RFID Issues

RFID Issues

Right now, you can buy a hammer, a pair of jeans, or a razor blade with anonymity. With RFID tags, that may be a thing of the past. Some manufacturers are planning to tag just the packaging, but others will also tag their products. There is no law requiring a label indicating that an RFID chip is in a product. Once you buy your RFID-tagged jeans at The Gap with RFID-tagged money, walk out of the store wearing RFID-tagged shoes, and get into your car with its RFID-tagged tires, you could be tracked anywhere you travel. Bar codes are usually scanned at the store, but not after purchase. But RFID transponders are, in many cases, forever part of the product, and designed to respond when they receive a signal. Imagine everything you own is "numbered, identified, catalogued, and tracked." Anonymity and privacy? Gone in a hailstorm of invisible communication, betrayed by your very property.

But let's not stop there. Others are talking about placing RFID tags into all sensitive or important documents: "it will be practical to put them not only in paper money, but in drivers' licenses, passports, stock certificates, manuscripts, university diplomas, medical degrees and licenses, birth certificates, and any other sort of document you can think of where authenticity is paramount." In other words, those documents you're required to have, that you can't live without, will be forever tagged.

Consider the human body as well. Applied Digital Solutions has designed an RFID tag - called the VeriChip - for people. Only 11 mm long, it is designed to go under the skin, where it can be read from four feet away. They sell it as a great way to keep track of children, Alzheimer's patients in danger of wandering, and anyone else with a medical disability, but it gives me the creeps. The possibilities are scary. In May, delegates to the Chinese Communist Party Congress were required to wear an RFID-equipped badge at all times so their movements could be tracked and recorded. Is there any doubt that, in a few years, those badges will be replaced by VeriChip-like devices?

Surveillance is getting easier, cheaper, smaller, and ubiquitous. Sure, it's possible to destroy an RFID tag. You can crush it, puncture it, or microwave it (but be careful of fires!). You can't drown it, however, and you can't demagnetize it. And washing RFID-tagged clothes won't remove the chips, since they're specifically designed to withstand years of wearing, washing, and drying. You could remove the chip from your jeans, but you'd have to find it first.

That's why Congress should require that consumers be notified about products with embedded RFID tags. We should know when we're being tagged. We should also be able to disable the chips in our own property. If it's the property of the company we work for, that's a different matter. But if it's ours, we should be able to control whether tracking is enabled.

Security professionals need to realize that RFID tags are dumb devices. They listen, and they respond. Currently, they don't care who sends the signal. Anything your companies' transceiver can detect, the bad guy's transceiver can detect. So don't be lulled into a false sense of security.

With RFID about to arrive in full force, don't be lulled at all. Major changes are coming, and not all of them will be positive. The law of unintended consequences is about to encounter surveillance devices smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

RFID 101

Invented in 1969 and patented in 1973, but only now becoming commercially and technologically viable, RFID tags are essentially microchips, the tinier the better. Some are only 1/3 of a millimeter across. These chips act as transponders (transmitters/responders), always listening for a radio signal sent by transceivers, or RFID readers. When a transponder receives a certain radio query, it responds by transmitting its unique ID code, perhaps a 128-bit number, back to the transceiver. Most RFID tags don't have batteries (How could they? They're 1/3 of a millimeter!). Instead, they are powered by the radio signal that wakes them up and requests an answer.

Most of these "broadcasts" are designed to be read between a few inches and several feet away, depending on the size of the antenna and the power driving the RFID tags (some are in fact powered by batteries, but due to the increased size and cost, they are not as common as the passive, non-battery-powered models). However, it is possible to increase that distance if you build a more sensitive RFID receiver.

RFID chips cost up to 50 cents, but prices are dropping. Once they get to 5 cents each, it will be cost-efficient to put RFID tags in almost anything that costs more than a dollar.

RFID Chips Are Here

RFID chips are being embedded in everything from jeans to paper money, and your privacy is at stake.

Bar codes are something most of us never think about. We go to the grocery store to buy dog food, the checkout person runs our selection over the scanner, there's an audible beep or boop, and then we're told how much money we owe. Bar codes in that sense are an invisible technology that we see all the time, but without thinking about what's in front of our eyes.

Bar codes have been with us so long, and they're so ubiquitous, that its hard to remember that they're a relatively new technology that took a while to catch on. The patent for bar codes was issued in 1952. It took twenty years before a standard for bar codes was approved, but they still didn't catch on. Ten years later, only 15,000 suppliers were using bar codes. That changed in 1984. By 1987 - only three years later! - 75,000 suppliers were using bar codes. That's one heck of a growth curve.

So what changed in 1984? Who, or what, caused the change?

Wal-Mart.

