He doesn't really go into detail either about what particular information he's referencing. Now, I would argue there could be a scenario where if you put a listening device 20 meters away from a real reader.. it might be able to hear a transaction between a passive badge and a reader, but it would still be a difficult task, especially given a practical environment with all the other additional "noise"... including other RFID transactions on the same frequencies.
I mean, he says "continuously broadcasting their name, nationality, age, address and whatever else is on the RFID chip.".... which is definately not true, unless it's an active tag (requiring a battery).. which is not what they'd put in a passport.
Any evidence to back up the "50 feet comment"? I could see active RFID badges working this far, but not passive ones (inductive coupling)... which is what would most likely be in passports, grocery store items, etc.
Reading a passive tag at more than 4 feet would seem to require a huge(noticeable) power source or some serious mastery of the black art of RF.
The problem often overlooked about flying cars is NOISE.. until you can make flying cars as quiet as normal ones, it will never happen.
What is more realistic, but nearly as far off are things like the NASA SATS program.
We're not talking "a little"... These things ARE at the limits for doing 1 foot. And we're not just trying to get a signal to these badges, but enough juice to charge a capacitor so that it can "fire" back the response...
Good luck with that:) Too get a enough charge to a tag at a good distance... I wouldn't want to be sitting anywhere NEAR that reader. Might get quite warm and tingly
As far as good uses for RFID after you bought something with a tag:
- Imagine your refridgerator knowing what you had in it, and how old it was. The same for your pantry.. and then applications where this data is used with a database to pull up recipes you can make with what you've got on hand.
- On the other side, trash cans that know what you throw away and if it's a recurring item (milk, razors, DEODERANT!) it can add it to your shopping cart (this could bring back things like webvan).
- Washer and Dryer that knows when you've mixed your colors with your whites and warns you (because your clothes too are tagged).
- Insurance... you could walk around in your own home pulling all the tags for things to archive your stuff for your homeowner's insurance.
Everytime one of these RFID posts shows up, I'm still amazed people stir up conspiracy scenarios where big brother/robber/neighbor scans your entire house and figures out everything you own.
RFID tags that are cheap enough to attach to all your goods are passive tags. They have no power. The reader must generate power that is absorbed by the tag. There are regulations about how much juice you can generate... making the read range about 1 meter for a tag.. sure you COULD generate more... but to scan a whole house? Good luck! That kind of juice wouldn't be very portable. Furthermore, the kinds of readers that can support anti-collision (required for any of this shelf inventory, scan the whole grocery bag at once stuff) even have shorter read ranges.. like 1 ft.
If every product you owned had RFID in it, "smart" appliances would/will soon follow.
- Imagine your refridgerator knowing what you had in it, and how old it was. The same for your pantry.. and then applications where this data is used with a database to pull up recipes you can make with what you've got on hand.
- On the other side, trash cans that know what you throw away and if it's a recurring item (milk, razors, DEODERANT!) it can add it to your shopping cart (this could bring back things like webvan).
- Washer and Dryer that knows when you've mixed your colors with your whites and warns you (because your clothes too are tagged).
A problem I see with all the arguments against it, is that RFID is typically going to be a passive technology for these things... your reader has to CHARGE the tag... which means it has to be VERY CLOSE (
While you can avoid this by using lower frequencies or active badges, these are not as practical as the passive tags. Batteries die/Cost for active badges.. and the systems available today for collision detection of these badges are all in the 13.56Mhz, which puts you in the low range category. IANARFE so don't know as to why, but I have a lot of practical experience in using RFID systems for the types of applications above.
First, paranoia about RFID seems silly. First, most of this technology will be PASSIVE(cheap), as in, it has no battery. This means that someone wanting to read your tag will have to generate enough energy to charge up the tag as well as read it. Which means that nearly all these passive technologies have very low read ranges, and for the 13.56Mhz variety that is typically used because of anti-collision and other benefits.. we're talking 12 inches max, given the current FCC limits. So I balk at any widespread "sniffing" of everything you've got on you..
Also, I'm not a privacy paranoia person anyway, so I don't get the big deal. I do know that RFID technology, and specifically walmart driving behind it is exactly what will bring in the waves of "Smart Appliances".
Specifically things like:
- Refridgerator knowing it's contents. This could be used for determining how long something has been in there, what you currently could make with the food you have.
