RFID Lowdown

Updated information regarding Flexing Power with Flexible Plastics

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

The onward march of technology has seen gadgets getting smaller, more powerful, and of course, wireless. Portability, mobility, and ease-of-use are the keywords that seem to be driving innovation these days. And yet despite all the wireless technology we have never been able to cut the final technological cord so to speak, power. So it comes as no surprise that researchers have come up with wireless methods to charge devices like notebook computers, mobile phones, and even RFID tags – one of them being flexible plastics technology.

Japan, as usual, has a head start on the technology, and scientists at the University of Tokyo have built a prototype of a wireless charging device that powers gadgets that come into contact with it. Using a technology they call flexible electronics.

But Germany and the United Kingdom are not far behind - the Cambridge-based Plastic Logic is setting up a factory in Silicon Saxony in Dresden, Germany, to manufacture flexible display technology components. Other analysts are examining top online universities for information relating to new technologies as well. But with the rapid increase in value of flexible plastics there is increasing concern that organizations who do not employ individuals with criminal justice degrees, will largely be unable to protect their investments. Production of flexible active-matrix display modules for electronic reader products is due to start in 2008. Silicon Networks reports:

Simon Jones, vice president of product development for Plastic Logic, sees two main applications for flexible plastics technologies - RFID tags and flexible displays. He claimed that displays are one of the key initiatives for the technology, as current displays are power-hungry and so eat into the battery life of mobile devices, and use heavy materials, limiting portability.

Buoying Up the Environment

-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Time and again, nature has had to pay the price for the progress of mankind. The environment has been gradually degraded under the guise of technological advancement. Now it’s time for technology to repay its debt to the earth and contribute its mite to the conservation of natural resources.

RFID is stepping in to do its part – the technology is being used to prevent the destruction of natural coral reefs when anchors are dropped by the numerous yachts cruising the seas. The MarPark system allows boaters to moor their crafts using a rope, a rubber ring, and a smartbuoy. They sign up for the service online and receive the SeaPass ring through the mail.

On arrival at their port of favor, all they have to do is hook the ring to within 4 inches of the reader in the buoy, which in turn is activated only when the sensor picks up the inclination of the moored boat. The buoys are environment-friendly;

[via Wired]

They tether to octagonal modules of reinforced concrete that allow the sea floor to "breathe," minimizing environmental impact.

The ring also provides value added services for the cruisers – on docking, it relays information to an onshore service center that allows them access to water taxis and supplies.

Developed by Italgest Mare with technical know-how from Siemens Italia, the system is supported by the environmental group Legambiente and is currently on trial at a few protected locations in Liguria and Sardinia in Italy. If all goes according to plan, MarPark will park itself at around 20 areas by the year 2009, including Costa Smeralda, Otranto (Puglia) and the Greek island of Corfu.

MINI Motoring - Mini Fun

-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Is this what they call personalizing your space? Now you can hire billboards to flash your own message as you drive by, at no cost at all – but only if you own a MINI and drive through Chicago, San Francisco, Miami and New York. All you have to do is sign up for the deal on their website and give them some information about yourself. Four to six weeks later, the mailman delivers an RFID-enabled keyfob to your address, and you’re all set to go.

Drive past any of the motherboards (yes, that’s what they’re calling them) and you can see a personalized message on the lines of “Hey Frank, how’s the new building coming along?” If you belong to the majority who don’t live in the afore-mentioned cities but would love to hear a billboard talk to you, MINI is planning to extend the offer to more parts of the country some time this year.

Go on an RFID Shopping Spree

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Shopping can be tiring, especially when you tend to get lost among the numerous stores and paths in a large shopping area like Ginza in Tokyo, Japan. But not if you’re aided and abetted by the thousands of RFID tags that are strewn over the neighborhood! Thanks to the Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project, starting January 21, shoppers can navigate the shops with ease using data pushed to readers from the tags, in four different languages - Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.

So you’re a walking map, with tags near you pin-pointing your location in Ginza, restaurants in the vicinity showing you their daily specials and offers, helpful tips on the nearest railway station or public phone being displayed on your reader, and much, much more.

[via Computer World]

The system works by matching a unique code sent out by each beacon with data stored on a server on the Internet. The data is obtained automatically by the terminal, which communicates back to the server via a wireless LAN connection and requests the data relevant to the beacon that is being picked up.   

The terminal was developed by the Ubiquitous Computing Technology Center, a joint undertaking between the government and a clutch of companies including Fujitsu, NEC Corp., Hitachi, and NTT East Corp. The project is supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Cool Fridges From Samsung!

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

This is the perfect example that showcases the interdependence of technology. While plans are afoot at Samsung Electronics for a smart RFID-based refrigerator, the outcome of the proposal depends on a host of other consumables being tagged too.

Imagine a world where your fridge reminds you that you’re running low on essential groceries, tell your mobile phone that you need to stock up, warn you of items that are past their expiry dates, and even suggest recipes for dinner every night based on its contents. This is a very real possibility in the near future of RFID, and the folks at Samsung are hoping to get a head start on the competition.
But there is one major stumbling block along their way – all items that go into the smart fridge will have to be smart themselves, i.e., they have to be tagged with RFID chips too. Once this happens, the fridge talks to the phone, which in turn calls the store, and your grocery shopping is all done for you; you can either have it delivered at home or pick it up on your way home from work.

Spokesman for Samsung, Chae Hee-kook, says that item-level tagging for perishable items will decide the debut date for these refrigerators. While the years 2008 and 2009 are being bandied about, only time will tell when they become a reality.

(Meat)ing Safety Needs with RFID

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Push all negative RFID-related news about China out of your heads; the Asian country is embarking on a mission to prevent food poisoning-related illness and death, and is leveraging RFID for the purpose. Accordingly, the China Meat Research Center has tied up with technology and information provider Tsinghua Tongfang to ensure that the meat on your table is perfectly safe to be eaten.

