Streamlining and Testing RFID Technology

Multiple readers have written to let us know that an experiment at the upcoming Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference will use RFID to track the movements of at least 1,500 registrants for the duration of the conference. Those movements will be transmitted onto screens which "show in real-time where people go, with whom they associate, for how long and how often." The system will also be used for games which involve manipulation of the available data. Meanwhile, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a method for testing large quantities of RFID tags, which may serve to greatly speed distribution.

Comments

That's EASY...

[Jane Q. Public]

At random intervals, pick a stranger and offer to swap tags. You could even devise rules for doing this in groups...

Games could be invented involving your favorite randomizers (dice, coins, chicken bones, shots of whisky) to spice up the action. Sounds like fun to me.

Re:That's EASY...

[QuantumG]

Not if they are implanted.

And are programmed to explode if removed.

Cool

[duckInferno]

but will it show everybody's hunger, bladder, entertainment and relationship status bars as well?

Re:dammit

[plover]

There goes my plan of hanging out at the bar while my video presentation is running at the booth.

Hardly. I bet HOPE is going to be a circus of people hiding RFID tags on each other, unsuspecting passers-by, luggage carts, equipment crates, laptops, and probably in capsules hidden in hamburger buns in the buffet. I expect very few tags to remain on their originally intended targets.

Re:Disconcerting

[plover]

Are you opposed in every case, or just "forced" implantation? I can think of several scenarios:

• Required to enter secure room at work - (I believe this is in use in some places today)
• Optional to enter secure room at work, with the alternative being a time-consuming strong password, a card swipe and a retinal scan
• Optional as part of criminal home monitoring - either remain in jail or stay at home with an implant kept near the bedside monitor, instead of an ankle bracelet
• Required to hold a particular job, such as prison guard
• Voluntary temporary implant to hold credit information while you're partying on nude beaches (I heard some bars in Ibiza have done this, but I don't get out much!)
• U.S. Army soldier, as an optional replacement for the Common Access Card - they get filled with vaccinations and all kinds of other stuff today, and are essentially treated as paid property of Uncle Sam.
• As a voluntary part of a lifesaving medical treatment -- perhaps the tag is swallowed and followed through your GI tract, or perhaps it's implanted and used to monitor a medical condition?
• As a required part of a lifesaving medical treatment, where your only access to obtain treatment is to consent to implanted RFID?

I'm just wondering what your tolerance is. A similar question is: do you carry a cell phone? They're more trackable than an RFID chip. RFID is still limited to less than about 100 meters under perfect conditions. Or do you have to carry an RFID access card for work? Again, not a big difference in "trackability".

As far as health, RFID is a low power technology, and active chips emit only a minute fraction of that power. The only real exposure you get is from RFID readers, not RFID chips. And you can't really avoid the readers unless you don't walk through the doors at stores with anti-shoplifting antennas.

Anyway, I think the Xtian Right would rise up before they'd accept mandatory implants, so you'd probably have some strong allies there.