Slashdot Mirror
Hitachi's Tiny RFID Chips
paltemalte writes "Hitachi has just come out with a new crop of RFID tags, measuring only 1/20 of a millimeter square. That's 1/8 the size (in linear dimension) of Hitachi's currently shipping mu-chips, which are 0.4 mm square. The new chip's width is slightly smaller than a human hair. These chips could put an end to shoplifting forever, but they could also be used by a governments or other entities to 'dust' crowds or areas, easily tagging anyone present without their knowledge or consent. Will someone come up with a surefire way of neutralizing chips that may be on your body or in your clothing?" Hard to pin down a source on this. The article cites another blog, which points to an article in Japanese.
Most RFID chips still have to be attached to a much larger coil antenna to make a tag that will actually work.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
The people who are concerned about "crowd-dusting" have some valid concerns. It might be one of those nifty little ways of keeping track of who showed up at the protest march, or something like that.
On the other hand, I don't know what the effective range is on these RFID chips. If it is more than 30 feet, then I'd definitely worry. If it's less than 3 feet, then by-hand scanning or pass-through-booth scanning are the only ways of effectively managing that.
If it's between those two ranges, then... I wouldn't panic. Yet.
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
Not really - the range on RFID chips is pretty small, you'd have to have readers installed everywhere, and privacy groups would be up in arms about that (not that they aren't already up in arms about the issue of RFID slowly pervading many aspects of daily life).
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
You could always wrap yourself in tinfoil.. but then again, you would stick out a bit more than usual.
Blerg.
Jump in the microwave for three minutes!! Just make sure that your eyes don't start on fire.
These tags are 1/20th mm square, correct? This means they are 1e-3/20 m = 5e-5m across. This corresponds to a frequency of 6 THz or for a quarter-wave antenna something like 6/4 THz = 1.5 THz. This is a very high frequency and not the easiest to make with existing technology (especially at significant power levels). This means that querying tags of this size is probably only feasible at short range using a beam that is directed at the tag as opposed to just looking in a vague region of space. Other companies have made optically addressed tags that push this direction even further but with even worse limitations. Also, at ~1 THz the attenuation due to dielectrics (or especially water) is very high and this limits the distance over which one can practically probe the chip.
Unless you use a large antenna (several centimetres squared) you are talking about a range of millimetres.
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
Maybe my tinfoil hat is showing, but the first thing that sprang to my mind was "Great, now they have a way to track cash transactions". RFID chips in the currency, readers in the cash registers so you don't have to worry all that much about distance. They'll sell it as a way to prevent counterfeiting.
Are these the same people they are going to use the microwave passive weapon on?
Summary:
What you see as a problem, I see as a business opportunity: Everyone needs a SnowTech-1000 personal EMP! Protect your loved ones by protecting your anonymity, from corrupt governments, angry neighbors, and evil computer AIs. Pre-order[1] yours today, for only 3 easy payments of $59.95!
[1] In order to protect your national security, we may sell this information to our sales partners, such as certain national public entities.
Hitachi's current product, the Mu-chip, has a supposed reading range of 400mm with a 54mm antenna.
Dunno what the proposed range and antenna requirements for the new chip will be.
Maybe the GP was thinking more along the lines of a multiple birth or George Foreman type situation: "George *beep* IV go and clean your room!"
An RF alarm at the door going off is NOT probable cause that a theft has occurred (since the dumb cashiers often forget to deactivate them after purchases, and due to false alarms). So any retails store dumb enough to allow its employees to detain a person based on such an alarm had better get their checkbooks out for false arrest, battery, and defamation claims...
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
You can't take the sky from me...
a new tech that could be used for something "evil" and people shit themselves?
Damn right we did! How else do you think we're going to get rid of those RFID chips they put in our GM food?!
"Jebus -- eat some veggies once in a while!"
RTFA FFS. It has a link to Hitachi, in English:
Here's a scary thought :
You work for some branch of the Federal Government, and you attend a protest rally. You get "dusted", and when you show up for work the next day the RFID reader you walk through (in the metal detector you pass through) alerts your bosses that you were at the rally.
That information then effects your career, or worse.
I'm sorry, but if this is true , Hitachi has lost all of my respect (yeah, like they care)
On the bright side, a broad range RFID reader that oscillates from the lowest to highest frequencies could tell you if you were 'hot' , and possibly point out where on your body the 'flea' attached itself. I wonder if Hitachi will make those next? (If indeed there is merit to TFA).
Scary shit fellas. No doubt about it.
As chips get smaller and smaller, they tend to become more and more sensitive to electromagnetic interference. ...the layer of insulation between a transistor's gate and channel is so tiny that a moderately sized EM pulse should cause it to break down permanently.
I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that the EMP needed to disable these chips would be of a lower magnitude than would cause damage to a person - unless maybe they have a pacemaker.
Perhaps make like the guys in Cryptonomicon and turn your doorway into a giant electromagnet?
We all know that RFID can be read from geosynchronous satellites - they have shown that in lots of movies. Also, those roving satellites that they can move around whereever they are needed. I'm sure you have seen that in movies also.
So, we have a micro-sized RFID chip that will let anything be tracked from orbit, easily and without anyone else knowing about it. This technology will soon be embedded in everything from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. That would be a really simple way to get the tracking devices into everyone, wouldn't it?