Safety is being worked into all aspects of the meat chain, right from the breeding farms and butcher sites to the supermarket shelves and checkout counters. The companies will jointly develop and maintain software and infrastructure for the food safety technology program.

Slow, but sure steps for RFID in China?

RFID Academic Events in 2007

There is a lot of action planned for 2007 in the world of RIFD. RIFD Academic Convocation Conference has already planned two mega events scheduled in the first four months of 2007. These events are the fourth and the fifth RIFD Academic convocations. The fourth Convocation will take place in Brussels, Belgium on March 13-14, 2007. This event is hosted by the European Commission Directorate-General Information Society and Media.

Orlando, Fla. Is the venue for the fifth convocation that will take place in the US on 30th April, 2007. The previous convocations and especially the third convocation that took place in Shanghai just a couple of months back have progressively been very successful. The RFID Academic Convocations offer a great opportunity for enthusiasts to follow the research happenings around the world. RFID Journal reports:

The convocations' objectives are to identify specific industry issues requiring a coordinated research response, define the underlying core technology research areas necessary to address these issues and continue the technology road-mapping process.”

RFID Tags: To Stop A Car Thief

Can RFID tagging stop the theft of luxury cars in Malaysia? That's what the Road Transport Department (RTD) Director-General hopes. The tags that they plan to use will be attached to license plates and be capable of transmitting up to 100 meters. What's more, the battery is expected to last 10 years. Handheld scanners at roadblocks could then be used to identify stolen vehicles. [IHT via Slashdot]

This is a different approach for an automotive application than in South Korea where cars in certain areas will be tagged as a traffic control measure, to ensure that only authorized drivers are allowed in certain metro areas on specific days. RFID use in the automotive sector is expected to grow by 20% per year between 2006 and 2010.

Biometric Or Contactless Payment?

[Commentary] In another fine example of abhorrent use of technology, Sawtry Community College is switching their student payment system from contactless smart cards to a fingerprint identification system. The reasoning is that the new system is more streamlined. [ITR Portal via SecureID News] This reminds me of the Scottish grade school that concocted some story about making all students pay for lunch using palm vein scanners being the only way not to embarass poorer students, who have their meals paid free.

My hypothetical question is, are these justifications for storing fingerprints of an entire student body? While a fingerprint-based biometric door lock for home use seems somewhat acceptable, there's just no accepting biometrics for payment in schools and colleges. (Though one benefit of the college's system is given as reportage for parents, who'll know what their children are eating. Right.)

It's all as bad, in my opinion, as the fear society being created in the UK where police are being given carte blanche to stop motorists (and pedestrians, I'm told by a contact) and force them to give up their fingerprints. We now live in a society where absolutely everyone is treated as a suspect because that's one great way to exert control over the populace to mass sell technology that would otherwise raise ire. This is not, in my outraged opinion, a legitimate use of biometrics.

Sequiam Biometric Deadbolt Lock

In what's claimed to be a first, Sequiam Biometrics is offering a biometric deadbolt lock, BioLock, for home use. A swipe of an authorized finger through a scanner grants access. The lock runs on double AA batteries and has a numeric keypad that makes it easy to manage users. [TMCNet via SecureID News]

While fingerprint biometrics probably tends to be met with caution by the average consumer because of its negative connotations, I can see something like this being more welcome than, say, the implantation of an RFID chip in the hand - like Amal Graftstra did when he grew tired of carrying house keys, and Mikey Sklar did purely for experimental reasons. Furthermore, the BioLock appears relatively easy to use, and biometric information seems to be stored only locally. It can even be set to allow one-time entries on a specific day, at a specific time.

Reasons To Tag Air Passenger Baggage

Airlines are suffering from an increased loss of passenger baggage lately, apparently since the US and UK foiled a terrorist plot in early August. As a result, more bags are being checked manually, which the system is unable to handle. Lost baggage costs airlines US$2.5B annually, and financially-troubled airlines are may be cutting corners. (Doesn't it make you wonder what happens to the 200,000 or so unrecovered bags yearly?)

Part of the problem is that in some countries, airlines handle the baggage checking process, and in others the airports. The decision as to who will cover the cost does play a factor, as item-level tagging isn't cheap. Since reusability is important, tags then have to be durable for years of use. Still, in today's atmosphere of fear, many passengers and most airlines likely see baggage tagging as an eventuality

[additional sources: Scripps News]

Is Anyone Really Using RFID?

That's a question that does actually get asked, and quite often. Louis Sirico and Andy Kowl of RFID Switchboard offer a guest column at The Manufacturer, deconstructing a wide feeling that maybe only a few hundred companies around the world are using RFID.

They say that there are in fact thousands of companies, and even list numerous examples of use, some of which are new to me. One example is that two companies are tracking coffins with RFID tags. Coffins are expensive, ranging from just sub-$1000 to many thousands, so a 50-cent tag is worth the cost. What's more, information about the body inside can be stored electronically on tags wth an appropriate amount of data storage space. Sounds like a rather unsettling, no doubt, though person is to replace the current method of affixing a slip of paper to coffin handles. If exhumation is ever needed, the paper helps identify the proper body.

Do Anti-RF Shields, Sleeves, and Wallets Work?

With all the privacy and security concerns about contactless key fobs, credit cards, payment cards, employee access cards, and e-passports, it's not surprising that several companies have popped up offering anti-RF (radio frequency) sleeves, envelopes, wallets and other forms. Kena Kai is one of the latest. Do any of these anti-RF forms work? Do they block out all appropriate frequencies? Digital Money World recently did a test of some anti-RF products, for different radio frequencies, and they discuss their results.

While some might see the warnings about security as a play for selling anti-RF product, research has proven that vulnerabilities do exist. My feeling is that these items are a good idea, and that contactless card issuing companies should include these as standard issue, after conducting their own tests, instead repeating their disproven mantra that their cards are secure. The same goes for the government and e-passports, etc. Stop saying what you think consumers want to hear and prove it.

