Lessons Learned from RFID Field Test

muddy_mudskipper writes "From John Young's cryptome.org website, is a newly posted pdf copy of the "Lessons Learned from RFID Field Test" as compiled by the Field Test Program Manager of the Auto ID Center. It is interesting to note the photographs of the different passive RFID antennas that could be used in product packaging - some small enough to fit into a soap box. Also curious is how many sector antennas have to pepper the test center in order to approach 100% RFID readability. 'In March 2001 a team comprised of Auto-ID Center sponsors (technology & end users) was assembled to plan and implement a Field Test aimed at taking the Auto-ID EPC technology from the laboratory to the real world environment with the objective of proving the power and effectiveness of the EPC and to blaze a trail for future adoption' "

Comments

Ok...

[OneFix at Work]

So they can track when I buy a bar of soap...You know what...I'd not actually mind that someone knows that I bought some Irish Spring...maybe I actually want them to know that I like the product.

Ppl are always spinning this RFID thing the wrong way. It's called a live inventory and it is already being done with the bar codes that they scan when you buy your bars of soap (or maybe you don't buy soap...I'm not one to judge). This is the biggest reason they want to do this. Besides serving as a replacement for a bar code, these things could also be used instead of those magnetic security scanners at the doors...you know, the ones that always go off because the cashier forgot to demagnetize the strip or didn't do it properly???

I don't know what ppl are so concerned about. The only ppl that should have these things are stores and maybe your kitchen if you want to know about everything you have...

Anything the store will know about you can already be gained by combining information from an ATM/Credit Card and the bar code scanner...

Valid use on non-Personal items

[m11533]

While there are certainly plenty of issues surrounding use of RFID in personal items, I believe there are plenty of opportunities for their use in non-Personal items that carry none of these issues. For example, what if RFID were integrated into all of the multitude of assembly line and related devices found on a factory floor. They could then be used to quickly inventory the items currently in a specific area of that factory. Or, track the spare devices in a storage area, making it very easy to determine if there is a replacement for a failed part without having to search through multiple storage areas only to learn there is a discrepency between electronic records and what is physically present.

Or, how about using RFID to track all items entering and leaving a construction site? This would provide very accurate and timely tracking of items arriving from suppliers, or being returned to suppliers.

None of these examples has privacy issues, yet they offer new solutions to rather challenging issues. Chief among them is the ability to match up electronic records with physical reality without being nearly as vulnerable to human error.

So What?

[gillbates]

The last few months, I've gone from caring to indifferent in regards to RFID's. The reason? Visible Light.

With Visible Light, the FBI can track anyone, anywhere. In case you haven't noticed, they already have cameras which can read license plates, and from distances much longer than the few meters of RFIDs. RFID's are a moot point - the technology for tracking people using Visible Light already exists, and is already installed.

Eavesdropping technology is a red herring designed to distract the public from the real issue - that is, our legal system isn't entirely just. There have always been ways to frame the innocent, and there have always been ways to coerce and intimidate. The absence (sp?) of RFID's isn't going to prevent the government from oppressing people; last I checked, we are still "detaining" Muslim "persons of interest" for extended periods of time. Now tell me, what do RFID's have to do with that?

RFID's are a moot point. The real issue is the Federal Government's lack of accountability to the public.