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Privacy Wireless Networking Hardware

Lessons Learned from RFID Field Test 178

Posted by Hemos from the testing-it-out-in-the-real-world dept.
muddy_mudskipper writes "From John Young's cryptome.org website, is a newly posted pdf copy of the "Lessons Learned from RFID Field Test" as compiled by the Field Test Program Manager of the Auto ID Center. It is interesting to note the photographs of the different passive RFID antennas that could be used in product packaging - some small enough to fit into a soap box. Also curious is how many sector antennas have to pepper the test center in order to approach 100% RFID readability. 'In March 2001 a team comprised of Auto-ID Center sponsors (technology & end users) was assembled to plan and implement a Field Test aimed at taking the Auto-ID EPC technology from the laboratory to the real world environment with the objective of proving the power and effectiveness of the EPC and to blaze a trail for future adoption' "
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Lessons Learned from RFID Field Test More

Lessons Learned from RFID Field Test

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  • Two stories in a row I don't understand... (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You need twelve more for a record, however...

  • RFID and PAL (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Space cowboy ( 13680 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @07:42PM (#7449198) Journal
    One thing to look out for is the resonant frequency. We were trying to use RFID tags inside professional tape decks, to tell which tape was currently in the decl - it was an asset management project.

    the only useful (in terms of range) RFID tags at the time (18 months ago now) were resonant at 13.5 MHz, which is very very close to the colour burst frequency of PAL TV... not ideal for the inside of a Pro. tape deck :-)

    Complete redesign, readers outside and having to motion sensors to detect the tape's direction (if it was going in or out) delayed us quite considerably :-) Always read the small print....

    Simon.
    • Whoops. Wrong neurons in the path - it was the CCIR sampling in the deck that ran at 13.5 MHz... It's late, ok ?? :-)

      Simon.

  • Mobil Speed Pass is RFID (Score:3, Interesting)

    by emptybody ( 12341 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @07:42PM (#7449203) Homepage Journal
    Just curious as to how many of you already have an RFID tag. Were you aware that the mobil speed pass is an RFID tag?

    Contgradulations!! Big Brother is watching YOU.
    • In Soviet Russia, you watch Big Brother. No, wait, that doesn't sound right. It should be "In run down trailer park, you watch Big Brother."

    • Re:Mobil Speed Pass is RFID (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Pompatus ( 642396 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @07:52PM (#7449291) Journal
      Contgradulations!! Big Brother is watching YOU.

      Why does this have to be brought up every time something comes out about RFID tags? If "Big Brother" cared enough about you to track you, they would bring up your credit/debit card purchases and find everything about you that an RFID tag would tell them. You know that cell phone you carry around? Your position can be determined quite easily from that. Existing technology allows anyone to track you already. Anonimity has already been traded for convenience.

      Don't worry though, nobody is watching and tracking you as an individual. Truth be told, Big Brother just doesn't care about you.
      • Don't worry though, nobody is watching and tracking you as an individual. Truth be told, Big Brother just doesn't care about you.

        Cool! Does that mean I can skip my next appointment with the probation officer?

        KFG

      • Re:Mobil Speed Pass is RFID (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Don't worry though, nobody is watching and tracking you as an individual. Truth be told, Big Brother just doesn't care about you.

        Run that by Daniel Ellsberg, just as a reality check. If the government wants to know in detail about you, all the answers are not in your credit card records. If you're using an RFID device to pay tolls, your every move through a tollgate (and the license number of the car you're driving at the time, as I found out) are recorded to hhmmss and kept on file for who knows how long.

      • If "Big Brother" cared enough about you to track you, they would bring up your credit/debit card purchases and find everything about you that an RFID tag would tell them.

        Really? What about the clothes I always pay cash for? What about the hooker I always pay cash for? What about the fact that after buying groceries I went to the gym, then strolled down main street? These things are NOT on my credit card bill, yet are discernable via RFID technology. What you're missing is that with a credit card, I

        • If you pay cash for it, how are "they" going to determine that it's *you* carrying those clothes to the gym, then down main street? Since their stock system knows the clothes have just been bought, it's a reasonable bet that "they" know that *someone*'s carrying the clothes off somewhere, RFID tag or not.