Cashing Out with NFC

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

It’s all very well to talk of RFID-enabled mobile phones being used as a one-stop device that can open your car, pay your bus/train fare or grocery bills, provide information at tourist centers, et al. Don’t rub your eyes in disbelief; a few of these applications are already being put to use in the French town of Caen and Hanau in Frankfurt, Germany. The point I’m trying to make here is that for such technologies to gain widespread acceptance, it is imperative that the right infrastructure be in place.

The GSM Association is working towards this end – the organization which sets norms for more than 40 percent of the world’s mobile users, is hoping to bring about a global standard for the use of near field communications (NFC), the technology that would enable all the above-mentioned functions in a mobile phone. An RFID chip with NFC software will allow users to open their cars, play personalized music, download tickets, and also double as credit cards and subway tokens, according to a GSMA spokesperson.

How soon can we expect to see the technology being implemented? Well, that depends on the NFC Forum and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), says GSMA. Vodafone, 3, and Orange feature among the 14 operators who will join forces to detail business cases and user requirements for NFC.

Score One for RFID!

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Football fans the world over had their first brush with RFID at the FIFA World Cup that took place earlier this year in the form of tagged tickets and turnstiles. For those at Fulham, Coventry City, Manchester City, Reading, and Wigan, the experience continues. The London-based Premiership clubs are capitalizing on RFID-enabled smartcard tickets to reduce waiting times at the turnstiles and also boost security at the stadium. 

According to Fulham’s IT head Matthew McGrory, the tags cut average wait times to 4 seconds, from between 10 to 20 with ordinary tickets. The Fulham Craven Cottage was fitted out with 46 fixed and one mobile card reader for this deployment. Over 20,000 season-ticket holders and club members have been issued the tagged tickets that hold data according to the specific games paid for. Games can be subscribed to or cancelled either at the ticket office or over the phone.

Ticket touts and thieves are at the losing end here – a ticket reported lost will immediately be deactivated according to a unique code. Data on the cards can be transferred to new ones. The utility of the cards is being extended football – McGrory says that plans are afoot to allow the cards to be used for payment at shops in the stadium and to get cheap tickets on the London Underground on match days.

RFID Lowdown Blogger Featured On CBC TV

Canada's CBC Network has a news program called Canada Now which ran a segment on Thur Nov 23, 2006, about RFID-enabled contactless credit cards. I was one of the people interviewed for the segment. Instructions on where to find it are below.

Their angle was the security issues of contactless credit cards. I don't mind that they only used 1/6th of the content they taped me for, but the few seconds they did use makes me seem a bit like a digital hayseed, so to speak. That's only because they left out two crucial bits of info that I offered:

(1) The data from contactless credit cards might be skimmable, as per the recent NY Times article, but the likelihood of someone going around in the average city and doing that is probably fairly slim.

(2) Anyone having one of these contactless credit cards, no matter what generation card, should probably use an anti-RF sleeve or wallet to block out unauthorized readers. Better safe than sorry, and it's not like these things are all that expensive.

I'm hoping CBC TV runs another segment with more info. These sleeves should come standard with your credit card.

You can see the video (WMV format) at http://www.cbc.ca/video/. Click on the button that says "Canada NOW" and view the first 30 sec or so. The host's name is Ian Hanumansingh. If you see him, it's the right video. I'm in the intro, but the full segment starts at around 16:35 or so. The reporter's name is Havard Gould. It'll be removed from the main page Friday night (Nov 24), but will probably be available elsewhere on the site, though you'll have to find it - probably under the reporter's name.

Mobile RFID Redux: NFC Contactless Payment

Can NFC (Near Field Communication), aka contactless tech, become anything but huge with such big guns as Sony and NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors) teaming up [Contactless News] to make the chips for contactless payments in mobile RFID solutions. Not only that, they are calling their cross-bred RFID chip solution a universal contactless chip platform for mobile phones. And apparently GSM mobile providers are salivating over including the technology in their next wave of smart phones. Very smartphones, as they'll be able to make payments, give you access, and even identify you.

While obviously not everyone in the world has a cell phone, estimates are that there are more cellular numbers active in the USA than landlines. An unusual use of RFID-enabled cell phones? As car keys. No doubt people will come up with innovative uses of RF cell phones.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' RFID Trial

Nothing like a trial run when testing out a new form of payment, right? Not for the Jack-in-the-Box chain of fast food restaurants. They didn't bother with a trial of contactless credit cards, planning a complete rollout in all of their stores across the US. They're possibly aiming at a younger market in hopes of seeming cool. Are RFID-enabled contactless credit cards cool, as far as the under-35 consumer is concerned? [via Storefront Backtalk]

Now if they want to show real attitude, they can reject cash altogether, as apparently some parts of the United States, such as Washington, D.C., allow merchants to do so. The proviso is that cash can only be refused if the payment is being made up front, before the food is eaten (in this case). In a restaurant where payment is made after the meal, cash cannot be refused.

Smart Checks and RFID

-- By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Picture this – you’re in an upscale jewelry store, you’ve just stepped in to browse the sparklers on display, and you see a ring you absolutely must have. But you don’t normally carry around that kind of cash and you’ve left your credit card at home, and the only payment option left is your check book. Do you feel embarrassed or indignant that the store clerk eyes your check with some suspicion? Smart checks are here to prevent such delicate situations.

The checks are embedded with RFID chips which contain data related to your bank account. So on presentation, the payee can be certain that you do have the cash to cover the purchase. What’s more, he can rest assured that his payment is as good as in hand, since the chip blocks the check amount and deducts it from your account at the point of sale.

The technology has been patented in more than a 100 countries by the Dubai-based Amricon company.

