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!"

Whats next ?

[flyingace]

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...

Re:Whats next ?

[serutan]

Hah! Way back around 1980 some computer technicians I worked with at Tektronix pioneered the InterDepartmental Ballistic Missile. Powered by freon, it flew about 100 ft, streaking over the heads of terrified cubicle inhabitants. They only did it once.

Re:Whats next ?

[pilgrim23]

So...if RFID via dart is a viable communication protocol (by the way, what is the RFC number for RFID/DART?), and if it were coupled with RFC 1149 which has evolved into PPTP (Pigeon Packet Transfer Protocol)...and if the packet injection system were carefully tailored it seems one would conceivable be able to construct, after the proper application of heat...and condiments....lunch

Re:Whats next ?

[lxs]

Way back around 1980...Powered by freon

So you're the one to blame for the ozone hole!

Re:Whats next ?

[TFGeditor]

About that same time, my engineering department had an IDBD--Inter-Department Ballistic Duck. It was one of those cheesy rubber figures (in our case, Donald Duck) with a suction cup base and a spring inside. Compress it, and it launches when the suction cup vacuum leaks off. We sent messages on bits of paper held in place with rubber bands. Worked great until we accidentally hit a senior manager making a walk-through. The engineering director forthwith confiscated the IDBD and we never saw it again.

Re:Whats next ?

[strredwolf]

Given the size of the Nerf darts on Thinkgeek, and the size of USB thumbdrives, yes, USB DartDrives are a good idea!

Re:Whats next ?

[tonsofpcs]

Heck, 3.5" HDD (Hard Disk Darts) could work.

Re:Whats next ?

[MikTheUser]

Talk about free flow of information...

You mean free flight of information!

Re:Whats next ?

[ShadeEagle]

Yeah, I can see it now on the front page:

Linux-on-a-dart!

HDD Discus

[EmbeddedJanitor]

I think we got far better bandwidth when we played discus with a hard drive.

Re:Whats next ?

[martinoforum]

That's not the scary part. THIS is the scary part.

From TFA:

"After being shot, the victim can pass the dart over his or her reader (although invariable this is a guy's thing), and see the file on the screen."

The reader is a guy's "thing"!? I'm not having no goddamn RFID reader implanted in my thing just so people can fire darts at me!

Re:You got mail, BIOTCH!

[Peaceful_Patriot]

When I worked at a local high school, one of the favorite items for students to steal was the mouse balls. I have no idea what they did with them, but the disappeared regularly.

A few years later, when working at a computer shop, a high school teacher called to ask if they could order just the mouse balls.

I guess some things never change.

Question to all recent high school students: what the hell did you do with all those mouse balls?

Re:You got mail, BIOTCH!

[compwizrd]

at my old high school, the students used them in slingshots to break the windows.

the school board started glueing the mouse ball holder.

i'm sure they were glad when optical mice started becoming popular/available.

Drive by spamming

[GatesGhost]

now spammers can cap your ass in the streets. "get a bigger penis, muthafucka!"

Re:Drive by spamming

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully tracking and prosecuting those spammers will be easier then with emailtype spammers.

We could go ahead and picture D.B.S. using spoofed license plates, zombie cars with automated targetting and tagging...

Think bigger people

[FerretFrottage]

a potato gun with a message carved into the potato or a carrier pigeon and a canon just seem so much more obvious.

Re:Think bigger people

[crunk]

That will even work without the RFID. Just wrap a piece of paper around the potato and bombs away.

Not thinking big enough!

[burgburgburg]

Feed the RFID chip to a carrier pigeon, place the pigeon into a carved potato and then fire the whole thing out of a cannon.

The systemic redundancy should deal with "packet loss".

Re:Not thinking big enough!

[stinky wizzleteats]

Feed the RFID chip to a carrier pigeon, place the pigeon into a carved potato and then fire the whole thing out of a cannon.

I think you might have a problem with packet fragmentation in the RFC1149 implementation.

Re:Not thinking big enough!

[lxs]

I think you might have a problem with packet fragmentation in the RFC1149 implementation.

Who cares when it's raining grilled pigeons and baked potatoes?

Re:Think bigger people

[krgallagher]

" a potato gun with a message carved into the potato or a carrier pigeon and a canon just seem so much more obvious.

It is off topic, but your message reminded me of the group of Linux enthusiasts in Bergen, Norway, who succesfilly sent a ping [com.com] using Carrier Pigeon Internet Protocol [ietf.org].

Re:Think bigger people

[Dogtanian]

your message reminded me of the group of Linux enthusiasts in Bergen, Norway, who succesfilly sent a ping using Carrier Pigeon Internet Protocol

From the country that brought us A-Ha, and black metal bands running around killing each other.... now this. Pure genius.

I don't buy their explanation for the pigeons running off like that, though; I think they were just pining for the fjords.

