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

RFID and PAL

[Space cowboy]

One thing to look out for is the resonant frequency. We were trying to use RFID tags inside professional tape decks, to tell which tape was currently in the decl - it was an asset management project.

the only useful (in terms of range) RFID tags at the time (18 months ago now) were resonant at 13.5 MHz, which is very very close to the colour burst frequency of PAL TV... not ideal for the inside of a Pro. tape deck :-)

Complete redesign, readers outside and having to motion sensors to detect the tape's direction (if it was going in or out) delayed us quite considerably :-) Always read the small print....

Simon.

Mobil Speed Pass is RFID

[emptybody]

Just curious as to how many of you already have an RFID tag. Were you aware that the mobil speed pass is an RFID tag?

Contgradulations!! Big Brother is watching YOU.

Re:Mobil Speed Pass is RFID

[Pompatus]

Contgradulations!! Big Brother is watching YOU.

Why does this have to be brought up every time something comes out about RFID tags? If "Big Brother" cared enough about you to track you, they would bring up your credit/debit card purchases and find everything about you that an RFID tag would tell them. You know that cell phone you carry around? Your position can be determined quite easily from that. Existing technology allows anyone to track you already. Anonimity has already been traded for convenience.

Don't worry though, nobody is watching and tracking you as an individual. Truth be told, Big Brother just doesn't care about you.

Re:Mobil Speed Pass is RFID

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry though, nobody is watching and tracking you as an individual. Truth be told, Big Brother just doesn't care about you.

Run that by Daniel Ellsberg, just as a reality check. If the government wants to know in detail about you, all the answers are not in your credit card records. If you're using an RFID device to pay tolls, your every move through a tollgate (and the license number of the car you're driving at the time, as I found out) are recorded to hhmmss and kept on file for who knows how long.

As far as I know, there is no legislation preventing anyone in government from installing sensors anywhere other than at designated toll collection points. This means a network of sensors could easily track someone of interest fairly granularly through a city.

Just curious, if new "traffic cameras" are installed at an intersection near you, do you have any idea how the location came to be chosen? Or did they just appear one day as the ones near me did? If RFID sensors were installed on nearby intersections or highways, would you even know what they looked like?

Re:2 lessons

[metlin]

Well, that statement wasn't meant in a paranoid kinda way.

My school does a *lot* of research into RFID tags, and guess what a lot of the "intended" uses are?

Corporates want to track people and habits, and government establishments want to track people, their habits *and* the corporates.

I'm going to have fun with this

[hawkbug]

I'm not worried about this RFID thing - I plan on learning how to make these things myself with some kit you can buy out the back of popular science, and I'm going to program them and stick them all over my clothes... the catch is, I'm going to fill them with all kinds of crap data that just wastes these companies and gov's bandwidth and storage capabilities, and flood their databases with wack data. If enough people do what I do, RFID will be worthless real fast I figure. Sure, there will be ways to sort the data so the bad stuff can be trashed, but then we adapt and reprogram the tags, and it becomes a game they will tire of quickly.

I want private RFIDs for my stuff

[hamjudo]

If RFID technology was cheap enough, easy to use and not too icky, I'd tag all my tools, the remote controls, the kids toys, and anything else we habitually lose.

As far as I know, systems with reasonable range aren't cheap. I'm not sure any system works well when attached to metal tools.

But the icky issue, is that I want to be able to track my stuff, but I don't want everyone else to be able to track my stuff.

I'd like to try tagging the stuff I lose around the yard and house. Since I would assign the tags, there wouldn't be many privacy issues. People with scanners would know how many things I tagged, but not what they are.

So, are there any affordable systems? How about affordable systems that can quickly scan a room (where is the remote now?). Where can I get them?

[The article was already slashdotted, so I have no idea what it is about.]

Peekaboo Boxes

[Red Rocket]

I like how they tried to obscure the "Gillette Venus" printed on the boxes in the PDF file but the overlay image doesn't appear until the picture is completely loaded.
Gillette doesn't want us to know that the tests are being conducted either with their cooperation or on their behalf.
Ooops. Foiled by the PDF.

OT but serious, help please.

[SharpFang]

Catalogs/datasheets/white papers for electronic parts.

Any decent source? Most of stuff I find on the net are either very limited range, or just trade offers with very short descriptions (no pinout etc), or available only for a fee. Could you share your sources for that stuff?

If I were SirHaxalot:

[Anonymous Coward]

I would say something like "Sounds like 1984 is more of a reality every day."

My doorkey is an RFID tag

[Space cowboy]

I live in a managed flat in Central London, where the entrance key to the concierge area is unlocked with an RFID tag. The door to the flat itself is still a normal key though :-)

Simon

Your car tires have RFIDs in them ALREADY!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Its a us federal sponsorred initiative to track vehicles near certain highways feeding certain urban areas.

basically the fbi enters a rfid number into the database and then history of travel for the car pops up.

the feds can also pre-enter rfids they want to watch after getting a reading off your parked car or from the canadian-us customs border (where they already actively log the car rfids in the tires and associate them with plates)

Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them! (AIAG B-11 ADC v3.0) .