RFID Lowdown - Thur Nov 16, 2006

Show Me The... Uh... Passport
The new Irish ICAO-compliant contactless passports will be supplied [Contactless News] by the same company that makes the paper money for over 150 countries, De La Rue. The books will be 34 and 66 pages and contain a 72kb chip storing details about each citizen, as well as a digital copy of the passport photo. An anti-skimming and eavesdropping feature called BAC (Basic Access Control) is present, as is Active Authentication, to prevent data cloning.

Malaysian Livestock To Be Tagged
Malaysia's Veterinary Services Department has plans to tag all of the country's 2.5 million livestock animals by 2008. Tags would be attached to the ears of cattle, buffaloes, goats, sheep and pigs. The objective is to ensure that only healthy animals are exported and sick animals quarantined. This program is similar to the NAIS initiative in the US.

Maxstream Extends ZigBee Range To 40 Miles
ZigBee, a low-cost, low-power, low-data rate wireless communications protocol, has had its range extended [EE Product Center] by up to 40 miles by modem supplier MaxStream through their XBee XTender bridge. The typical ZigBee range is 100-300 feet.

IBM RFID Retail Privacy Tags

To assuage consumers concerned about their privacy after purchasing merchandise with RFID tags, IBM and Marnlen came up with something called a clipped tag. This RFID tag is designed so that after an item is purchased at a retailer, a portion of the tag can literally be torn off, thereby reducing the read range of the section left on the merchandise.

Sounds great, right? The tag is about ready to go into production, despite a lack of customers. Though IBM and Marnlen are in discussions with retailers in North American and Europe. But RFID Hack, a blogger, says that this "clipped tag" from IBM is more about marketing than privacy.

Read the article for more details, but the crux of the matter is that these tags still do not protect consumer privacy (someone can still scan your purchases discreetly, but need to do it closer than 30 feet now), and that an anti-RF shopping bag would do a better job. However, as RFID Hack says, such bags would void merchant security systems. The reason the tags are left otherwise intact is supposedly so that the consumer can return the item if necessary, and the merchant's system will be able to credit them by scanning the still active tag.

Biometric Passports: Freddy Gets Fingered

Thinking about getting around the UK biometric e-passport reissuing by being/ staying overseas? Forget about it. The UK not only plans to carry with their "Secondary Biometrics" project to pull ex-patriate British citizens into the National Identity Register but it plans to fingerprint them. Time was when a civilized country only fingerpinted people when they were arrested. No wonder the UK has been declared an endemic surveillance society by Privacy International, a civil liberties watchdog, who puts the country in the same category as China and Russia. Next thing you know, they'll want to implant people with RFID chips. Maybe they should offer them free lunches and record their palm vein patterns. Might take a while and cost a few quid, but then, the Secondary Biometrics program isn't over until 2010 and hasn't even been costed out. Free lunch might cost less.

RFID Lowdown - Mon Nov 06, 2006

Smartcards And Banking Models
The Australian government plans to adopt a banking system model for the new citizen "access card", which provides access to government services. In other words, access requires entering a PIN code, just like for a debit/ ATM card. However, unlike debit cards, the citizen access cards will have a photo, signature, card number, and an RFID chip containing a digitized photo and signature. [via Australian IT News]

Jack In The Box Goes Contactless
The American chain of Jack in the Box restaurants will be adding contactless payment cards as a new payment option at all of their restaurants - something few other chains can claim. They'll be accepting the typical American Express, MasterCard PayPass, and Visa Contactless cards as well as Discover Network. They expect to have all restaurants rolled out with this payment option by the end of this year. [via Home BusinessWire]

Metal-Compatible RFID Tags
Metal has been the bane of RFID tags but QinetiQ and Crown Holdings have come up with a way to make metal containers with special antenna-less Gen 2 UHF tags. The tags would be able to handle the interference normally associated with metal by redirecting the RF signals. [via RFID Journal]

Biometrics Defeats The School Bully?

If you haven't experienced it yourself, you've seen it happen, at least on TV. The school bully and his lackeys "persuade" the milk money out of the weaker kids. Well a Scottish school has a solution to that problem, but for a different reason. For some reason, they're employing "palm vein scanning" biometrics supposedly as a way to encourage kids to eat better. [InfoWorld via SecureID News]

How does being able to identify a child by their palm encourage them to eat better? Well, the idea is that students from low-income families get free meals at school. But under old methods where students presented a ticket or coupon, they were sometimes picked on/ teased and wouldn't take advantage of the free meal.

It seems like an extreme solution for a good cause, and I still don't see how it encourages them to eat any better, unless students are limited to only healthy items. Because the system is new, privacy groups haven't weighed in yet, but had criticized a previously considered fingerprint-based system.

The InfoWorld article also indicates that the students are happy (why not - it's like something out of science fiction). Something as fun for kids would be a LAKS watch, which has RFID/ NFC technology and can be used for contactless payment. Though it'd probably be too costly a solution, since every student would have to have one under the premise that no student should feel singled out and thus stigmatized. But at least with the biometric system, the school bully can't steal your milk money.

Time Is Money: RFID Watches

In the mid-1980s, the colorful, funky Swiss-made Swatch watches were all the rage. I was young and outlandish and wore up to 5 of them on each arm, and gave away many more as gfits. Now Austria has the funky, colorful LAKS watches [Contactless News] which, despite their normal watch size, incorporate NFC (Near Field Communications) technology for contactless payment. LAKS stands for the initials of the watchmaker, Lucas Alexander Karl Scheybal. In addition to this new line, he has watches that have flash drives and play MP3s. Some incorporate employee access IDs or accept SIM cards and have a USB port. [Note: Swatch has an RFID-enabled watch as well.]