          And what's with the hooker? Exactly which part of your hooker has an RFID tag? I can't imagine RFID tags are going to be ribbing your condoms for her pleasure any time soon, either... I fail to see how

          • I fail to see how RFID tags affect this purchase of services on your part.

            Cash 2.0 will include a unique RFID tag as a "counterfeit protection mechanism" but will have "useful" side-effects in curtailing "illegal" commerce.

            I suppose you can always claim that the fifty used by Sally Slut at the grocery store was one of those that you "lost" along with the other fifty that Carl Cokedealer turned up with.

          • I'm under the impression that my point didn't get across. The post to which I responded asserted that rfid tags will not reveal any more information on a person than a credit card:

            If "Big Brother" cared enough about you to track you, they would bring up your credit/debit card purchases and find everything about you that an RFID tag would tell them.

            My response was that for a privacy-conscious consumer who makes it a point to rarely if ever use a credit card, rfid tags provide a wealth of information th

            • If this kind of thinking comes across as paranoid then by all means make the arguments about how the government (or whoever) would never do such a thing etc. But my point is that rfid tags take these data collecting decisions out of the hands of the consumer.

              It certainly does come across as paranoid. Exactly which government do you imagine has the money to implement a scheme which places covert RFID scanners outside people's houses? Exactly how do you imagine that said government will manage to place co
              • Exactly which government do you imagine has the money to implement a scheme which places covert RFID scanners outside people's houses?

                The answer depends in large part on precisely how much it would cost to manufacture scanners, and how many end up getting distributed. If a cheap, battery or solar powered standalone unit of small dimensions becomes possible, then it could be financially feasible for a government to place them at various chosen locations. A given government might decide it's only interes

      • If "Big Brother" cared enough about you to track you, they would bring up your credit/debit card purchases and find everything about you that an RFID tag would tell them.

        I recently wrote a short story about combining RFID and credit card info [bcgreen.com]. Short, sweet and to the point.

        RFID says what you have, credit cards say what you bought. The two together can have a certain Big-Brother synergy.

    • My doorkey is an RFID tag (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Space cowboy ( 13680 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:05PM (#7449401) Journal
      I live in a managed flat in Central London, where the entrance key to the concierge area is unlocked with an RFID tag. The door to the flat itself is still a normal key though :-)

      Simon
      • I live in a managed flat in Central London, where the entrance key to the concierge area is unlocked with an RFID tag.

        In the security business that's called a "prox card" (proximity) and, though it's essentialy the same thing as an RFID tag, the names aren't interchangeable. Prox cards have been around for 10+ years. RFID specifically refers to these little stick-on bits intended for inventory tracking and such that have come out recently. Prox card readers can only handle one card in range at a time. RFI

    • Were you aware that the mobil speed pass is an RFID tag?

      Hey, when I go out I always place my speedpass under my tin foil hat!

    • *WHEW*, and I was worried. My Mobil speed pass only works about half the time when you stick it right up next to the pump. I'd say 50/50 odds of detection at less than an inch of distance are sufficiently poor for me to ignore RFID completely.
    • "Contgradulations!! Big Brother is watching YOU."

      I didn't realize that Mobil was a Gov't Agency.

  • RAID for RFID tags (Score:5, Informative)

    by Wesley Felter ( 138342 ) <wesley@felter.org> on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @07:45PM (#7449223) Homepage
    The concept of "aggregation" on page 9 is interesting.


    * Today's RFID technology does not allow for 100% read and identification of all products at all times...
    * Aggregation is the association of multiple tagged items to a single grouping.
    * Readability of ANY ONE of the associated tags in the grouping will identify the whole grouping.


    RAID strikes again!
    • It's called set theory. If John and Jim are both New Yorkers than identifying them as John or Jim identifies them as a New Yorker.

      Great, so now some ignorant businessman has come up with another word for one that already exists as the formal definition. We'll add it to the other lot that the database people have made up. They form a set.

      Creating a logically ordered stucture of such related data creates a database, which is why you might choose to store said data in a DBMS.

      Now, you might choose to store y
    • More like RAIFLT (redundant array of inexpensive fiddly little tags), but the analogy breaks down when the 'redundant' items are merely Read-Only devices with fixed, unique numbers.

      To stretch it as far as we can, aggregation is a form of RAIFLT-1, like a mirror, where any tag in the aggregate can answer your read request.