Of course we wouldn't want to interrupt our movie-tech fantasy here with even the tinyest bit of reality. So we can forget about RFID having an EXTREMELY limited range and requiring compariatively large antennas to work. No, no. We all need to be extremely concerned about the Government (any government) wanting to track individual citizens. And employers wanting to keep track of people every second of every day so they can be sure they aren't giving any help to competitors or making money outside of their regular job. And how could we be concerned if we bothered to learn about RFID and how it really works. It is much better to read blogs and scary opinions of people that are in the group concensus about how dangerous this is.
Remember, it is much better to be in a group of thousands and knowing they feel the same way about something rather than being the only one with the truth. Why, you'd be all alone then!
Because these bad/orwellian ideas are usually complete fantasy from either the far right, or far left, and are usually idiotic on their face.
Seriously, do you think the US government is capable of the infrastructure needed to do such a thing? Why dust a crowd with RFID tags to ID who's there, why not take a fucking picture? Facial recognicion technology is pretty much mature. Casinos use it to flag "high rollers" as they walk in. The idea of "tagging" people like this is goofy, since the tags would easily transfer to every cat you pet, person you touch, etc, and basically generate an assload of false positives. It's a retarded idea at just about every level. If I found out the government was doing this, I'd be pissed more because of the waste of taxpayer dollars on some ridiculous goofy scheme, than the "privacy invasion" implications - though I don't see how someone who chooses to protest publically thinks he should retain any privacy.
Any particular bill banning "bad uses of technology" would be infinately long if we had to explicitly list every retarded conspiracy theory somebody comes up with.
What if these RFID tags become self aware? Should the newly sentient RFID tag being have the right to vote? Should it be illegal for an employer to discriminiate against a being made entirely of RFID tags?
What if some government agent makes a giant hammer of RFID tags glued together, then uses it to hit people indiscriminately? I think we should start focusing on this problem now.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
from the source: http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/030902.html
I don't know if "dusting" a group of people would work very well because after the event the tags would get on anyone that passed thru the area. You would get identified as being at the event when you simply passed thru after it was over.
The reading distance is not so much limited by reader sensitivity as the amount of rf-power received by the chip. The chip has to receive enough power to operate, albeit very little. Then the chip creates a modulated reflection, that means that the more power you transmit the more power you get back. The specified reading range is not a hard limit, you can get a lot longer distance if you use a reader that put out more power than the spec states. We read rfid chips at up to about 10 meters in optimal conditions with compliant readers.
I can't wait till they combine this with body glitter...
Man: Hi honey - I'm so glad to be done with that all nighter. Boy we sure had a lot of work to do at the office.
Wife: (gets out scanner) Oh yeah? Then who's Tiffany1456xoxoxo?!
Again the slashdot editor obfuscated my post. I wrote 'the WIDTH of the RFID chip is less than the WIDTH of a human hair'. RTFA and see the images for yourself. They could easily be 'dusted' out.
Sam has one liberty, which he sacrifices for one security. Can you tell me what Sam has now?
Why would they bother RFIDing the crowd when they could just spray them with Smart Water? The patrols with their hi-tech scanners could be replaced with ones wielding UV lamps.
I'm scared of numbers that can't be written as a fraction. It's an irrational fear.
No need to neutralize RFID "dust" (if such a thing were really possible). Just coat yourself every morning with a good dose of random RFID tags and the government spy scanners will choke themselves silly.
Friend: "Dude, what's with all the dandruff lately?"
Me: "It's that new RFID-blocking shampoo I'm using. In addition to pro-vitamins and aloe vera, it contains thousands of random RFID particles that attach to my scalp. It also stops free radicals from damaging my natural curls, and gives me that extra level of metallic sheen."
Friend: "This explains why your hair sets of all the security alarms."
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
Hmm, better also :
Wash your jacket (if you wore one, and never wear flannel to a protest rally), shoes, hat, backpack, etc, too, while you're at it
Then, hope, just HOPE the food you ate doesn't contain polymer coated versions of these that 'stick with you' until passed.
I'm kind of laughing at my own paranoia while writing this, the scary part is, this time its well founded. The only good that can come of this is millions of conspiracy nuts finally find the validation they've been searching for
Is there something about RFID that allows only a certain set of RFID readers to be able to read the chip? What I want to know is: how do I get an RFID reader? I want mount an RFID reader in front of my house and log all of the cars that come by, when they come by, if they are staying within "view" of the RFID reader for a certain amount of time (like, say, arriving an hour after I leave for work and leaving an hour before I return), etc. Pretty much every car is going to have RFID tagging in the near future, if only by way of the RFID chips being placed in new tired these days, so the only "hard" part will be correlating the RFID to a person's identity, but if the RFID can trigger a video recorder then this challenge is narrowed down. Also, I want RFID stickers and/or micro-darts I can surreptitiously plant/shoot onto the neighborhood brat's skateboard so I can log and record their presence and what they're doing around my house... and above all else: I want an RFID jammer! Why? BECAUSE I'M MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!
"Not really - the range on RFID chips is pretty small, you'd have to have readers installed everywhere"
;)
Shhh!!! This is just a great excuse for us geeks to tell some girl trying to hide out that she should strip down and get in my shower for a full body scrub down!
I can so see that happening in the next great futuristic thriller suspense movie like Minority Report.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
The Solution to most of your problems: Nudity
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
Not that anyone reads these comments down here, but there is a viable *and* diy solution from my fav. feminine fabricator, ladyada. Essentially it's an RF jammer, and apparently it works quite well :).
After reading up on what it is, I think that I'll avoid posting direct links, as that might seem to be 'advertising'. I'm not sure, but I really wouldn't like for her to get fined with 11 grand 'cause of some over-enthusiastic fanboy...
Har?