According to the Contactless News article, contactless-enabled watches have been in use for lift tickets at ski resorts for years. But the LAKS watches have additional features which allow it to be used for a variety of functions including transit, access, employee ID, etc. And it's popular, of all places, in Shanghai, China. (A recently-announced Chinese project resulted in an order for 125 million contactless, throwaway train tickets.)

LAKS has other watches, some of which were used at the FIFA World Cup (soccer) this year - and event that was massively RFID-enabled. This is a nice, handy way of combining a lot of RF-related functionality into a small, useful form factor - one that's already familiar and acceptable to consumers. Personally, I think we're going to see a lot more radio frequency tech incorporated into watches and wristband-type gadgets and gizmos. That, or something like the Korean MP3 player that also pays for train tickets.

Tagged - You're It

With online forums existing for pretty much any topic these days, it's not surprising that there's one called Tagged, for RFID implants. There are less than 800 members, but there are nearly 3,000 posts regarding RFID implants, including a sizable number containing technical info. Besides the list of members who have been tagged (some of whom have been prominently featured in the media, and some who are soldiers, if I've understood their post correctly), there are also tips on what activities you can and cannot do with a chip.

I came across the forum link, as well as that of AR+RFID Lab (a collective of artists using RFID), while reviewing an older article about artists and RFID at Wired - some of whom are implanted as well. But these aren't the only non-industrial uses of RFID out there. There's also one form of Parkour (Jackie Chan-like urban acrobatics), Pac-Lan and La Fuga, all of which are outdoor activities involving two or more participants. The RFID-enabled form of Parkour is competition, so there is more than one participant. Regular Parkour might be performed by one person. (One member of the Tagged forum mentioned that he gave up martial arts before his implant but does Parkour.)

Then there are video games including Snakes and Ladders and Mattel's Hyperscan hybrid video games platform. There are even children's dolls, for example Naoru-kun from Bandai, who are best known for their Tamagotchi electronic toys.

So there are people - albeit a very small segment of society - who are happy and proud to have a microchip implanted on them, typically between the webbing of thumb and forefinger. And there are still others using RFID in innovative ways in daily life. Acceptance of these uses of radio frequency technology might be an indication that a younger generation will actually welcome ubiquitous RFID into their lives.

MedicAlert To Use RFID Cards

MedicAlert is a non-profit service in North America where members with life-threatening allergies and other medical conditions wear a special bracelet or necklace engraved with identification. This allows paramedics to access information about the member, in case of an emergency situation. However, that access can take time, which could mean the difference between life and death for some people.

To reduce the access time, MedicAlert, with Siemens Business Services, will start issuing RFID-enabled cards to a select group of its members in the US. Medical information about each member will be stored on the radio frequency tag, which can be accessed by a handheld reader, thus reducing access time to almost nil. Once the patient has been taken to a hospital, more detailed patient information can be accessed from MedicAlert database. The initial phase was tested in late 2005, with another phase to follow. [via Webwire]

The healthcare industry is increasingly finding new applications for radio frequency technology. Some current applications include asset management, patient records managment, patient management. This is in addition to the use of RFID to pedigree pharmaceuticals in order to fight counterfeiting.

RFID Goes Mobile

RFID News has an article on how RFID is coming to wireless handheld devices and PDAs. WJ Communications has a new Gen2 RFID chipset geared towards both consumer and enterprise mobile devices. With some countries (such as the USA) having more mobile phones than landlines, and with companies like Nokia buying into RFID companies, the writing's on the wall. RFID is going to mobile, whether you like it or not.

Korea, France, and other countries are already testing the ability to pay with your phone for transit, parking (tickets), and/or movie tickets, using contactless technology embedded into (specific) mobile phones. Earlier this year, INSIDE Contactless offered an SD (Secure Digital) card-based contactless reader/writer module for Palm and Pocket PC devices. The module can read and write tags for six different protocols. TradeWind Technologies also has plug and play solutions for mobile devices.

It might seem to some people like a solution for a problem that doesn't exist, but a bit of reflection shows that RFID does actually make payment more convenient in some scenarios.

RFID Applications: Contactless Payment

[This post is part of a short series aimed at giving a quick overview of existing and future applications of RFID - radio frequencyidentification - technology .] RFID has been used for contactless payment for over a decade in the form of both smart cards the size of a credit card as well as small cylinders used as key fobs. Initial trials for key fobs were for payment at gas stations and their snack bars. More recently, contactless payment is being tested via cell phones embedded with an RFID chip.

In the case of contactless cards, some people are concerned over the privacy aspects of contactless card use. One concern is that cash is anonymous; contactless cards are generally not (some are, some are not). Another issue that crops up is the lack of privacy due to RFID use in CRM (Customer Relationship Management). If a retailer you frequent tracks all of your purchases thanks to item-level tagging and a contactless credit card, they have a record of your shopping behavior. While retailers may think that this enables them to provide CRM functions, consumers might be thinking that they don't want this type of information recorded. Though it already happens even without item-level tagging, if you use either a debit/ ATM card or credit card. RFID doesn't change that.

As for issues about data being intercepted from smart cards, contactless cards in particular have a read range of only a few centimeters, so this is highly unlikely. There, however, protective, RF-blocking wallets and sleeves available for those that are concerned.

RFID Applications: CRM - Customer Relationship Management

[This post is part of a short series aimed at giving a quick overview of existing and future applications of RFID - radio frequency identification - technology .] There are a number of ways that RFID can be used to reward VIP customers. One method that is being tested in a select few banks in Europe and Canada is a permission-based system that identifies a customer as they enter a branch location. The customer signs up to carry an RFID-enabled card, which is scanned at the entrance. The appropriate bank representative is immediately notified electronically, and that person can greet the customer and assist them accordingly.

There are of course less vanity-based CRM applications of RFID which simply involve retrieving customer information such as recent shopping habits. (Provided item-level tagging is used.) This information could then be used in stores to make recommendations for new products or services.

