Slashdot Mirror
RFID + Dart gun = DartMail!
breon.halling writes "Snail mail? Too slow. Email? Too much spam. So what's left? DartMail! Tony Tang and Eric Pattison from the University of Calgary introduce a new (well, new as of January 2003) method of transferring files and possibly shooting your eye out. Using RFID and a toy dart gun, 'DartMail lets people physically shoot electronic information at others.' Be sure to check out the movie, too!"
Are they going to make Dart USB Media, Dart compactflash card, dart gigadrive... basically anything small enough to stick on a dart ?
Talk about free flow of information...
What about "Lawn Dart Mail?" Send your buddy a message and crack his skull at the same time. Whammo!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
now spammers can cap your ass in the streets. "get a bigger penis, muthafucka!"
If you accidentally shot the biggest guy in the school, chances are the message has been (mis)read before you pull out your reader.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
a potato gun with a message carved into the potato or a carrier pigeon and a canon just seem so much more obvious.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Wow, another dupe, this time one over 1000 years old! Letters by arrow? That's new! Way to go editors...
Aw, hell. F=MA right? Well, print your email out, wrap it around a brick and chuck that sucker at whomever you want to deliver the message to. Goes through windows, and gets peoples attention much better than a piddling little dart.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
So, say, someone tried attaching MP3s to a rocket ship and then launched them across the ocean.
is this illegal? If the ship goes from the EU to the USA -- does this count as copyright infrigement?
....threw a dart at that server...
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
Shoot me!!! Shoot me!!! Shoot me!!!
This is hilarious, I am quite literally watching the download speed of the video on their page dwindle down to nearly nothing. Ah, the power of the SlashDot effect
RockMail (TM)!!!!
Exchange messages with your friends by hurling special MessageRocks (TM) at them!
Fun with concussions!
Coming soon:
VoiceMail (pat.pending)!!!!
Communicate with your friends by using 'Words' (tm) that you issue from your 'Mouth' (TM)!!!!
It's Audioriffic!
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I wouldn't want to get spammed by that...
I wonder if they make a BFG model?
.. and encode RFID's into a Freenet node ID, and suddenly you have an 'open source use for RFID technology' with chilling implications.
(for the bad RFID guys, the ones serving alien overloards..)
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
They better not make a yard dart version for communicating with your neighbor or they might get sued big time.
18 Meg WMV File and Html Page is cached at http://www.flipstartforum.com/dartcache/
I Encrypt My IM's
Anyone for a game of XML tag?
Your it!
Ouch.
Loads faster.
]]]THUD[[[
Message for you sir!
I'd be more interested in seeing something that would let you shoot a specific bit of information wirelessly at specific people near you. Seems like it'd be a funny way (now and then) to get to know people, by sending weird little one-liners to them from across a room. Among other possible "silent-communication" possibilities.
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
I can't seem to get onto the site.
In any case, it seems like an interesting idea for "mail", although not too productive. It's still an alternative, though...
--Zell_1388
Fortunately, we believe that better shielding on our PPTP routes will prevent further packet loss.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
I'll be ducking when they implement offline d-Mail. Imagine logging on to the network one morning only to be assaulted by a phalanx of darts coming from the server room...
'Til someone losses a server!
You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
Anyway, this would be a lot more "useful" (and I use that term loosely)if they weren't just sending pointers to files that are on a shared server. This implies they've already got a network link between them, making a physical transport even more pointless than it would be anyway.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/09509dbd1dd6c209e 21a30e81c56d449/index.html
This just seems like a huge waste of time. Why not devote themselves to something actually useful, like wireless transmission? A better RFID standard? A good way to read tags simultaneously?
Ehh.. I saw this on memepool this morning. Best of luck to the University of Calgary's lab web server...
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
Here's a mirror with the video http://mirrordot.org/stories/09509dbd1dd6c209e21a3 0e81c56d449/index.html
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, was to convince the world he didn't exist
I can see lawyers hiring ex-special ops guys to serve hard to reach people with court summons now!
