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7.5 Micron Thick RFID Tag
YesSir writes "The EETimes is reporting that Hitachi has a breakthrough in RFID technology that they are planning to show at this years ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference). The new RFID chip is their newest mu-chip that, measuring in at 7.5 microns, is ten or more times thinner than a sheet of paper and comes complete with 128-bit identifying goodness."
This seems to me that artists could embed an RFID chip in their art, such as under paint, or even in a tatoo, to identify their work. Such a thin tag could be under the label layer in a CD/DVD/etc to identify the origin, to identify whether the work is original and/or authorized. But, of course, someone will eventually find a way around this as they did with CSS and other encryption.
There might be some problems with putting it in paper:
1. Module has to stay in the paper. This is harder than it sounds.
2. Antenna (for contactless) has to be much thinner and more flexible than paper. Many transit systems using microcontrollers embedded inside tickets might already have this, but the paper is pretty thick.
3. Antenna has to stay in the paper.
4. Paper tracking can be done already with UV inks. I'm not sure which would be cheaper though.
Does anyone know what kind of microcontroller is used on the transit system tickets?
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
I remember seeing an ad a few years back about how you would be able to push your loaded cart through the check-out and all the groceries would be scanned and totaled and you could just pay and go without the need unload the cart and wait for the checker to scan and reload everything. The closest I've seen is the "self checkouts" at the grocery stores (anyone else have these?) where you scan and bag the items yourself. (I'm still wondering how they would handle items that are sold by weight)
:o)
Like any technology this could have its uses (as the above example) and I really think a lot of the concerns are exaggerated (I have a hard time getting my RFID badge to trigger the door locks here, even when it's practically touching the reader). The tinfoil hat crowd and their "the black helicopters will read these as they fly over your house" don't make a lot of sense to me. But maybe the joy of the thing is in conspiracy, not the logic? My read on this is that in order to generate enough power to be read at any great distance (like from outside your house) you'd have to paint the tags with enough radio to fry the occupants.
Anyway, so far it's all talk and nothing much else of practical value. Maybe the packaging of the next Duke Nukem will have RFID?
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What I really want out of RFID tags is the ability to scan 1000s per minute. I've got a large room, a library of documents. If I RFID tag each one, I want to be able to run a wand past all the documents and inventory all 100,000 documents in 15 minutes. Right now, the people I've talked to say its not possible. That is what I am waiting for.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
How do they assign RFID numbers? 128-bits is probably plenty if they are given out efficiently. Or are they giving them out like IPv4 blocks and we are going to run out eventually?
This weird locution is becoming increasingly common. I wish I knew where it came from.
I'm fully expecting to see a box of something on the supermarket shelf that's half the size of the regular box with bold lettering on its front declaring "NOW! TWICE AS SMALL!"
Insert witty sig here.
They have been grain-of rice sized for years, mainly for all car tire embedding.
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: ...but the shocking link finally died in July 2004 and the new location 2005 does not have a photo of a RFID bridge underpass RFID database collector. But this 20005 link below does discuss their toll booth
TOP SECRET FACT:Most modern cars have tracking transponders ALREADY! While you drive on highways. Wires in the road and 14 feet above work fine.
Spy transmission chips embedded in tires that can be read REMOTELY while driving.
A secret initiative exists to track all funnel-points on interstates and US borders for car tire ID transponders (RFID chips embedded in the tire).
Yup. My brother works on them (since 2001).
The us gov T.R.E.A.D. act (which passed) made it illegal to sell new passenger cars lacking untamperable RFID in the tires allowing efficient scanning of moving cars.
Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them! (AIAG B-11 ADC v3.0) . A particular frequency energizes it enough so that a receiver can read its little ROM. A ROM which in essence is your GUID for your TIRE. Multiple tires do not confuse the readers. Its almost identical to all "FastPass" "SpeedPass" technologies you see on gasoline keychain dongles and commuter windshield sticker-chips. The US gov has secretly started using these chips to track people.
Its kind of like FBI "Taggants" in fertilizer and "Taggants" in Gasoline and Bullets, and Blackpowder. But these car tire transponder Ids are meant to actively track and trace movement of your car.
Taggant chemical research papers
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/ ~ota/disk3/1980/8017/801705.PDF
(remove spaces in url from slashcode if needed)
I am not making this up. Melt down a high end Firestone, or Bridgestone tire and go through the bits near the rim (sometimes at base of tread) and you will locate the transmitter (similar to 'grain of rice' pet ids and Mobile SpeedPass, but not as high tech as the tollbooth based units). Sokymat LOGI 160, and Sokymat LOGI 120 transponder buttons are just SOME of the transponders found in modern high end car tires. The AIAG B-11 Tire tracking standard is now implemented for all 3rd party transponder manufactures [covered below].
It is for QA and to prevent fraud and "car theft", but the US Customs service uses it in Canada to detect people who swap license plates on cars when doing a transport of contraband on a mule vehicle that normally has not logged enough hours across the border. The customs service and FBI do not yet talk about this, and are starting using it soon.
Photos of tracking chips before molded deep into tires!
http://www.sokymat.com/index.php?id=94
PLEASE LOOK AT THAT LINK : Its the same shocking tire material I have been trying to tell people about since the spring of 2001 on slashdot.
a controversial dead older link was at http://www.sokymat.com/sp/applications/tireid.html
(slashdot ruins links, so you will have to remove the ASCII space it inserts usually into any of my urls to get to the shocking info and photos on the embedded LOGI 160 chips that the us Gov scans when you cross Mexican and Canadian borders.)
You never heard of it either because nobody moderates on slashdot anymore and this is probably +0 still. It has also never appeared in print before and is (or was) very secret.
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.
The photo of the secret high speed overpass prototype WAS at
http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html
They'll likely do both! Track people using RFID while banning others from doing the same.
Look at the biggest challenges in passive RFID today, and it'll show you exactly where the vulnerabilities are. Proxomity to metal, proximity to liquids, proximity to other tags, false reads frequency, sensitivity to interference and tag failure rates provide all sorts of opportunities for general mayhem. It don't take much.