No Cash, Please

This is an interesting development regarding currency that I wasn't previously aware of. In some parts of the United States, it is perfectly legal for some merchants not to accept cash. Whether they can or not depends on the nature of the transaction and how the "debt" is incurred, according to an article by Dr. Katherine Albrecht. This of course opens up the way for a potentially cashless society, i.e., RFID-enabled contactless credit cards.

As person who does not use credit cards myself, but does use online payment processors such as Paypal, it's tough for me to maintain my old stance of keeping some cold, hard cash (literally) circulating in society, without sounding hypocritical, but there it is. My naive consumer point of view is that replacing currency entirely with contactless smartcards increases the cost of living. Someone has to pay for the cost of these cards. Whereas the cost of making bills and coins is paid for by taxes. If we become a cashless society, will our taxes be reduced accordingly? One might argue that the increased use of debit and credit cards without RFID already costs in bank fees, but I warrant that RFID-based cards cost significantly more.

Dog's Best Friend - RFID Chips?

Dr. Katherine Albrecht, co-author of the book SpyChips, explains why RFID chip implants may work for pets but not for humans. She points to a Houston Chronicle article about a dog that strayed 1,400 miles but was returned to its owner thanks to its microchip. (Though there are even older stories of dogs lost on vacation who found their own way home, thanks to some innate homing ability.) Dr. Albrecht says that it's stories like this make people thinking implanted chips can be used to "find anything that goes missing."

Since RFID does not work like GPS (Global Positioning System) devices, and implanted chip read ranges are about twelve inches, an implant cannot be used to find a kidnapped child, lost or captured soldier, etc. I have to agree with her assessment, and it's my primary reason for feeling that this "let's chip everyone" agenda of some groups such as VeriChip Corp. is pure and utter crap, and more of an attempted cash-grab than for any legitimate reason. (Do the math and figure out how much companies stand to gain if they can scare people into accepting a law that forces all human beings to get chipped.)

A few years back before I knew much about RFID beyond my experience with a certain contactless payment card, I wrote a large series of post-cyberpunk short stories set in a futuristic America (USNA - United States of North America = USA and Canada combined), where scanners are placed in a mesh-network formation all over cities, and a band of microchipped rebels manage to escape and find a way to jam the scanners. Short of a society with RFID readers placed in close formation, I don't think implanting people with microchips will have any real functional use, beyond maybe identifying the dead during disaster recovery.

RFID In Games

RFID is increasingly being used in sports (both for stadium tickets and equipment), including athletic activities such as Parkour - something just as vigorous as any professional sport, if not more. Now, people are participating in another outdoor activity, on a playing field, pretending to be characters from the classic Pac-Man video game. In this game, offered by Mobile Radicals and called Pac-Lan, RFID is used in both the costumes and in colored discs - representing the pills to be gobbled - placed around the field.

La Fuga, from a company called Négone, is a similar interactive RFID-based game being played in Spain that can involve up to 300 participants, each with an RFID-enabled PDA worn on their wrist. Contestants have to escape from a prison that changes its environment based on player performance. Quiz questions are asked and have to be answered, with the results controlling paths and doors. Participants have a limited amount of time to get out of the prison.

A number of video games are also now using RFID, as are children's toys.

[Additional sources: RFID News]

Implants and contactless payment for shopping "ok" for UK teens

-- By Shyama R, Staff Writer

Who grabs all the hi-tech stuff first? Teens - and looks like most teens in the UK are happy to try contactless payment according to a report. What's more some don't mind getting implants.

The report by Tomorrow's Shopping World suggests around 8 per cent of 13 to 19-year-olds were open to the idea of microchip implants while 16 per cent wanted trolleys to be fitted with SatNav systems. This compared to just 5 per cent and 12 per cent respectively for adults asked the same questions. More here.

Two thirds of teenagers and 62 per cent of adults questioned for grocery think tank IGD's report wanted self-scanning systems at shop checkouts. And some 7 per cent of people in both age groups were willing to use biometric iris or retina recognition payment systems.

The idea of having a high-tech shopping experience is catching on and customers are willing to have microchip implants in their bodies as a means of paying in stores -  can you believe that? Now isn’t that a clear indication of how intriguing RFID technology is to people everywhere?

The report, sponsored by technology services company EDS, followed an IGD poll of 500 teenagers and a similar number of adults about their predicted grocery shopping habits for the next decade. Ok the number polled not too many but still worth your interest.

In the US contactless payment is a hit.  But, how many want implants is yet to be surveyed - are any retail giants reading this. Now in the healthcare sector there is a real need for implants especially for the chronically ill for example.

Nevertheless contactless payment is the next big thing in shopping and that’s why leading provider of embedded RFID reader technology SkyeTek, Inc., are coming up with new support for this with thrown-in lures of consumer loyalty points etc.

On a lighter note, the Britons surveyed wished staff to pack their bags and have more staff involvement in the shopping experience. Anyway I feel that it is the willingness to try something new and youth that's making teens want implants for shopping and maybe to simply declare –“THAT'S HOT!”

Philips Semiconductor To NXP: The Transformation

A few months back, Philips Semiconductor, a division of the giant Royal Philips Electronics, was spun out as NXP. As a result, NXP received a private equity deal worth over US$8Bln. While Philips gave up majority ownership - keeping only 19.9% - they still have a stake, and it's been business as usual [Contactless News].

Since NXP formed, they kept the existing management team and have continued to work on various existing projects, particularly those involving RFID. According to Contactless News, NXP are focusing their efforts on five markets: automotive, identification, home, mobile and personal, and multimarket semiconductors. The 80.1% stake that Philips sold went to a private equity group formed by three equity firms. The reason for the sale was that Philips wanted to focus on consumer electronics.