Nothing says I love you like 50000V to the torso.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
DDOS attacks on people could get messy.
The accuracy of the info is only as good as the person's aim.
Packet-routing could be a bitch!
Imagine the new-found creativity from those Punch-The-Monkey ads.
"Are you saying I can dodge bullets?" "No, Neo, I'm saying you can READ them."
The mailman can put his skills to use: BANG! BANG! You've Got Mail!!!
The page is already down, but did anyone catch what bandwidth can be obtained with such communications? Anyone willing to attempt the math?
Doubleclick (aka Dart, aka online advertising deliverer) has an exisiting product called DartMail. Yes, it's for e-mail Spam.
w00master
What you gotta decide is did I fire four RFID tags or five? See in all the excitement I kinda lost count.
So, do ya feel lucky...punk? Well, do ya?
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
The systemic redundancy should deal with "packet loss".
You can find a torrent for this file here: DartMail.wmv.torrent
And the DarVirus will be an actual arrow? oops..
Stuff like what you're talking about is apparently very common in Japan.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
so really all this is, is shooting ur mate with a dart and swipping it over a reader which autoloads a file.
kinda like shortcuts on ur desktop?
http://www.thegreynomads.com
Damn, I wish my name was Tony Tang. I'll bet there's no end to the number of cool nicknames he's got.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
and it's given you a blood nose! and it's not porn!
Have you metaroderated recently?
Does no-one remember the prior art? Come on people, has no-one used one of those AOL CD-Roms, or even the floppy-diks, as a frisbee? You know you have, admit it already!
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
Hey, just spitballing, but what if ammunition manufacturers were required to add RFID tags to individual rounds?
(Okay, I know how cost prohibitive this would be, as well as technically difficult - how would the tag even survive? But ignore that for a sec.)
Ballistic analysis during a homicide investigation is usually used to try to determine what weapon fired a round in a given incident, assuming you cant say for certain. But what if the ballistics data isn't good enough? If the round had a surviving RFID tag, it could eventually be tracked back not only to its manufacturer, but to the store that sold it, and in theory to whom.
Just a thought.
18MB video of the dartmail :)
A lot of people here seem to think that they are actually transfering files on the RFID enabled darts... All they are doing are loading a bookmark/simlink/shortcut to a file on the network. Take the machine off the network, rfid dart works no more!
We're updating the old Tannenbaum comment, right?
668: Neighbour of the Beast
But haven't we all used a 5 1/4 floppy as a Frisbee? It made the old "sneaker-net" in the cube farm seem so passe.
whoops.. here is the torrent... 18MB..
Schoooompfff....
Message for you sir...
You've got INCOMING!!!!!!
we used to do the same thing with floppy disks between cubicles. Write the name of the person on it, toss it out there into the field of cubes. If a disk landed in your cube and was not destined for you then you were to give it another toss in the general direction of the person to whom it was addressed. Someone (Me) tried a rubber band launcher just for kicks but it really didn't work that well. Practice ended one day when a BOSS was beaned in the head with a flying disk.
Seems to me those soft fabric frisbees would be good for this since they should fly further and not be such a shock to be hit with. Sew a pocket into the underside of it and put your disk, USB key, RFID tag, or whatever in it and give it a toss.
Anyone have a dart with the video on it?
If you do please throw it my way.
is still #1 in bandwidth
I'd be more interested in seeing something that would let you shoot a specific bit of information wirelessly at specific people near you.
We should be able to do this in our cars by now. It's gotta be more efficient than speaking in ones (finger raised) and zeros (fist raised)!
No really, I would only use it only to helpfully point out to other drivers that they left their blinkers on or ask them to kindly allow me to change lanes.
Fasten your seat belt, you've got mail!
will be complementary things.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
it's called "Toothing".
I dont know about you but I can't WAIT until someone markets a MailHowitzer to terrorize the inboxes of the populus with.
mattdev@server$ touch
cannot touch `/dev/genitals': Permission denied
...the rate you could spam at with one of these? http://www.backyardartillery.com/machinegun/
"The world of networked computing can be a dangerous place. As such, there are several precautions you should take before connecting to the Internet for the first time- these include a virus scanner, firewall, and ballistic missile defence system.