      RAIFLT-0 is basically the default of having a pile of tags, since you still have to read all of them to identify the contents of the pile.

      I don't think there's a useful configuration tha

  • RFID... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    We've been doing RFID for a couple years now at www dot buyrfid dot com, (www.buyrfid.com), and I can tell you, most of the fears about privacy are not valid.
    The best non-battery tags can be read at 20 feet, and all the class 1 tags must have and support a kill command.

    • Re:RFID... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by k12linux ( 627320 )
      all the class 1 tags must have and support a kill command

      Does that mean shortly after Wal Mart puts tags in everything some joker can walk through the store and tell them to all disable themselves?

      • all the class 1 tags must have and support a kill command

        Does that mean shortly after Wal Mart puts tags in everything some joker can walk through the store and tell them to all disable themselves?

        No, it means that the tags are programmed to eliminate anyone who uncovers "Big Brother's" master scheme. Slashdotters beware!
  • I'm not worried about this RFID thing - I plan on learning how to make these things myself with some kit you can buy out the back of popular science, and I'm going to program them and stick them all over my clothes... the catch is, I'm going to fill them with all kinds of crap data that just wastes these companies and gov's bandwidth and storage capabilities, and flood their databases with wack data. If enough people do what I do, RFID will be worthless real fast I figure. Sure, there will be ways to sort
    • Years ago in college we had a fun game we played at the library. Our library had a scanner on the exit much like ones in most electronics stores today(They probably still have something similar, just haven't been in it in 10 years).

      The little tags were very easy to pull out of the magazines. We would then put them in someones backpack or in their notebook or try to get them to step on it. it was lots of fun to watch them leave and set off the alarm and confuse everyone as they tried to figure out what wa

      • it was lots of fun to watch them leave and set off the alarm and confuse everyone as they tried to figure out what was setting off the alarm

        Last year a new wallet from Target had one of those "security" tags stuck way inside one of the linings. The checkout gal "disabled" it, but I later learned that it would enable itself again after you sat on it or otherwise stressed it a few times. I never knew if the damn thing was going to set off alarms when I tried to leave the store.

        Eventually I just about

    • Good idea. Except that purposefully sabotaging a government database is as close to terrorism as makes no odds. After all, it's illegal to prank call 911, it's illegal to jam police radar or scanners, shit it's even illegal to alter UPC codes, why shouldn't it be illegal to mess with RFID?
      • Why shouldn't be illegal?? Very simple really. If they can monitor and plant these things on stuff I *own* without my permission, I can just as easily plant them myself on stuff I own. I would be breaking no laws. You're terrorism reference makes me laugh... the government won't come to a hault if they can't monitor what I purchase, they shouldn't be allowed to in the first place.
        • The government has nothing to do with RFID yet. If they did, then RFID projects would be going ahead unabated despite public outcry against them and dramatic evidence showing that they don't work. If there's one thing this administration has shown, it's the tenacity to go against facts and public opinion when they wish to. I guess you have to respect that, in a quixotic kind of way...

    • Me too, but I'm going to do my own asset management. I'll put big random numbers in my RFIDs and my homemade R2D2 will pick up and sort my laundry for me. It will also find my remote, and put it back where I like it.

      I can give them to friends and let them give out to people as party invitations. When they come to the door, they need their RFID to get in, and I can go mingle instead of wathing the door. At the door, speakers will play my preproduced introduction, mixed into the music like DJ Hurricane bac

  • I want private RFIDs for my stuff (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hamjudo ( 64140 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @07:57PM (#7449333) Homepage Journal
    If RFID technology was cheap enough, easy to use and not too icky, I'd tag all my tools, the remote controls, the kids toys, and anything else we habitually lose.

    As far as I know, systems with reasonable range aren't cheap. I'm not sure any system works well when attached to metal tools.

    But the icky issue, is that I want to be able to track my stuff, but I don't want everyone else to be able to track my stuff.

    I'd like to try tagging the stuff I lose around the yard and house. Since I would assign the tags, there wouldn't be many privacy issues. People with scanners would know how many things I tagged, but not what they are.

    So, are there any affordable systems? How about affordable systems that can quickly scan a room (where is the remote now?). Where can I get them?

    [The article was already slashdotted, so I have no idea what it is about.]