Cubic Wins Award For Transit Smart Cards

--By Raj Dash, Staff Writer

Back when I lived in the big city, in my mid-twenties, I did a lot of consulting in neighboring cities and towns. While I lived in the heart of downtown, with access to a fairly good transit system with subway, buses and streetcars (no, not San Francisco), I often had to use up to three or four different systems to get to client offices. I could put up with the 1-1.5 hour trips in each direction, but trying to keep enough change, especially during the bitter cold of winter, was not enjoyable. It would have been nice to have a single transit card that I could use for all of them.

Well, Frost & Sullivan has awarded their Innovation & Advancement award to Cubic Transportation for just such a reason. Cubic links multiple transit operators and simultaneously offers a single payment system. This obviously makes things convenient for citizens in metropolitan areas where there are satellite towns and cities with their own transit systems. All they need is a single RFID-enabled contactless transit card.

The company also came up with a Tri-Reader that processes a number of ISO 14443-compliant (credit card form factor) contactless smart cards, including those used by occasional riders such as tourists. Cubic projects are ongoing in London (UK), South East Queensland (Australia) and a number of US cities including New York/ New Jersey, Washington, D.C./ Maryland, Atlanta, L.A., San Francisco and others. Another company working on innovative contactless transit ticketing is Innovision, with their Jewel chip. RFID is also being used to improve transit service.

[via Contactless News]

Free RFID EBook: TheVeriChip.com

--By Raj Dash, Staff Writer

TheVeriChip.com is a website offering two free documents (in single e-book) offering to reveal "the truth" about the VeriChip. VeriChip Corporation has an RFID microchip that has been designed to be implanted into people - and approved by the FDA for medical applications.

Since then, the VeriChip has caused a storm of controversy amongst civil libertarians and as a result, average citizens. Applications of the chip to date, around the world, has been for identifying dead bodies during disaster recovery (including Hurricane Katrina), volunteers for implant (including the chronically ill), as well as involuntary use (though not confirmed) amongst prisoners and the mentally ill. And even accidental use of microchips, though not the VeriChip itself. Not to mention, suggestions that the VeriChip be used for US soldiers, to replace the dog tag.

A quick scan of the ebook shows that they discuss all of the companies financially related to VeriChip Corporation, as well as the uses of the microchip. They also have a number of updates on the website, including one that is sure to fan the flames of controversy: an 11 year old girl whose parents are making her get chipped for fear that she might be kidnapped. (Prior research shows that the vast majority of childnappings are perpetrated by a disgruntled parent before or after a separation or divorce. It is otherwise rare.)

That said, I have not read the ebook yet, so I cannot vouch for any of the information inside.

RFID VIP Treatment: You Don't Know Me Like That

--By Raj Dash, Staff Writer

So you walk into a bank or store and suddenly people you don't know greet you by name and lavish you with attention. At least that's what would happen if banks, stores, and other places implement NCR's new RFID system, designed to help businesses cater to VIP customers. They can do this if you voluntarily agree to carry a special membership card embedded with an RFID chip.

While this might be ideal in private clubs, nightclubs, semi-private golf courses, I'm not so sure that treatment like this would necessarily be well received in openly public places. Though I could be wrong. However, only a few banks and retailers have tried the system, reluctant to invade customers' privacy.

Scottish Bank Contactless Trial

--By Raj Dash, Staff Writer

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is testing special dual-interface smart debit cards, supplied by Giesecke & Devrient, that are EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) compliant. They are the first European financial institution to use smart cards. During the trial, the only users are RBS employees. Giesecke & Devrient are the second-largest smart card manufacturer in the world. [via Contactless News]

Current research is showing that smart cards are going over well with Americans, in marked contrast to poorly-received trials in Canada in the early 1990s. While the RBS trial is the first of its kind in Europe, Paris has a contactless fare-payment trial whereby passengers use their RFID-enabled cell phones to pay transit fares. Warsaw, Poland is using contactless cards for transit and parking payments.

RFID Lowdown - Wed Oct 11, 2006

--By Raj Dash, Staff Writer

Jamaican RFID Toll Highway
Jamaica is currently working on a new Highway, 2000, which has a 21-lane toll plaza. Payment options include TransCore's eGo RFID sticker tag. The high-speed passive tags are applied to a car's windshield, operate at 915Mhz, have a read range of 31.5 feet (9.6m), and 2Kbits of read/write memory. [via BusinessWire] RFID has been use in toll collection in North America for at least a decade, possibly longer, and has been spreading in use to Europe, Asia, and South America as well.

China Investing In 20 RFID Programs
The Chinese government's Ministry of Science and Technology had listed 20 major RFID programs in 5 key areas, which will get a total of RMB128 Mln (=~ US$16.17M; RMB = Renminbi = Chinese Yuan) in funding. [via China Tech News]

Virginia Port Authority To Get RFID Tech
The Virginia Port Authority will be getting RFID technology to manage cargo container shipments. The technology is being installed by Savi Networks, which is a joint venture between Savi Technology (owned by Lockheed Martin) and Hutchison Port Holdings. Savi Networks has also installed other RFID systems for other port authorities around the world. [via Trading Markets]

RFID Standards: What Is ICAO?

ICAO stands for the International Civil Aviation Organization, an agency run by the United Nations and headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Part of their interests include border-crossing procedures, which are typically conducted at destination airports. As such, ICAO is overseeing the standards (PDF, 40 pages) for the new RFID-enabled e-passports.

These passports started being distributed in numerous UN member nations, especially in the European Union, in August 2006. Security experts have pointed out the security risks and shown how the data from the RFID chips in these e-passports can be cloned. The ICAO acknowledged the risk of something called a permanent RFID "session key". But about the cloned chips, industry groups say there is a little risk.

It's these sorts of inconsistencies about the potential security risk that no doubt get up the backs of civil libertarians and likely the general populace. While education about RFID is important, a lack of a trusted authority providing a definitive answer about security risks is likely to produce a lot of resistance to these e-passports.

RFID Privacy Issues: No End In Sight?

