may be able to get myself on the list??
Never thought that would be possible!
most electronic sensors used in stores these days to detect theft are similar, these are just smaller, the way to deactivate the existing tags is blast them with high frequency electromagnetic radiation.
;)
i don't see why if it works for the old ones why it wont on the new ones, so just a lesson to everyone, when you get home put them in the microwave
veni, vidi, vernacular! I came, I saw, I said a few choice words
Just in case you haven't seen the movie Ocean's Eleven or know what a pinch is by other means: basically, a pinch is an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) emitter. It's an interesting concept but reality has proven the pinch to be rather difficult.
How hard would it be, given today's technology, to create a handheld RFID-pinch? Personally, I'd love to walk into a building and hit a button that fries every RFID within say, 500 meters.
--K.
Sig: Bad people happen. Try to avoid being one of them.
These are much too simple to jam or destroy. Will they be in for a shock the first time professional thieves with a jammer walk right out with stuff.
Having a jamming device like this is going to advertise "I have something to hide" to anybody who looks at the logs.
No, what it's advertising is this: "What I'm hiding is something that's none of your damn business, and that's precisely why it's hidden."
..they also mentioned that, for example, Foxwoods Casino (the largest casino in the world, in Ledyard, CT) uses these tags already in their "Wampum Cards" (basically a debit card for gambling monies at the casino. You put money into a machine, and out spits a pre-credited "Wampum Card" with that money credited to it. You stick the card in a machine, and start gambling). The errie thing is that the casino mails these cards out to people, for free, with a few "free plays" on the card, to get people to come into the casino. Seems harmless, except your entire gambling history, name, address, and phone number are STORED ON THE CARD. When you walk into the casino, they immediately know that "John Smith, 123 Anywhere Road, Ledyard CT" has just walked into the South entrance, and is heading for the slot machines. They then dispatch a Foxwoods employee to come talk to you to try to encourage you to "upgrade" your Wampum Card.
Symbol also quietly mentioned that a "large basketball shoe manufacturer" already puts these into the soles of their shoes, so they can tell when a team is wearing their shoes, or when a customer of theirs has walked into their store.
Scary stuff, scary indeed. Now they're talking about putting these in actual money? What if someone hacks the code, and can scan you from 10' away to tell how much money you have in your wallet? It would certainly make picking the right victim easy. "Give me all your money!" "I don't have any money!" "Oh yeah, I see $348.00 in your wallet, and 5 credit cards. Hand them over!"
Or what about identity theft? Cloning one of these RFID tags as you walk by, and some thief gets your credit card RFID numbers by just walking behind you in a busy street. I can see a whole new series of dangerous hacks coming out based on this technology alone.
Your only recourse is to stop thinking so hard!
Or, suppose they get the real ID just once. And suppose you sent a million false IDs. They check their database, and they find that only one of the IDs is present
Don't send random IDs. Send IDs for only a certain class of object, like shirts. Their scanner thinks you're wearing 1000000 different kids of shirts.
Seems like the end times eh?
Maybe we won't find missing persons a year later tied up naked in the woods.
No..however, when you try to use it to pry something up, and the pen breaks, and leaks all over your hand, yes.
I've had them dry up, and you can still see there's ink in there, too. Which makes me wonder if they actually fill them with 1/2 the amount of ink, and the rest is some lower cost filler that they use, if the manufacturers just assume that you'd lose it before you actually run out.
(yeah, yeah, this is offtopic, that's why I'm posting without my karma bonus, okay?)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
For your reading pleasure...
/PRNewswire/ -- Matrics, a pioneer in the advanced development and standardization of low-cost, high-performance third generation UHF Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) smart tag technology, is aggressively pursuing applications across the security spectrum to provide real-time visibility of people and things.
Matrics Creates New Ways to Secure Lives and Assets for `Safe Commerce' Using Advanced RFID Technology; Responds to Homeland Security Initiative With Advanced RFID Technology to Provide Unique Real-Time Tracking of People, Vehicles, and High Value Assets.
COLUMBIA, Md. -- COLUMBIA, Md., Dec. 16
The dramatic improvements in technical design and costs to manufacture smart tag technology have opened up entirely new uses for RFID while providing new levels of cost-effective solutions for a multitude of new, security applications.