    • I use RFID's in my video rental business for tracking DVD's. The Tagsys [tagsys.net] tags are 1.5" circle labels that go around DVD center hub. They have 128bit 13.56Mhz chip that is about 1mm long surounded by a long antenae that wrap around in 4 circles making it about 7 inches long. The tags cost me ~.80 each. Not sure about the Gemini HF210 reader, I guess it's slightly more than standard laser barcode reader.

      The problem with these tags are that they are very fragile. They are fine when properly placed on a DV

    • You're probably not going to get away cheaply, I work with RFID tags on a regular basis. You know those identity cards everyone carries at work now, most of them are RFID cards (tags). An easy way to tell is, if you swipe the card near a small box that goes beep to go through doors, that is an RFID tag you are swiping. The technology is cheap enough, if you don't care about range. But if you want to get beyond about a foot, you're looking at some real money. Though that is on the reader side, the cards
      • Thats because your thinking about two different rfid's. This article covers passive which is pretty much harmless. The reader would need active rfid's to 'locate' items. Active generaly costs more due to complexity. The rfid in my name badge is passive and costs less than 50 cents.
    • For a moment there, I read that as "I'd tag all my tools, the remote controls, the kids, and anything else we habitually lose".
      I guess this is the result of growing up as the oldest of six =p
    • If RFID technology was cheap enough, easy to use and not too icky, I'd tag all my tools, the remote controls, the kids toys, and anything else we habitually lose. I'd like to try tagging the stuff I lose around the yard and house. Since I would assign the tags, there wouldn't be many privacy issues. People with scanners would know how many things I tagged, but not what they are.

      I looked into doing something like that about a year ago. My idea was to tag all the things I habitually keep on my person, then

  • Peekaboo Boxes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Red Rocket ( 473003 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:00PM (#7449353)

    I like how they tried to obscure the "Gillette Venus" printed on the boxes in the PDF file but the overlay image doesn't appear until the picture is completely loaded.
    Gillette doesn't want us to know that the tests are being conducted either with their cooperation or on their behalf.
    Ooops. Foiled by the PDF.
  • Cryptome invites information on means and/or devices that will allow a customer to neuter RFID tags on purchased products which are no longer owned by the RFID installers. Send to: jya@pipeline.com

    The RFID docs on Cryptome were pointed to by CASPIAN, the premier group resisting the spread of RFID in consumer products. CASPIAN website:

    http://www.spychips.com

  • OT but serious, help please. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SharpFang ( 651121 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:01PM (#7449362) Homepage Journal
    Catalogs/datasheets/white papers for electronic parts.

    Any decent source? Most of stuff I find on the net are either very limited range, or just trade offers with very short descriptions (no pinout etc), or available only for a fee. Could you share your sources for that stuff?

  • If I were SirHaxalot: (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I would say something like "Sounds like 1984 is more of a reality every day."

  • Make edible RFID tags! (Score:5, Funny)

    by myowntrueself ( 607117 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:09PM (#7449431)
    What we need now are edible RFID tags which fast food franchises can put in their happy meals and which will lodge in the gut of their consumers.

    This way, as soon as one of them waddles into their store, ones favorite happy meal will be ready for you by the time you get to the counter!!!

    Convenience!!!

    That will be double plus good! :)
    • as soon as one of them waddles into their store, ones favorite happy meal will be ready for you by the time you get to the counter!!!

      Judging by the level of service currently seen at "fast" food establishments, this seems doubtful...

  • Your car tires have RFIDs in them ALREADY!!! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:09PM (#7449433)
    Its a us federal sponsorred initiative to track vehicles near certain highways feeding certain urban areas.

    basically the fbi enters a rfid number into the database and then history of travel for the car pops up.

    the feds can also pre-enter rfids they want to watch after getting a reading off your parked car or from the canadian-us customs border (where they already actively log the car rfids in the tires and associate them with plates)

    Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them! (AIAG B-11 ADC v3.0) .

    Photos of chips before molded into tires:

    http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:SVUlB-z0BCQ J: www.sokymat.com/applications/tireid.html

    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.

    http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html

    YOU MUST BUY NEUTRALIZED OR FOREIGN TIRES!!!!! Soon such tires will become illegal to import or manufacture.