When Wal-Mart talks, suppliers listen. So when Wal-Mart said that it wanted to use bar codes as a better way to manage inventory, bar codes became de rigeur. If you didn't use bar codes, you lost Wal-Mart's business. That's a death knell for most of their suppliers.

The same thing is happening today. I'm here to tell you that the bar code's days are numbered. There's a new technology in town, one that at first blush might seem insignificant to security professionals, but it's a technology that is going to be a big part of our future. And how do I know this? Pin it on Wal-Mart again; they're the big push behind this new technology.

So what is it? RFID tags.

VeriChips Violate Privacy

VeriChips Violate Privacy

Radio frequency identification chips are ubiquitous little buggers. Most of us already use them
without realizing. If you've ever flown through a toll booth using an
EZPass, quickly purchased gas with ExxonMobils' SpeedPass, or chipped
your French poodle Francesca with an ID tag, you're onboard the RFID
bandwagon.
RFID tags are microchips, generally a wee-bit longer than a rice
grain, that act as transmitters, always ready for a radio wave signal
to pick them up. The tag responds by sending a unique ID code back to
the transceiver, or RFID reader, whichever asked the chip to respond.
Many other uses have already been found for the RFID chips, including
replacing keys for access to top-security labs, Prius car owners to
start their engines, and giant corporations like Wal-Mart employ the
high-tech tool to track inventory.
Soon products we purchase will contain them too. US passports will
come chip equipped and Michelin plans on inserting tags into their
tires. Anonymity and privacy are about to become part of the past.
But now there's a new personal use for the chip on the market-an
eerily invasive method that gets you right under the skin. VeriChip Corporation is the only purveyor of the
VeriChip human ID implant, injected into one's right arm.
Implantable tags for humans are a complete violation of privacy-an
unprecedented way for Big Brother to spy on anyone, anywhere, anytime.
The VeriChip can provide any information you store on it, identity
information, medical history, credit card, bank account info,
or access to your building's office. In the future you won't even have
to bust out your wallet for a Coke at the vending machine. The most
personal information and most menial transactions will be done from
your arm. Nothing could be more convenient.
But having government being able to track my every move anywhere on
the planet doesn't appeal me. Furthermore, I won't have my arm scanned
for others to more easily retrieve my most private records. I
refuse to reduce myself to nothing more than a barcode.
What proves truly troublesome comes in the information VeriChip was
reluctant to disclose about their product. "A hacker can simply walk
by a chipped person and clone his or her VeriChip signal, a threat

already demonstrated by security researches," according to Liz
McIntyre, CASPIAN privacy advocate in a press release on
Spychips.com.
Poof! Instant identity theft. A feat that any laptop
owning geek could pull off with a tight squeeze next to someone in an
elevator, or by 'accidentally' bumping into an unsuspecting passerby
on a sidewalk.
South of the border the chips are being marketed to trace kidnap
victims. Solusat, Mexico's VeriChip distributor has already begun
injecting microchips as a preventative measure under their VeriKid
program. Ironically enough, the flesh-embedded microchip will probably
prove to be more of a kidnapping aid for the suspect rather than
providing emergency ID for the victim. In the same manner in which
cookies attached to a website's browser serve to recognize returning
customers-complete with personal suggestions for CD selections-hackers
can attach cookies to a RFID chip, having the ability to track your
every move.
In medical emergencies, ambient radio waves found in ambulances may
interfere with the VeriChip scanning equipment. Technical
difficulties such as a patient's database being unavailable, or
unknowingly erased and replaced with false information-courtesy of a
hacker-would only have a tragic result.
RFID technology terrifies me. It's unethical, morally wrong, and even worse than what happened during the holocaust.
An ID chip would serve just that purpose, the ability to be tracked.
Only now on a much larger scale.
Even more horrifying, at least for God fearing people such as myself,
many believe VeriChip to be completing a Bible prophecy about a sign
depicting the end times in which all people will receive a mark on
their right hand or forehead, calling it the "mark of the beast," in
which people become no more than a number. 666 to be exact.
But I'm not a number. I'm a person, and I don't want to be scanned or
treated like an item. I don't want to feel traced or followed, without
privacy, without rights. I want the freedom to roam as I please
without fearing someone will hack into my life or track me as easily
as Wal-Mart inventory.

I recently read an interesting article, Boys in the hood: the fight for religion's soul. The article is written by a visitor who spent a bit of time with the monks of the Esphigmenou monastery at Mount Athos. While the bulk of the article reveals the life of the monks, one paragraph in particular caught my eye:

"As I walk through the stone gateway for the last time, I pass an aged monk, sitting sentinel beneath its frescoes. I offer him a Quality Street - the last of my bulwark against a beans-only diet. He takes the box and turns it over carefully, methodically. Then he points to the barcode, and shakes his head, his long beard accentuating the motion. The packet is returned, untouched."