Re:Think bigger people

[Zenmonkeycat]

Actually, you could insert a small written message into a hole in a carrot, then freeze the carrot and insert it into an un-frozen potato. Then you drop the potato into a potato gun and fire it at a car. As long as the carrot is frozen enough, it may very well pass through the metal sides of a car, creating an APDSFCMR, or "Armour-piercing discarding-sabot frozen carrot message round."

Another Dupe...

[drivinghighway61]

Wow, another dupe, this time one over 1000 years old! Letters by arrow? That's new! Way to go editors...

Re:Another Dupe...

[Cthefuture]

The thing is, this isn't even that useful.

This is like shooting an arrow with a message that says: "Go to the post office and pick up your mail."

Re:Another Dupe...

[grassy_knoll]

Letters by arrow?


...thwwuuuup!

Message for you sir....

Re:Another Dupe...

[SnprBoB86]

"you should not have died in vain!"

"....um actually... I'm not dead yet"

"well then you shall not have been mortally wounded in vain"

"um, actually I think I might pull through..."

Re:Another Dupe...

[switcha]

Letters by arrow?

As documented in The Holy Grail. [clayloomis.com]

F=MA

[BWJones]

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.

Re:F=MA

[TrippTDF]

Hey, the dartgun will go through Windows, too, assuming they write drivers for it.

this horrible pun brought to you by Monday.

looks like someone...

[Datamonstar]

....threw a dart at that server...

It's all fun and games...

[sbowles]

'Til someone losses a server!

Shoot me!!!

[pacoworld]

Shoot me!!! Shoot me!!! Shoot me!!!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Ooh

[Sarcastic Assassin]

While you're laughing at their demise, I'm enjoying 300 KB/s download speeds from the Coral link [nyud.net].

Re:Ooh

[flargleblarg]

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.

Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a website is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Next on the list:

[TripMaster Monkey]

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!

spam

[Qick]

I wouldn't want to get spammed by that...

Hmmmm

[rdavidson3]

I wonder if they make a BFG model?

Video (and site) CACHE

[johnatjohnytech]

18 Meg WMV File and Html Page is cached at http://www.flipstartforum.com/dartcache/ [flipstartforum.com]

torrent

[TorrentNinja]

whoops.. here is the torrent [simplecache.com]... 18MB..

Mirrordot

[Adam9]

Try MirrorDot [mirrordot.com]

Coral Cache

[Anonymous Coward]

Loads faster. [nyud.net]

Obligatory Monty Python quote...

[the_skywise]

]]]THUD[[[

Message for you sir!

Re:Obligatory Monty Python quote...

[Lord Ender]

Actually, it's more of a ]]]THWANG[[[

Re:Obligatory Monty Python quote...

[Anonymous Coward]

Prince: You got my note!

Lancelot: ...I got a note..

Re:Obligatory Monty Python quote...

[irokitt]

Gay Princes' Father: "This is supposed to be a happy occasion! Let's not bicker about who killed who..."

Digital "Shots"

[dj42]

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.

Not a new idea

[Andy Dodd]

Stuff like what you're talking about is apparently very common in Japan.

Re:Digital "Shots"

[mfago]

Sort of like bluejacking [bluejackq.com]?

Wifi Road Rage

[mathmatt]

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!

Unfortunate protocol interference...

[lpangelrob2]

We've tried to implement this protocol at our company in parallel with PPTP [ne2.com], but unfortunately we experienced far, far too many dropped packets.

Fortunately, we believe that better shielding on our PPTP routes will prevent further packet loss.

Re:Unfortunate protocol interference...

[Buzz_Litebeer]

I know your link is in jest, as is your post.

But I did read about a hiking service that uses Pigeons to send back photos of the hiking/whitewater trip ahead of the hikers so that the photos would be ready when the hikers got back. Wireless tech wherever they were was not up to the task. Just an interesting aside.

Offline Messages?

[Foolomon]

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...

How horrible!

[geoffspear]

Just think of the privacy implications!

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.

It only implies?

[cbreaker]

"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.

Hrmph..

[dep01]

Ehh.. I saw this on memepool [memepool.com] this morning. Best of luck to the University of Calgary's lab web server...

Re:Hrmph..

[mrseigen]

I'm on the LAN with this server right now and I'm getting extremely slow response from it. Thanks!

Re:Hrmph..

[tomhudson]

So you need to go back a decade or two to when we used floppies as frisbees - frisbeeMail over sneakernet.

TaserMail

[Ranger]

Nothing says I love you like 50000V to the torso.

One Liners

[Eberlin]

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!!!

DartMail name owned by Doubleclick

[w00master]

Funny,

Doubleclick (aka Dart, aka online advertising deliverer) has an exisiting product called DartMail. Yes, it's for e-mail Spam.

w00master

New technology, old question

[HangingChad]

This here's the most powerful RFID dart gun in the world. From here I could blow your available disk space clean away.