Sara Scafe Toole writes at OpEdNews that there is probably no end in sight to the privacy issues surrounding RFID, which includes smart cards, and e-passports. Her prediction:

...what is to come will be very intrusive, and invasive to allof our privacy; here in the US, and everywhere else.

She starts by pointing out that the US State Dept has already moved their old deadline of Dec 31st to Oct 26th for all passports, which are ICAO-compliant, to be embedded with RFID. This is despite reports that the information from said chips can be intercepted and cloned, according to experiments conducted by various security experts. It's possible that influential people might become security targets at airports.

Toole's recommendation, which is the same as many others, is to get a new passport now, before the changeover. It takes a day in most US cities, and while you may eventually have to get it replaced with a chipped version, at least you'll have a bit of delay.

Keep in mind that her article is an op-ed (opinion-editorial) piece.

SkyeTek Supports Contactless Payment

Just when I ruminate on how the lack of supporting infrastructure can hamper the adoption of groundbreaking technology such as contactless payment, SkyeTek, Inc. comes out with the news that the M2 HF SkyeModule now offers support for contactless payment, consumer loyalty, and patron management applications. The M2 can be used in cash-operated systems such as vending machines, appliances, parking meters, turnstiles, etc., and can also be embedded into point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

M2 uses SkyeTek’s Advanced Universal Reader Architecture (AURA) to allow seamless integration into payment environments. It supports secure contactless payments via MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover, and interfaces with payment applications through ReaderWare, which allows software to be upgraded to a future tag and also provides security protocols through an abstraction layer.

The module costs $60, and is available to OEMs, systems integrators, and distributors as reader modules or ReaderWare software licenses.

RFID Baggage Tagging Revenue To Double By 2011

The use of RFID for tagging airline bagging is a relatively new application, but revenue from it is expected to grow to nearly US$28M by 2011, which is double that expected for this year. This is according to a new report by ABI Research. Baggage tagging trials are already ongoing, or are planned, for a number of international cities including Hong Kong and Las Vegas. Paris has a joint trial with Amsterdam. South Korea's Asiana airline is running a six-city trial.

In all of these trials, the purpose of radio frequency tagging is to prevent baggage mishandling and loss. However, some high-volume airports are trialling RFID to decrease times for passenger check-in. While there are several ongoing projects, mass adoption at airports is hindered by the cost of tags, which will be disposable. One possibility is to use printed polymer tags, once that technology is perfected, mounted on an adhesive sticker of some sort, which might be applied to each piece of luggage.

[sources: Wireless DevNet, TMC Net, Unstrung]

Contactless Payment Smartcards A Hit?

According to the Smart Card Alliance, a survey indicates that contactless payment is a hit, and that "the great majority of US consumers are either ready to use contactless or have already begun to do so for payments." Of the people surveyed (sample size 3,135 people, online), 13% had used smartcards and 95% of those people found it "fast and easy."

As I'm sure I've said elsewhere, as a person with a math and statistics background, I rarely trust surveys of under 10,000 people, especially when the sample size is supposed to represent 250+ million people. The survey is a marked contrast to the reaction RFID smartcards had in the early 1990s in two locales in Canada. The two locales, while relatively small towns by American standards, are small cities in Canada and are said to both be demographically reflective of the entire Canadian populace, and are often test beds for new products and technologies. The smartcards tested there met with mostly either resistance or indifference, and my understanding is that trials were ended early.

On the other hand, in the intervening time, I've noticed a distancing of both the terms "smart cards" and "contactless payment" from "RFID" in promotional materials. If a survey of 3,000+ people is truly indicative of the reception such cards would get from the entire populace of the United States, then not using the term RFID will likely help. Contactless cards have been the subject of security concerns for activities such as unauthorized reading, data retrieval, and/or data cloning. Smartcards are also being recommended for a variety of national identification cards such as PASS, which would facilitate border crossings between the US and Canada.

[sources: Marketwire]

Implanting Babies With RFID?

Truth is stranger than fiction? Yikes. Let this be a warning to parents who let their babies chew on dangerous objects like keys, especially car keys - many of which have RFID chips. Spychips has an excerpt taken from a London, UK newspaper from 2002, about a baby who swallowed part of his mother's car key. It appears he swallowed the part with an RFID chip. But with the rest of the key in the ignition, supposedly his mother pressed him up against the steering wheel and the car started. Many cars in Canada and the US, and obviously the UK, have RFID in car keys and steering column to prevent theft. This should make Scott Silverman, the CEO of VeriChip's parent company very happy.

Smart Cooking With RFID?

Kitchen cookware company Vita Craft has a series, dubbed RFiq, of specially designed cookpots with embedded RFID chips. The pots require special IH (induction heat) cooktops, which Vita Craft also makes. The cooktops form a closed system, whereby the heating amount and duration can be controlled. To top it all off, the RFiq system comes with RFID-enabled recipe cards which control the entire cooking process.

Now you're probably wondering why anyone would ever want such a system, but there are certainly useful applications of such RFID use for, say, people with Alzheimer's, or maybe busy people, especially parents, who might not always have time to pay full attention in the kitchen (say if there are kids running around).

RFID Unusual Uses: Parkour

You might have seen it in TV commercials: a group of twenty-somethings jumping and vaulting and dropping and generally doing acrobatics in urban areas. (See YouTube video above and below.) They're usually so good they make the activity look easy. But their moves are jaw-droppingly amazing, and reminiscent of the acrobatics of martial arts actor Jackie Chan. I never get tired of watching these incredible athletes in their free-spirited endeavours.

This practice, called Parkour, is discussed in a new RFID-enabled form at The RFID Weblog and Nearfield.org. The RFID is used to set up a sort of obstacle course in three dimensions, and consists of three components: a base station, roaming discs with an RFID reader/ writer, and wearable cip. Read more at The RFID