- Trash can that conversely keeps track of what you throw out, potentially building a shopping list of regular items
- Washer and Drier knowing what's in them, and bitching at you when you put a brand new red sweater in with you whites.
That's just a few things, and I'm sure the people around here are creative enough to do even more interesting things with them! I say bring the RFID on!!
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I mean, he says "continuously broadcasting their name, nationality, age, address and whatever else is on the RFID chip." .... which is definately not true, unless it's an active tag (requiring a battery).. which is not what they'd put in a passport.
http://www.rfid-handbook.de/rfid/types_of_rfid.htm l
Reading a passive tag at more than 4 feet would seem to require a huge(noticeable) power source or some serious mastery of the black art of RF.
SATS Link: http://sats.larc.nasa.gov/main.html
The problem often overlooked about flying cars is NOISE.. until you can make flying cars as quiet as normal ones, it will never happen. What is more realistic, but nearly as far off are things like the NASA SATS program.
Bah! I just got rid of my 2x CD burner last week!
We're not talking "a little"... These things ARE at the limits for doing 1 foot. And we're not just trying to get a signal to these badges, but enough juice to charge a capacitor so that it can "fire" back the response...
As far as good uses for RFID after you bought something with a tag:
- Imagine your refridgerator knowing what you had in it, and how old it was. The same for your pantry.. and then applications where this data is used with a database to pull up recipes you can make with what you've got on hand.
- On the other side, trash cans that know what you throw away and if it's a recurring item (milk, razors, DEODERANT!) it can add it to your shopping cart (this could bring back things like webvan).
- Washer and Dryer that knows when you've mixed your colors with your whites and warns you (because your clothes too are tagged).
- Insurance... you could walk around in your own home pulling all the tags for things to archive your stuff for your homeowner's insurance.
RFID tags that are cheap enough to attach to all your goods are passive tags. They have no power. The reader must generate power that is absorbed by the tag. There are regulations about how much juice you can generate... making the read range about 1 meter for a tag.. sure you COULD generate more... but to scan a whole house? Good luck! That kind of juice wouldn't be very portable. Furthermore, the kinds of readers that can support anti-collision (required for any of this shelf inventory, scan the whole grocery bag at once stuff) even have shorter read ranges.. like 1 ft.
- Imagine your refridgerator knowing what you had in it, and how old it was. The same for your pantry.. and then applications where this data is used with a database to pull up recipes you can make with what you've got on hand.
- On the other side, trash cans that know what you throw away and if it's a recurring item (milk, razors, DEODERANT!) it can add it to your shopping cart (this could bring back things like webvan).
- Washer and Dryer that knows when you've mixed your colors with your whites and warns you (because your clothes too are tagged).
A problem I see with all the arguments against it, is that RFID is typically going to be a passive technology for these things... your reader has to CHARGE the tag... which means it has to be VERY CLOSE ( While you can avoid this by using lower frequencies or active badges, these are not as practical as the passive tags. Batteries die/Cost for active badges.. and the systems available today for collision detection of these badges are all in the 13.56Mhz, which puts you in the low range category. IANARFE so don't know as to why, but I have a lot of practical experience in using RFID systems for the types of applications above.
First, paranoia about RFID seems silly. First, most of this technology will be PASSIVE(cheap), as in, it has no battery. This means that someone wanting to read your tag will have to generate enough energy to charge up the tag as well as read it. Which means that nearly all these passive technologies have very low read ranges, and for the 13.56Mhz variety that is typically used because of anti-collision and other benefits.. we're talking 12 inches max, given the current FCC limits. So I balk at any widespread "sniffing" of everything you've got on you.. Also, I'm not a privacy paranoia person anyway, so I don't get the big deal. I do know that RFID technology, and specifically walmart driving behind it is exactly what will bring in the waves of "Smart Appliances". Specifically things like: - Refridgerator knowing it's contents. This could be used for determining how long something has been in there, what you currently could make with the food you have. - Trash can that conversely keeps track of what you throw out, potentially building a shopping list of regular items - Washer and Drier knowing what's in them, and bitching at you when you put a brand new red sweater in with you whites. That's just a few things, and I'm sure the people around here are creative enough to do even more interesting things with them! I say bring the RFID on!!