I found it awe inspiring that the monk (mentioned in this story) took such a clear stand against the technology that so many of us not only take for granted, but generally overlook. While I see no "evil" in the bar code system itself, I do believe that it is the technological forerunner of the RFID and microchip (VeriChip) system that is being globally established.

The 666 found in Bar Codes

On a website by Eric Jewell we find the topic of 666 as well as the FAQ: Is The UPC Code The Forerunner Of The "Mark of the Beast"?

His observation and explanation of the bar code system shed some light on the question, but above all, his conclusions wraps up the fact that the old technology will make way for the new. He writes:

"Is the bar code the mark of the beast? Of course not... but... it is my honest belief that a bar-coded, implantable computer chip will be. The evidence is overwhelming, and technologically speaking it is the only thing that will completely fulfill everything we are told about it. Technologically it is the only thing we have that even comes close. Biblically its an exact hit. As far as current events, and the direction we as a world are heading, it is inevitable in time."

To better understand the UPC code it would be best to visit George J. Laurer's personal site, where he ironically, has a page dedicated to those Christians that apparently pestered him about "helping to invent the mark of the beast". He admits that the numbers 666 do appear in the code and we can find his reply to "666" questions on a page titled QUESTIONS about the U.P.C. and the New Testamant.

Laurer states that it is simply a coincidence then continues to answer a question:

Question: Rumor has it that the lines (left, middle, and right) that protrude below the U.P.C. code are the numbers 6,6,6... and that this is the international money code. I typed a code with all sixes and this seems to be true. At least they all resemble sixes. What's up with that? 11/11/98

Answer: Yes, they do RESEMBLE the code for a six. An even parity 6 is:
1 module wide black bar
1 module wide white space
1 module wide black bar
4 module wide white space


There is nothing sinister about this nor does it have anything to do with the Bible's "mark of the beast" (The New Testament, The Revelation, Chapter 13, paragraph 18). It is simply a coincidence like the fact that my first, middle, and last name all have 6 letters. There is no connection with an international money code either.

For more hogwash about 666 implications of the U.P.C., government form numbers, other publications, codes and the like, see Mary Sterwart Relfe's book "The New Money System". Such hype about the U.P.C. has been around since 1973.


From Bar Codes to RFID
On a separate page on this site, there is an article by David C. Allais on, RFID: A balanced perspective
where the connection between the bar code and RFID are made:


"An RFID tag is simply a microchip attached to an antenna. This RFID tag is a data carrier analogous to a printed bar code or to the magnetic stripe on your credit card. Unlike bar codes, RFID does not require a line of sight because tags are read by radio waves rather than by reflected light."

Allais then points out that the RFID made its beginning in the 1970s and continues:
"The catch-all term RFID embraces considerable variety including active or passive tags, read-only or read-write, and four widely separated radio frequencies. Tags can range in size from tiny capsules for injection under an animal's skin to large active tags for fast-moving rail cars. The distance at which an RFID tag can be read depends on tag type, antenna configuration and RF power. The smallest passive tags require near contact while larger active tags may be read from a distance of over 100 feet."

Tagged animals, Chipped People
So, where do we go from there? Well, the way technology has continued to advance, we have gone from animals being tagged, to humans being tagged.Below is an excerpt from a page of a person who has been tagged twice, once in each hand:


"Amal has two RFID implants, one in each hand. His left hand contains a 3mm by 13mm EM4102 glass RFID tag that was implanted by a cosmetic surgeon using a scalpel to make a very small cut, into which the implant was placed. His right hand contains a 2mm by 12mm Philips HITAG 2048 S implant with crypto-security features and 255 bytes of read/write memory storage space. It was implanted by a family doctor using an Avid injector kit like the ones used on pets. He can access his front door, car door, and log into his computer using his implants, and has written a book called RFID Toys, which details how to build these and other RFID enabled projects."

As we all know, since the beginning of implantable microchips, VeriChips or generic chips, they have been implanted into people for various reasons. The reasons range from medical, to security, digital cashless transactions or just for fun.

Have we allowed technology to cross the line of moral ethics? Furthermore, will technology become a "helping hand" in the spiritual downfall of mankind? Perhaps the answers to these questions will only become clear to some people after technology has become an active instrument in separating us from God. Even then, some will doubt the scriptures, while others who call themselves Christians will betray God and ignore the written prophesy concerning the end. Those who seek the truth, will see through the deceptions of the times.