"New government and private business requirements for more effective and far-reaching security capabilities are emerging just as new RFID technology advancements are being commercialized. The result is that numerous RFID-based security applications are now effective and affordable for more businesses and government agencies than at any time in the history of the technology," said John Shoemaker, Matrics' V.P. of Corporate Development. "For security, the future of RFID is now, and Matrics has the financial and technical stamina to deliver these applications successfully," he added.
Applications in the Homeland Security arena in support of "Safe Commerce" that Matrics is pilot testing include:
-- Vehicle registration and proof of insurance
-- Emissions inspection/control/enforcement
-- Access control for vehicles in any gated application: military
installations, residential gated communities, corporate and
university campuses, and other facilities
-- Revenue access control for parking to allow express passage of
vehicles and automatic payment and tracking with an audit trail
-- Imported goods traceability
-- Container tracking and tracing including intermodal transport via
air transport, shipping, trains and trucks
-- Air Cargo and baggage or "trusted shippers"
-- Airline passenger "trusted traveler" programs
-- Evidence management for law enforcement
-- Inventory control of high value assets
-- Border crossing for vehicles, drivers, passengers and personal IDs
Matrics and its partners are proactively making end-users aware of how advancements in RFID technology can be implemented to create secure, discrete and convenient security systems. From sophisticated Homeland Security applications to employee access control and asset management, today's RFID technology provides protection and functionality that was previously not possible or only available from much more expensive, wireless tracking systems.
"The bottom line is that the price of RFID is coming down dramatically while the performance continues to improve at unprecedented levels," said Shoemaker. "Now, we can read a tag that has no battery, in any orientation, at speeds in microseconds and from distances exceeding 20 feet. And the price of a tag continues to drop based on volume and the type of packaging needed."
Matrics can now deliver cost-effective RFID technology to more applications than ever before while improving visibility and ensuring greater security of assets and people.
Matrics offers a cohesive, RFID product portfolio that includes a proven line of passive UHF (902-928 MHz) smart inlays and labels, Visibility Manager(TM) middleware software and reliable readers. The new, third generation chips will work in the same reader infrastructure as existing, first generation Matrics chips, and will operate in full accordance with industry standards. Matrics tags comply with "Type 0" UHF RFID specifications defined by the Auto-ID Center, headquartered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Matrics Inc., based in Columbia, Maryland, is a provider of RFID technology and visibility solutions for supply chain, security and asset management. Patented wireless tracking technologies provide users with the most reliable and cost effective solutions to provide the comprehensive visibility of assets throughout the enterprise. Matrics is presently engaged in pilot tests with several Fortune 50 companies.
CONTACT: Kevin Rushalko of Spectrum Marketing & Communications, +1-603-924-6692 or specmkt@monad.net, for Matrics
Web site: http://www.matrics.com/
***
Blackstone Technology Corporation Announces RFID Smart Label Manufacturing Breakthrough; New Technique 10 Times Faster, Produces Finished Smart Labels in One Step.
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2002
Blackstone Technology Corporation has announced a revolutionary process for high-speed, reel-to-reel smart label manufacturing that will solve the RFID industry's critical capacity limitation. The breakthrough process, called SpeedBond(TM), is more than 10 times faster than current methods of attaching RFID chips to antennas. More importantly, it is the first process to allow smart labels to be manufactured in one step, going from silicon chip to unprinted label in the same manufacturing line.
The RFID industry took a major step towards full-scale commercialization when, as reported in the RFID Journal, Gillette announced plans to order 500 million smart tags to mark pallets and cases. As other members of the Auto-ID Center, including Procter and Gamble, International Paper, The Gap, WalMart, Home Depot, Kodak, UPS, and Pfizer, implement RFID systems to create supply-chain efficiencies, the ability to print cost-effective tags and smart labels in large quantities is a critical factor enabling the growth of the industry.