Photos of chips before molded into tires:

http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:SVUlB-z0BCQ J: www.sokymat.com/applications/tireid.html

Californias Fastpass is being upgraded to scan ALL responding car tires in future years upcoming. I-75 may get them next in rural funnel points in Ohio.

http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html

YOU MUST BUY NEUTRALIZED OR FOREIGN TIRES!!!!! Soon such tires will become illegal to import or manufacture.

Using these chips to track people while they drive is actually the idea of the us gov, and current chips CANNOT BE DISABLED or removed. They hope ALL tires will have these chips in 4 years and hope people have a very hard time finding non-chipped tires. Removing the chips is near impossible without destroying the tire as the chips were designed with that DARPA design goal.

They are hardened against removal or heat damage or easy eye detection and can be almost ANYWHERE in the new "big brother" tires. In fact in current models they are integrated early and deep into the substrate of the tire as per US FBI request.

Our freedom of travel are going away in 2003, because now there is an international STANDARD for all tire transponder RFID chips and in 2004 nearly ALL USA cars will have them. Refer to AIAG B-11 ADC, (B-11 is coincidentally Post Sept 11 fastrack initiative by US Gov to speed up tire chip standardization to one read-back standard for highway usage).

The AIAG is "The Automotive Industry Action Group"

The non proprietary (non-sokymat controlled) standard is the AIAG B-11 standard is the "Tire Label and Radio Frequency Identification" standard

"ADC" stands for "Automatic Data Collection"

The "AIDCW" is the US gov manipulated "Automatic Identification Data Collection Work Group"

The standard was started and finished rapidly in less than a year as a direct consequence of the Sep 11 attacks by Saudi nationals.

I believe detection of the AIAG B-11 radio chips (RFIS serial number transponders) in the upgraded car tracking http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html is currently secret knowledge. Another reason to leave "finger print on Driver license" California, but Ohio gets it next, as will every other state eventually.

The AIAG is claiming the chips reduce car theft, assist in tracking defects, and assists error-proofing the tire assembly process. But the real secret is that these 5 cent devices are a us government backed initiative to track citizens travel without their consent or ability to disable the transponders in any way.

All tire manufacturers are forced to comply AIAG B-11 3.0 Radio Tire tracking standard by the 2004 model year.

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:gwhgWJnCf3o J: www.aiag.org/publications/b11.asp

Viewing b11 synopsis is free, downloads from that are $10 and tracked by the FBI. Use the google cache to avoid leaving breadcrumbs.

A huge (28 megabyte compressed zip) video of a tire being scanned remotely is at http://mows.aiag.org/ScriptContent/videos/ (the file is "video Aiagb-11.zip"). I would use a proxie when touching it. The FBI is monitoring the "curious" hackers.

And just as showerheads are now illegal to import into the USA from Canada or mexico, as are drums of industrial Freon, and standard size toilets are illegal to import for home use, soon car tires

Re:Your cell phone is a RFID tag!

[markana]

But...

1) I know it's there (not buried in the soles of my shoes, for instance), so I can leave it behind.

2) I can *turn it off*, if I don't want to be constantly tracked.

Put some RFID pickups at the entrances to bus stations and airports, and you'll catch most of the tags passing through. Might not be very useful now, but who knows what creative uses someone could find in the future...

RFID source code (C#)

[Anonymous Coward]

For my grad school class project, I had to design an API (based on TI's S6350). Tell me what you think.

RFID vs Barcodes

[Tracey12]

HAHA! I read the entire pdf about RFID at Cryptome, and no matter how hard Walmart and P&G try, they will never ever have 100 percent registration of each and every pallet, case, etc. WHY???? Because in those very pretty pictures within the pdf were examples of just how nicely the sometimes HUGE label had to be applied. Each label was perfectly straight, and located exactly away from metal on the products to which they were attached.

What I'm getting at is that in the real world, humans will never always place the RFID labels exactly in the right place! Never! And, did you notice the size of those darn labels??? They are huge, some of them!

To me, this looks like a huge failure about to happen at Walmart's vendors expense.

Here are reasons why these RFID labels will not work properly:

1. Radio interference from many sources.
2. Improper placement on item.
3. Damage due to many reasons.
4. Distance from antennas.
5. Failure of antennas to stay properly tuned.

These are just a few reasons.

Barcodes are better and heres why:

1. The barcode tags do not store personal data on them.
2. They cannot be read from a distance without the use of a laser whereas RFID could be read from wihtin your package as you walk wthin a mall, or store, and even from one vehicle to another with the right equipment.
3. Barcodes are already on everything, and require no additional expense to vendors.
4. There are no real advantages to consumers for each and every item to be remarked with an RFID tag vs a barcode that is already on the item.

But, to giants like Walmart, RFID tags are just ANOTHER way of tracking products. Barcodes are already used at all Walmart distribution centers to mark pallets and crates or boxes.

Lastly, if you read the industry notes, you'll learn that RFID tags are becoming smart tags, and they will begin to be much more than mere number transmitters. In the future, RFID tags will be computers with storage ability and that will make you a walking target for stores and companies to monitor as you walk within stores or malls, you will be tracked, and your purchases identified even by other stores who want to see what you purchased at another store.

Just say no, to RFID tracking before it gets out of hand.