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Open Source RFID Project
Anonymous Coward writes "With all the press RFID is getting, I was looking for an open source solution to Wal-Mart's RFID compliancy mandate. I stumbled open the RadioActive project. I think these guys have the right idea. Eventually, RFID will be everywhere. Could an open source project like this bring rapid deployment of RFID like Apache did to the net?"
2 reasons, both predicated on the idea that it will happen with or without us.
1) If Open Source is a major player in the software for such things, we all have a better understanding of it.
For instance, do you really trust proprietary software to say "yes, I fried your tag, you may leave in peace" and actually do it, or do you wonder if it said that, but really just threw a "be silent when this guy walks out the door" to the tracking station that goes off if you leave without paying?
2) If Open Source is a major player, then the community has a much higher visibility for things like standards boards and oversight commities.
If GNU, Apache, Linux, etc and the very vocal proponents of such did not exist, I strongly doubt you'd see geeks and unix beards sitting at as many of the various levels of these things as you do now. It would be back to the backroom anticompetitive negotiations.
So do we just cave and accept RFID (or monopolistic software) wherever and whenever and however it creeps in? No, we continue to be active. But the world is grey. Good and Bad happens. Better than we are involved both ways than to give an inch.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
RFID is simply a radio readable (proximity, contactless) serial number. When you buy that item at Wallwart the scanner at the cash register just identifies the item. The central computer then tells the cash register how much to charge, and when the cash register says it's been paid for the computer then tells the inventory control system to remove it from the inventory. When you get to the door, the RFID scanner will tell the computer everything you've got -- including the underwear you bought there six months ago, the shoes you got from LL Bean, and the pack of gum in your pocket from the 7-11 down the block -- and the computer will check it all against inventory to see if you're stealing anything.
They pointedly do NOT want to fry the RFID because they need it for returns, to verify that you really bought it and what to pay you. They can tell not only what store sold it and when it was sold but also who bought it, how they paid for it, and what they paid. So if you bought it on sale you won't get a full refund; if you bought it with a credit card you won't get a cash refund; if you didn't buy it you get to explain yourself to the police. How they plan to handle gift returns I don't know. But I do know they have no plans to "fry" the RFID chips, and some RFID chips claim to be "un-friable."
Since all the code that does the grunt work is totally separate from reading the RFID, I don't understand how making any of this "Open" is going to do anything except potentially lower Wallwart's costs.
If you really want to fight RFID tags, start a rumor that they're radioactive and cause cancer.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.