Please remember that e-mail is not secure, and neither is DartMail. In order to avoid unauthorised reading of your DartMail, post a photograph of the complete RFID dart to your intended recipient. Then, smash up the RFID dart with a hammer, so that it is in small pieces. This is called "encryption". Fire these pieces individually at your target. Using the photographic key, the intended recipient will be in a position to reconstruct the message into its original form. If you attach a postcard of Statton Island Ferry Terminal to the dart, this is technologically more advanced- it is Public Quay Encryption. Also, shut your curtains before firing the dart- this is a simplistic method of Pretty Good Privacy."
Can someone explain the relevance of the link to imdb?
Yes, but how many darts does it take to launch that stationwagon?
http://jcsnippets.atspace.com/ - a collection of Java & C# snippets
and to frame someone, all you'd need to do was dig out a slug from a backstop at shooting range, shoot someone, dig out your slug and drop in the other one. nifty!
They should (when convienient) publish code and instructions as this would be a cool toy.
If you have nothing useful to say post as AC.
About two years ago I saw a guy speak at a school board meeting, and complain about how difficult it was to be a substitute teacher--it's hard to hold kids accountable when you don't know their names or anything about them. He said he envisioned a system where kids would all where electronic ID badges (he didn't refer to RFID but he described the concept) and all school staff would get some kind of tagger that could read the kids info, and append the disciplinary file. Everybody thought this was absurdly authoritarian, but 2 years later there are plans to start tracking students using RFIDS...and the crazy thing the guy said: "When some class clown shoots a spit ball, I should be able to fire a demerit right back" is also closer to reality.
This idea has been around for a while, but sharing data across short physical distances via dartgun has not always been so viable. I worked on the first of such devices, and we attempted to create a dartgun with a UNISERVO payload, with mixed results. On one test run, our lead engineer got his head crushed. It is good to see that our dream has finally been realized.
But haven't we all used a 5 1/4 floppy as a Frisbee? It made the old "sneaker-net" in the cube farm seem so passe.
...
Back in my day, we used 8 inch CP/M disks - they flew further, hit harder, and you knew that you had mail.
But the really hard core coders used the platters from the disk packs - now, those metal 10 or 12 inch disks really hurt when you got mail
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Watch out for Trademark infringment
I am a computer science student at this university and thanks to you guys I can't download my course notes for my midterm tomorrow. (/.'d) Great :P
Try MirrorDot
Did anybody else think of those tubes they use to send messages around in Futurama? Kind of like a physical version of email.
come to think of it.
Anyone can make AOL disks into frisbees, but to send a message you need to add information.
Will in Seattle
*crashing through window with note tied around him*
"I'm a brick!!" - Ralph Wiggam
Now you can actually KNOW you got hit with that lightning bolt instead of having the short guy with the high-pitched voice telling you every time.
We used to do something similar back in programming class back in high school. We Called it "You've Got Mail, BIOTCH!"
We would cram various items (notes, paper, broken pencils, chalk) into your neighbors' cd-rom drives when they weren't looking or got up from their seat for a bathroom break.
As soon as they sit down, you say "You got mail, BIOTCH!" and hope the teacher doesn't see the broken pencil sticking out of the CD-rom drive.
It was definetly was worth an in-school suspension! =)
Now we all know what happens to canucks when they don't have their sole creative outlet... NHL hockey.
electronic != physical ???
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
You got nailled!
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
I decided to be nice and let them know of the potential slashdotting of their server before I submitted this story, so I sent 'em a DartMail.
Too bad my aim was off. ;)
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
Here is a perfect example of shotting someone's eye out:
Here.
Check out Mon and Mon.cgi
Did anyone noticed the big Visual Basic 6 book on the hat guy table? Is that what they work with on the Calgary University? He deserves to be shot!