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?

Torrent link

[redhat421]

You can find a torrent for this file here: DartMail.wmv.torrent [smartaustin.com]

Virus

[sameerdesai]

And the DarVirus will be an actual arrow? oops..

TOny Tang

[Datamonstar]

Damn, I wish my name was Tony Tang. I'll bet there's no end to the number of cool nicknames he's got.

Re:TOny Tang

[NoData]

Cool nicknames? C'mon, you know his friends just call him "Poon."

Re:TOny Tang

[jalefkowit]

Not nearly as many as his sister Pootie.

Me Too! (AOL)..

[wfberg]

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!

Re:Me Too! (AOL)..

[Spectre]

I've got some spam for a product that is supposed to help with floppy-diks ...

Yeah, but that didn't send any messages

[WillAffleck]

come to think of it.

Anyone can make AOL disks into frisbees, but to send a message you need to add information.

practical applications?

[sammy baby]

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.

Re:practical applications?

[Cheerio Boy]

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.

They already do this with some explosives including gunpowder. Technically they can at least track it back to the manufacturer who supposedly will have sales records that will help narrow down the area to find the suspect in.

The problem is that they don't always work [cnn.com]

Re:practical applications?

[Feyr]

they do that in recent guns already... except they imprint a serial number instead of using a RFID. much more efficient, less likely to be damaged (or some part of it can still be read) and doesn't cost anything beside the imprinting mechanism in the gun.

why use rfid? so it's cooler?

Re:practical applications?

[Kiryat Malachi]

Actually, I can think of a reason - sometimes its hard to find the bullet. Assuming the tag lived, you could do triangulation of the round to find it, which a serial number won't provide for.

This all, of course, assumes it would survive - a probably incorrect assumption.

Re:practical applications?

[hamsterboy]

"Bullet manufacturing" isn't some centralized industrial setup. I have a friend who loads his own rounds in his garage (brass casing + powder + bullet + pull lever = round).

What you're suggesting is something akin to requiring every compiler to embed a serial number in every executable it generates so we can track virus writers. Easily circumvented by writing your own linker, or opening up a hex editor.

-- Hamster

Here is a torrent of the Video

[TorrentNinja]

18MB video of the dartmail [simplecache.com] :)

Re:Here is a torrent of the Video

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Nice. Has anyone caught the fact that the video was made in 2003?

Station wagon full of...

[PHAEDRU5]

We're updating the old Tannenbaum comment, right?

Obligatory Monty Python

[wickedj]

Schoooompfff....

Message for you sir...

New AOL slogan

[SensitiveMale]

You've got INCOMING!!!!!!

No, it should be...

[denis-The-menace]

You got nailled!

not new, just an adaptation

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

A christmas story?

[blonde rser]

Can someone explain the relevance of the link to imdb?

Re:A christmas story?

[nezroy]

The relevance is to the bit about shooting your eye out. As in, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!". See link for details if you haven't seen this movie.

http://www.flicklives.com/Glossary/red_ryder/gl_ bb _gun.htm

Fun project goof or fascist despot's tool?

[says]

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

Lawsuits!

[dopelogik]

Watch out for Trademark infringment [doubleclick.com]

to pick a nit

[BorgCopyeditor]

DartMail lets people physically shoot electronic information at others.

electronic != physical ???

Slashdot effect

[breon.halling]

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. ;)

Shooting your eye out..

[Plake]

Here is a perfect example of shotting someone's eye out:

Here. [southparkstudios.com]

Stupid Idea + Frontpage of Slashdot = The Norm

[StikyPad]

See Also: Lawn Darts [cpsc.gov]

In related news...

[hkb]

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.

Unjammable

[mrmeval]

Unjammable short range communications.

http://www.darpa.gov/
may pay you to investigate this.

Too much World of Warcraft?

[SteeldrivingJon]

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 wi

lawn dart version

[frankmu]

i'll just wait for the lawn dart version,...

Re:And the point is??

[Anonymous Coward]

As opposed to posting on Slashdot bitching about how someone else spends their time? ;)

Re:And the point is??

[Mathonwy]

Do you actually have to ask? This IS "news for nerds", remember... If you can't see the appeal in having an excuse to combine geeky electronics + launching ballistic projectiles at "friends", then maybe you're on the wrong forum...

Re:So, say, someone ...

[daveo0331]

I think that's called an ICBM. The U.S. military is a lot scarier than the RIAA.

Re:So, say, someone ...

[ray-auch]

They are doing a pretty good job (currently) of _not_ looking very scary to an incoming ICBM.

It could of course all be a deception and in reality all the anti-ICBM missiles work really well and passed all their secret tests at area51 before they staged the public failures... but somehow I doubt it.

Re:xml tag?

[MexicanMenace]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<game>
<tag>
<it>you</it>
</tag>
</game>