"While other companies have narrowly focused on methods of die taping and die attach, Blackstone's focus is on reducing cost through the entire RFID smart label manufacturing process," says Joe Weldon, CEO of Blackstone. "We have applied our experience in high-speed labeling, advanced conductive materials, and electronic interconnect processes to solving the bottleneck in the RFID supply chain caused by slow die population and bonding speeds."
Blackstone's SpeedBond(TM) process will replace the slower "pick and place" technology currently utilized by the RFID industry. "No thermal curing is required in the SpeedBond process, virtually eliminating dwell times and allowing utilization of a wide variety of antenna substrates, including papers and synthetics," according to Dick Estes, Blackstone's CTO. "It's much faster and much more flexible." For purchasers of smart labels, it also eliminates a costly step in the supply chain: the insertion of an RFID tag into an unprinted label.
The new process is not hampered by die size limitations. Die sizes are currently 700 microns by 700 microns, limiting the number of chips on a wafer and increasing costs. The SpeedBond(TM) process can use chip sizes as small as 300 microns by 300 microns. Blackstone's patent-pending process can use chips from any RFID supplier, including Philips, Matrics, Alien Technology, Infineon and ST Micro.
"Blackstone's SpeedBond(TM) process is well-suited for a wide variety of antenna configurations and label materials. We designed our process to work with all chips, and comply with all standards," says Dave Eastin, Blackstone's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "We can produce RFID inlets or smart label material with various read ranges, frequencies, and chip capabilities, from encryption to biometrics to read-write. We look forward to serving the needs of system integrators, label printers, contactless smart card manufacturers, and RFID device manufacturers as demand increases."
Investors also express confidence in both the SpeedBond(TM) process and the explosive growth of the RFID industry. "We see RFID as one of the huge growth areas in technology over the next few years, and the die bonding process is currently a big bottleneck in enabling full-scale commercialization" says Ed Mullen, chairman of Northstar Global Partners, an investment bank with offices in Boston, Munich and Zurich and an early investor in Blackstone. "We like this investment because it solves a major industry problem and stands to win no matter which chip standard is adopted."
About Blackstone Technology Corporation:
Blackstone Technology Corporation is a New England-based start-up company focused on the RFID and Contactless Smart Card industries. Blackstone's experienced management team includes former executives from Bemis, Fidelity, Digital Equipment Corporation and Polymer Flip Chip who have pioneered advances in bar coding, reel-to-reel die bonding, and antenna technology for the RFID industry. The company has filed a patent for its revolutionary SpeedBond(TM) technology, which increases the manufacturing speed of RFID transponders and smart labels by more than 10 times over current levels.
For additional information, please contact Dave Eastin or Joe Weldon at Blackstone Technology Corporation via phone (508.529.4528) or e-mail (Eastin@Blackstone-rfid.com). Or, visit www.blackstone-rfid.com.
***
Texas Instruments RFid and SafeTzone Help Family and Friends Play it Safe at Amusement Parks.
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 26, 2002
A day of fun with family and friends at the amusement park can turn frantic when a child gets separated from the group. SafeTzone Technologies Corporation, of Laguna Hills, Calif., has developed a real-time location system for amusement parks that uses passive radio frequency identification (RFID) technology from Texas Instruments RFid Systems combined with active RF tags. The company's Child Locating System can instantly locate any member of a group throughout the park at any time using SafeTzone Locator(TM) wristbands, RF readers, and interactive LocationStation(TM) kiosks. TI-RFid tags also enable the SafeTzone Locator to be used as a wireless wallet for cashless purchases throughout the park.
The SafeTzone Locator is a watch-like RF device that each group member wears on his or her wrist. The device communicates a person's location to RF readers situated throughout the park using an active RF tag. The technology operates from touch screen kiosks that allow groups to track the real-time location of their members, on a map of the park, at any time of day in multiple languages, simply by scanning their Locators. When visitors approach the touch screen kiosks and scan their Locators, the passive RF tag automatically identifies them, linking them to information on the whereabouts of their group members. The SafeTzone locating systems are available to park guests visiting the following parks: Wet `n Wild - Orlando, Florida; Wet `n Wild - Las Vegas, Nevada; Wild Rivers - Irvine, California; and Dolly's Splash Country - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
"Our goal is to provide the end-to-end solution for amusement parks and their guests in terms of safety," said Timothy W. Giraldin, chief executive officer, SafeTzone. "We offer the most flexible and advanced products of their kind in the market today and collaborating with technology providers such as TI-RFid Systems have been integral factors in making these advances possible."