The targeting is probably more accurate out of a dart gun than from their servers
In conjuction with the US Navy our illustrious Postal Service spent tons of money in an attempt to deliver mail from coast to coast via Ballistic Missile... Be glad your carrier doesn't have access to those.
Now if only Gallahad had an RFID reader!
I could have sworn Microsoft already patented this...
I think we got far better bandwidth when we played discus with a hard drive.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Now you too, can say, that you lost your eye...
TO A PENIS ENLARGEMENT AD!
Your skill in reading has increased by one point!
This seems to be from the ever-expanding stolen-several-days-after-being-on-hackaday depatment.
As the student's supervisor who did DartMail, I just have to say that this was a quick tongue-in-cheek project done totally for fun. Its really intersting to see how people react to this as somehow being a 'serious application'
Looks like they've been "Slashdarted" />>---> ????
Does anyone around here know where one could get RFID readers/writers at a not to expenisive cost to build stuff like this???
Just wait until walmart starts putting them on bullets. That'll get the slashdotters really up in arms!
See Also: Lawn Darts
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
7.62mm Mail
I've created a multicast protocol based on a layer 1 12ga Mossberg, using Winchester Birdshot for Layer 2 communications. While a bit too chatty, it is quite effective at stopping hax0rz.
getting mailed a virus is a whole new set of problems.
Warning: Could be fatal if taken seriously
The only university in the world with a How-To spyware course AND potentially life-threatening mail. Calgary Rocks.
Unjammable short range communications.
http://www.darpa.gov/
may pay you to investigate this.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
I suppose these guys wasted too much time playing video games, so they came up with this at the last minute before deadline.
RFID is a dumb way of sending the information, anyway, because so little data is carried.
Better to slap a USB key drive on an arrow. Or maybe just a rolled up piece of paper with a URL scrawled on it.
But, nooo. RFID is "hot", so they mentioned it instead.
Perhaps I'm wrong, though, and this is just a pathetic attempt at getting government or industry funding for 'research', which will probably consist of much time using the aforementioned videogames, and lots of British Columbia weed.
Sheesh.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
Now if we could only shoot our spam!!!
Give my girl Lindsay an email
While this whole topic is pretty funny, there is a military/riot police application for this and in the works. They target rioters with an RFID gun/projective and tag you. Later they block off an area and the paddy wagon comes by with an RFID scanner and scoop up those unfortunate folks who have been tagged. Scope with digital image matched with the RFID tag number and you are toast. With some of the tags you'll be picking them out of your flesh with a knife to get them out....
This sounds like a new way to send viruses. If I wear aluminum foil clothing (http://www.cafepress.com/aluminum_foil/), it should protect me, right? :-)
"This implies they've already got a network link between them"
It says it in the slashdot post and in the video. It's not implied, it's stated.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
However, it is rather easy to shoot it in.
i'll just wait for the lawn dart version,...
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
So you've got the Dart Gun for small range... ...Dart Titan IV?
You can possibly have the Dart Ballista for medium range...
What about long range?
AOL Voice : "You've got NUCLEAR EXPLOSION!"
It's all fun and games till someone confuses a noun with a verb! (But, hey, this is Slashdot, and my UID is about 100000 higher than yours, so what do I know?)
Keep your eyes to the sky.
Hah! Way back around last Saturday, this actual story ran on hackaday. :P
The mailman can just spam-mail the dogs.
Or they could simply imbed notches, or some other markings that represent a serial numbber in the bullet casings when manufacturing them.
Gatling gun
You can't legislate away the ills of mankind, you can only sacrifice freedom. Remember your post the next time you have to unbuckle your belt or take your shoes off at the airport. Embrace the pad-down at rock concerts and sporting events. When you get pulled over for some minor offense and the policeman sees fit to turn your car inside-out, looking for crime, there or not, that is your liberty melting away. I don't trust a government that doesn't trust its people to think for themselves.
I'd give mod points if I had 'em... nicely articulated.
I liked it better when nerds weren't cool.