    Using these chips to track people while they drive is actually the idea of the us gov, and current chips CANNOT BE DISABLED or removed. They hope ALL tires will have these chips in 4 years and hope people have a very hard time finding non-chipped tires. Removing the chips is near impossible without destroying the tire as the chips were designed with that DARPA design goal.

    They are hardened against removal or heat damage or easy eye detection and can be almost ANYWHERE in the new "big brother" tires. In fact in current models they are integrated early and deep into the substrate of the tire as per US FBI request.

    Our freedom of travel are going away in 2003, because now there is an international STANDARD for all tire transponder RFID chips and in 2004 nearly ALL USA cars will have them. Refer to AIAG B-11 ADC, (B-11 is coincidentally Post Sept 11 fastrack initiative by US Gov to speed up tire chip standardization to one read-back standard for highway usage).

    The AIAG is "The Automotive Industry Action Group"

    The non proprietary (non-sokymat controlled) standard is the AIAG B-11 standard is the "Tire Label and Radio Frequency Identification" standard

    "ADC" stands for "Automatic Data Collection"

    The "AIDCW" is the US gov manipulated "Automatic Identification Data Collection Work Group"

    The standard was started and finished rapidly in less than a year as a direct consequence of the Sep 11 attacks by Saudi nationals.

    I believe detection of the AIAG B-11 radio chips (RFIS serial number transponders) in the upgraded car tracking http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html is currently secret knowledge. Another reason to leave "finger print on Driver license" California, but Ohio gets it next, as will every other state eventually.

    The AIAG is claiming the chips reduce car theft, assist in tracking defects, and assists error-proofing the tire assembly process. But the real secret is that these 5 cent devices are a us government backed initiative to track citizens travel without their consent or ability to disable the transponders in any way.

    All tire manufacturers are forced to comply AIAG B-11 3.0 Radio Tire tracking standard by the 2004 model year.

    http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:gwhgWJnCf3o J: www.aiag.org/publications/b11.asp

    Viewing b11 synopsis is free, downloads from that are $10 and tracked by the FBI. Use the google cache to avoid leaving breadcrumbs.

    A huge (28 megabyte compressed zip) video of a tire being scanned remotely is at http://mows.aiag.org/ScriptContent/videos/ (the file is "video Aiagb-11.zip"). I would use a proxie when touching it. The FBI is monitoring the "curious" hackers.

    And just as showerheads are now illegal to import into the USA from Canada or mexico, as are drums of industrial Freon, and standard size toilets are illegal to import for home use, soon car tires
    • Wow. If my government's that good at tracking things, maybe next they'll put RFID in planes so they know when they're flying into buildings!

      [twisted humor]
      Scene:
      Man1: How's the warehouse inventory project going?
      Man2: Well, we've got 2504 cans of tuna fish, 478 radial tires, and one Boeing 747.
      Man1: A Boeing 747? WTF?
      Man2: No, WTC! Hahahaha!

      [/twisted humor]

    • You haven't been taking your medication, have you?

      Listen carefully. *Any* RFID tag can be neutralized , when subjected to a strong enough field. Take your tires down to your neighborhood welder & have him strike a few arcs next to them.

      The "feds" can't find Whitey Bulger, they're not tracking you through your tires. Your cell phone is much easier.

    • Consider this; They could easily put RFID tags in shoes and read them a lot more reliably than getting information out of an RFID tag through steel belting. Of course it won't work while you're driving, but the moment you step on the sensor, you've been fingered. Or should I say, toed.

    • So What? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gillbates ( 106458 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @11:11AM (#7453171) Homepage Journal

      The last few months, I've gone from caring to indifferent in regards to RFID's. The reason? Visible Light.

      With Visible Light, the FBI can track anyone, anywhere. In case you haven't noticed, they already have cameras which can read license plates, and from distances much longer than the few meters of RFIDs. RFID's are a moot point - the technology for tracking people using Visible Light already exists, and is already installed.

      Eavesdropping technology is a red herring designed to distract the public from the real issue - that is, our legal system isn't entirely just. There have always been ways to frame the innocent, and there have always been ways to coerce and intimidate. The absence (sp?) of RFID's isn't going to prevent the government from oppressing people; last I checked, we are still "detaining" Muslim "persons of interest" for extended periods of time. Now tell me, what do RFID's have to do with that?

      RFID's are a moot point. The real issue is the Federal Government's lack of accountability to the public.