Version 3 of the SafeTzone Child Locating System, launched in November 2002, includes three new software modules. The new cashless module acts as an "electronic wallet," enabling guests to make purchases at food, drink, and gift areas around the park without the need to carry wallets or cash. The line management module provides guests with the option to make reservations for their favorite rides. The new data analysis module allows amusement parks to record and study the buying habits and activity preferences of their guests so they can offer customer loyalty programs such as coupons and rewards to frequent visitors, or incentives for underutilized games or attractions. The new version of the SafeTzone Child Locating System also includes features such as amenity locator, route planner, park-to-guest messaging, guest-to-guest messaging, and commercial videos that run on location stations.
For more information on this or other applications of TI-RFid technology, contact Texas Instruments RFid Systems at 1-888-937-6536 (North America) or +1 214-567-4364 (International) or visit the Web site at www.ti-rfid.com. Images are available upon request.
About SafeTzone Technologies Corporation
SafeTzone Technologies Corporation is the premier provider of systems for real-time locating of individuals in family destinations. SafeTzone is headquartered in Laguna Hills, Calif. The SafeTzone Child Locating System is available at select amusement parks in Tennessee, Florida, Nevada, and California. Questions about SafeTzone may be directed to its Director of Corporate Sales at 1.949.855.8987 or to its Web site at www.safetzone.com.
About Texas Instruments RFid Systems
Texas Instruments Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems is a leading developer and manufacturer of field-proven (RFID) solutions used in a broad range of applications worldwide. In 1991, TI became the first multi-national semiconductor company to market RFID systems with the introduction of TIRIS (Texas Instruments Registration and Identification System). TI first introduced its RFID-based anti-theft immobilizer security system for automotive applications in 1993.
Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries. Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at www.ti.com.
***
The next wave of auto ID. (Technology). (automatic identification) Peter Abell.
A radical change is coming to the supply chain. Over the next five years, many companies in fast-moving consumer goods, consumer electronics, and apparel industries will begin implementing new technology that uses electronic product code (ePC) radio frequency identification (RFID).
By making this move, they will be taking a significant evolutionary step beyond universal product codes (UPCs), the most common system used today for automatic identification (auto ID). The new technology will extend companies' ability to capture accurate information about the location and status of physical objects across the value chain.
An ePC RFID system consists of five technology areas:
* Electronic product code (ePC): A 96-bit code, ePC provides a unique ID or serial number for individual products. By contrast, UPC only provides a number for groups of products.
* ID system (reader and RF tag): The ePC is embedded on a special tag (which initially costs 5 cents) that is applied to the product during manufacture. The tag communicates with readers located in plants, warehouses, trucks, stores, and homes.
* Savant: A data router called Savant performs operations such as data capture, data monitoring, and data transmission. It provides a framework for managing the huge flow of ePC data throughout the enterprise. Savants can be located in stores, trucks, local distribution centers, and regional and national data centers.
* Object name service (ONS): Like a DNS (domain name service), the ONS is used for locating a specific URL (uniform resource locator)--in essence, a Web or server address.
* Physical markup language (PML): Based on extensible markup language (XML), PML describes unique physical objects and allows applications to share and track information about the item.
Initial studies indicate that the benefits of ePC RFID technology could prove significant. For example, the grocery supply chain could see $3.2 billion in benefits from using ePC to track pallets, according to studies by the Food Marketing Institute, pallet and container provider CHEP International, and AMR Research. And this number does not reflect the possible benefits from reducing out-of-stocks. When item- and case-level tracking is involved, AMR Research believes that the out-of-stock benefit alone will be between $12 billion and $20 billion annually, depending on whether the company is a retailer or a supplier.