      • I think RFID makes the tracking a lot easier. Sure, they can put license plate cameras in high-maintenance locations like tollbooths and border crossings, but they can put RFID readers in a lot more places (think of one in every parking meter in every city) since the RFID reader can be completely out of site, doesn't have to worry about its lens getting dirty, doesn't need a sophisticated computer or large amounts of storage behind it, etc.

        Now wait til they start putting RFID's in US passports (starting


    • So, you're saying my hover car is safe? Or...are they also putting RFIDs in to the anti-graviton emitters, too?!?

    • fbi shills kept marking my message to -1 to silence this post

      Your bizarre, unsubstantiated, unsubstantiable anti-governmental conspiracy theory would be entirely unremarkable, except for this new Slashdot-related twist on the old "I'm being silenced for telling THE TRUTH" bit. I gotta give you credit, you're taking kookery to whole new places.

  • Ok... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by OneFix at Work ( 684397 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:14PM (#7449471)
    So they can track when I buy a bar of soap...You know what...I'd not actually mind that someone knows that I bought some Irish Spring...maybe I actually want them to know that I like the product.

    Ppl are always spinning this RFID thing the wrong way. It's called a live inventory and it is already being done with the bar codes that they scan when you buy your bars of soap (or maybe you don't buy soap...I'm not one to judge). This is the biggest reason they want to do this. Besides serving as a replacement for a bar code, these things could also be used instead of those magnetic security scanners at the doors...you know, the ones that always go off because the cashier forgot to demagnetize the strip or didn't do it properly???

    I don't know what ppl are so concerned about. The only ppl that should have these things are stores and maybe your kitchen if you want to know about everything you have...

    Anything the store will know about you can already be gained by combining information from an ATM/Credit Card and the bar code scanner...
    • Ppl are always spinning this RFID thing the wrong way.

      Terrorism, new viruses (the biological kind), economic chaos, SUVs, the continuing existence of "Friends" and unusual solar flare behavior simply aren't enough for many people. They must worry that the fact they bought Pop Tarts is being recordrd in a vast alien data vault buried beneath, oh, I dunno... Mt. Shasta? That's a mountain that figures into many conspiracy theories. And this database will be used to, oh, I dunno... steal their socks? Yeah. So

    • I'd not actually mind that someone knows that I bought some Irish Spring...maybe I actually want them to know that I like the product.

      You must certainly be an opressor of the hyperimmune!!! Down with the opressors of the hyperimmune!!!

      We shall scan their houses for RFID tags for Irish Spring, Bounce, and "Uekanuba Elderly Cat", round them up, and shame them for the enemies of the glorious revolutionary peoples immune liberation that they are!!

      But seriously, folks

      Anything the store will know about you c


    • Anything the store will know about you can already be gained by combining information from an ATM/Credit Card and the bar code scanner...

      If RFIDs actually worked worth a damn, they'd be pretty convenient. Just push your grocery cart up to the cashier and the register instantly knows how much you owe.
    • I don't know what ppl are so concerned about.

      What people are concerned about is the future. Inch by inch, our lives are becoming more transparent through technology rather than advancements in society. Created in parallel with these new technologies are laws intended for everything from tracking cattle for the USDA to kids at schools to child molesters to cars to you name it. Little by little these things become a part of us and our culture and gradually become day-to-day "necessities" or are simply a
      • > this could be a future where people look alive, but, really, they might as well be dead.

        Great! For once, I'm ahead of the curve on something!

  • Things you should know about CASPIAN (Score:3, Informative)

    by Frac ( 27516 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:20PM (#7449515)
    CASPIAN is founded by Katherine Albrecht, a privacy spook (with an agenda to become famous) that has long fought against barcodes and supermarket discount shopping cards.

    The reason she has changed her target to focus on RFID is because... not one really listened to her when she whined about supermarket discount cards, by focusing on RFID she'll get more media attention (as she is now).

  • RFID source code (C#) (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    For my grad school class project, I had to design an API (based on TI's S6350). Tell me what you think. [baylor.edu]

  • Valid use on non-Personal items (Score:5, Insightful)

    by m11533 ( 263900 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:31PM (#7449588)
    While there are certainly plenty of issues surrounding use of RFID in personal items, I believe there are plenty of opportunities for their use in non-Personal items that carry none of these issues. For example, what if RFID were integrated into all of the multitude of assembly line and related devices found on a factory floor. They could then be used to quickly inventory the items currently in a specific area of that factory. Or, track the spare devices in a storage area, making it very easy to determine if there is a replacement for a failed part without having to search through multiple storage areas only to learn there is a discrepency between electronic records and what is physically present.

    Or, how about using RFID to track all items entering and leaving a construction site? This would provide very accurate and timely tracking of items arriving from suppliers, or being returned to suppliers.

    None of these examples has privacy issues, yet they offer new solutions to rather challenging issues. Chief among them is the ability to match up electronic records with physical reality without being nearly as vulnerable to human error.

  • Latest news: Reynolds Wrap incorporates RFIDs! (Score:5, Funny)

    by hndrcks ( 39873 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @08:39PM (#7449629) Homepage
    ...thereby immensely frustrating the tinfoil hat community.

  • RFID vs Barcodes (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tracey12 ( 723407 ) on Tuesday November 11, 2003 @09:25PM (#7449898) Homepage
    HAHA! I read the entire pdf about RFID at Cryptome, and no matter how hard Walmart and P&G try, they will never ever have 100 percent registration of each and every pallet, case, etc. WHY???? Because in those very pretty pictures within the pdf were examples of just how nicely the sometimes HUGE label had to be applied. Each label was perfectly straight, and located exactly away from metal on the products to which they were attached.

    What I'm getting at is that in the real world, humans will never always place the RFID labels exactly in the right place! Never! And, did you notice the size of those darn labels??? They are huge, some of them!

    To me, this looks like a huge failure about to happen at Walmart's vendors expense.

    Here are reasons why these RFID labels will not work properly:

    1. Radio interference from many sources.
    2. Improper placement on item.
    3. Damage due to many reasons.
    4. Distance from antennas.
    5. Failure of antennas to stay properly tuned.

    These are just a few reasons.

    Barcodes are better and heres why:

    1. The barcode tags do not store personal data on them.
    2. They cannot be read from a distance without the use of a laser whereas RFID could be read from wihtin your package as you walk wthin a mall, or store, and even from one vehicle to another with the right equipment.
    3. Barcodes are already on everything, and require no additional expense to vendors.
    4. There are no real advantages to consumers for each and every item to be remarked with an RFID tag vs a barcode that is already on the item.

    But, to giants like Walmart, RFID tags are just ANOTHER way of tracking products. Barcodes are already used at all Walmart distribution centers to mark pallets and crates or boxes.

    Lastly, if you read the industry notes, you'll learn that RFID tags are becoming smart tags, and they will begin to be much more than mere number transmitters. In the future, RFID tags will be computers with storage ability and that will make you a walking target for stores and companies to monitor as you walk within stores or malls, you will be tracked, and your purchases identified even by other stores who want to see what you purchased at another store.

    Just say no, to RFID tracking before it gets out of hand.

    • You raise a series of very good points (especialy 1, 2, 3 in the RFID set and #2 and 3 of the barcode set). But there is another side to some of the points you raise.

      4. There are no real advantages to consumers for each and every item to be remarked with an RFID tag vs a barcode that is already on the item.

      Not so. There are number of benefits to consumers. These go beyond lower costs from more efficient handling of product and less theft of products. Three example applications that benefit consume
  • And they did it without telling anybody [politechbot.com], and they even set up a secret camera to watch remotely.

    And Gillette [boycottgillette.com] did about the same, too.

  • Not for tracking, but for authentication? I'm getting a bit tired of my $20's changing every few years, with newer and better printing processes. Heck, if you showed me five "new" twenty dollar bills and asked me to find one or more counterfits I wouldn't have a chance.

    Give me a handy-dandy rf interrogator which checks the validity of the internal key with a one-way hash and gives me a true or false. Sure, you could still just copy a number, but then they'd all be the same, and a smart reader would flag
  • 'In March 2001 a team comprised of Auto-ID Center sponsors (technology & end users) was assembled to plan and implement a Field Test aimed at taking the Auto-ID EPC technology from the laboratory to the real world environment with the objective of proving the power and effectiveness of the EPC and to blaze a trail for future adoption'

    Well gee, it sounds like they decided what the outcome of the test needed to be before they even began. How convenient!

    I'm betting the numbers are so heavily fudged tha

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