Phase I field tests on the new technology--a joint effort involving Wal-Mart, Gillette, Unilever, CHEP International, and others--focused on pallet tracking. In this phase, companies use existing technology for RFID tags, readers, and other intelligent equipment to automatically interrogate pallets as they move within the manufacturing and distribution facility, to the docks, onto trucks, and through to the retailer's warehouse or to the store's receiving docks. The pallet tag is read by readers that are communicating with other intelligent devices. These devices notify a computer at both the supplier and the retailer that the correct number of pallets have been loaded onto a truck through the designated doorway. Upon arrival at the retailer's warehouse or store dock, the pallet tag is automatically read again, notifying both parties that the pallet has been delivered.
Lessons Learned From Field Tests
The Phase I field tests gave companies a chance to look at the technical feasibility of ePC and to gather data for the business case. Participating companies also were able to work out some of the initial technical difficulties. For example, frequency collisions occurred between the new system and older wireless scanning systems in the warehouse, and often the RF tags did not adhere well to wooden pallets. These problems were addressed and resolved by the Auto ID Center, which is an industry-funded research program, and the vendors involved, including Savi, Intermec, and CHEP International.
But other challenges remain. Tagging and data hierarchies need to be developed for truck, pallet, case, and consumer units. Furthermore, the amount of data generated by ePC RFID may be 30 times that generated by the existing technology. Exception alerts will need to be developed to manage this mountain of new data.
Also, companies will need to invest a significant amount of money and time into making sure that the new ePC system is compatible with and integrates to supply chain legacy systems that use existing bar-code structures. The new hardware and software will also need to integrate with existing systems operated by other companies across the value chain.
Before companies invest in the new technology, they should be aware of the upfront costs for deploying readers and for purchasing or developing software to capture reader information. They also will need to ensure that the technologies can scale as data requirements grow.
Phase I was completed in February 2002 and demonstrated the potential of ePC in the real world. Phase II, which focuses on both pallet- and case-level tagging, began in mid-September. Additional suppliers, such as Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola, are installing readers and applying tags to cases. These case tags are read when picked at the supplier's manufacturing center and are linked to the pallets they are placed upon.
Leaders in the consumer packaged goods (CPC) industry have indicated that, as tag costs diminish, value will migrate from tagging shipping pallets to tagging cases to tagging individual items. Consumer goods manufacturers will likely benefit the most from case-level tagging to track products across the value chain. Retailers, in contrast, will gain greater benefit with item-level tagging to improve in-store operations.
Auto ID: Compelling Potential
Executives of several leading CPC manufacturers have said that their major priorities for auto ID technologies, such as ePC RFID, include:
* Lowering inventory and distribution costs across the value chain through better supply chain visibility and demand planning.
* Significantly reducing inventory and improving distribution efficiency.
* Capitalizing on the improved demand visibility to become more responsive to changing customer wants and needs.
* Decreasing theft and counterfeiting of high-value items.
Many of these hoped-for benefits of auto ID technology are tied to increased visibility. The greater visibility provided by auto ID, for example, may be able to help prevent problems such as damage and spoilage. In the grocery industry, this could prove to be a major benefit. According to the Food and Drug Administration, up to 20 percent of foods are discarded due to spoilage while in the supply chain.
Additionally, most stockouts are caused by a lack of knowledge of what is in the supply chain. For example, Procter & Gamble found that a third of all stockouts at retailers involved product that was available in the retailer's own warehouse. Reducing stockouts, in turn, will boost sales. According to a Goldwin Sportswear pilot, if customers can find the right item at the retailer before they give up and go elsewhere, sales will increase by 2 percent.
In general, CPG leaders expect that increased visibility will allow them to be more responsive to fluctuations in supply and demand, which, in turn, will improve their overall financial results. As new technology, such as ePC RFID, develops further, it could, in fact, revolutionize how we manufacture, buy, and sell products. The results could be billions of dollars in savings.
Peter Abell is research director, Retail Industry Service for AMR Research Inc.
The term "fire" brings up visions of violence and mayhem and the ugly scene
of shooting employees who make mistakes. We will now refer to this process
as "deleting" an employee (much as a file is deleted from a disk). The
employee is simply there one instant, and gone the next. All the terrible
temper tantrums, crying, and threats are eliminated.
-- Kenny's Korner
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