The general belief among many (some with tinfoil hats, some simply with religious conviction) is that all of this technology is leading us to one thing, the micro chipping of mankind, and the replacement of legal tender with a global RFID database system. A system, that will require us to be chipped, that is, if we desire the ability to "buy or sell". It's up to us to refuse the mark, or "cash-in" on it, as scripture states in Rev.13:16-18:

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

I tend to believe that with the way technology is advancing this will all eventually boil down to linking products and micro chipped people together. What we have to accept, is that it has come to pass that a "mark" has been created and implanted into people; a mark, which has a cashless transaction ability. What is left now is for a global agreement to be implemented, which will force society to use that RFID chip in place of cash transactions.

But that's just what I think.

RD5000 Mobile RFID Reader

Extend the reach of your RFID network and achieve a new level of visibility into inventory and assets with the RD5000 Mobile RFID Reader. This compact, rugged reader can be installed almost anywhere — on material handling equipment such as forklifts, on mobile carts, portable skate wheel conveyors or even in hard to reach places where a cabled fixed reader would not be practical.Designed for true mobility and mobile applications, this device provides wireless LAN connectivity so product is easily tracked as it moves throughout your operations. The result is granular real-time information — allowing you to achieve a new level of productivity and efficiency throughout your enterprise.

100% free of network, power and antenna cablesFacilitates implementation of RFID read points in new areas of the enterprise, expands visibility of product movement and enables new productivity-saving applications.Integrated 802.11a/b/g WLAN radiosFlexible, reliable connection with wireless LAN for real-time inventory visibility; features unique to Symbol that deliver superior and reliable wireless connectivity.Integrated Bluetooth®Enables wireless communication between RD5000 and an on-board vehicle computer for a completely cable-free solution; ensures constant connection to the onboard computer — even in areas wherethere is no reliable WLAN connection.Integrated rugged antennaEliminates the need for separate antennas, cables, mounting brackets and connectors to further simplify installation and reduce maintenance.Integrated battery with optional external power sourceSelf-contained battery power enables true mobility and eliminates the need to run power cabling — and the associated expense; optional external power source available.Interactive sensing technologiesAcceleration sensor and proximity sensor facilitate a variety of applications — for example, can be used to maximize battery life by enabling the RD5000 to activate RFID operation based on vehicle motion; triggers RFID reads based on proximity to objects, such as pallets.IP66 sealingCompletely sealed against dust and jets of water, ensuring reliable operation in nearly any environment, from the warehouse to the yard and more.Industry standard platformIntel® XScale® 624 MHz PXA270 processor and enhanced memory architecture enable easy integration into your existing technology environment.Microsoft® Windows® CE 5.0Advanced operating system provides robust application support.MC9000 series compatible battery and chargersSignificantly reduces investment in batteries and chargers for enterprises that are already using Symbol's MC9000 series mobile handheld computers.

Item Locator System Item Locator is a unique patented system for assisting staff to quickly locate items inside a large single building space such as a warehouse or factory, or over a wide open area such as a storage yard or a construction site. Item Locator is particularly suited to instantly finding objects in difficult environments where there are many similar looking items in close proximity, or where the search area is large. Item Locator is scaleable and so may be used to tag anything from a handful up to thousands of items, which can each then be instantly located within a square kilometre area. The system has been designed to focus solely on the items being sought at any one time and so is optimised to find between one to ten items in any single search. The items in questions may be anything such as high value assets, components, plant, mobile equipment, pallets of goods or even people etc. The items are tagged in advance and when sought the associated tag is woken up by a radio signal. The tag position is ascertained and the tag emits a loud beeping noise and flashing light so it will be quickly located by searching staff.
The Item Locator System can be installed as the primary means of finding items or as a secondary back-up method if the formal systems fail. An example application is where key parts are required quickly for mission critical maintenance, but they are stored in brown cardboard boxes with hundreds of other similar boxes stacked on pallets across many warehouse racks. The warehouse system in theory provides the formal location of where such an item ‘should be’, but if it has been put away incorrectly, moved or misplaced it could take hours or even days to find it through a manual search of all the racking. By contrast the Item Locator system helps staff find the required items within minutes.
Traditional RFID systems do not perform this task very well without a significant multiple reader implementation across the whole site which is expensive, inflexible and time consuming. For large area coverage a traditional RFID system could take weeks of planning, configuration, implementation and tuning effort. By contrast our Item Locator system is quick, easy and cheap to implement as it only requires one transmitter to be installed in the centre of the site or building which can cover a large area up to one kilometre square. Our Item Locator system is the closest to ‘plug and go’ as is possible for an RFID system to be and can be installed and delivering value in under an hour.

Outdoor GPS Tracking

GPS is the technology of choice for outdoor tracking of vehicles, assets and staff over a wide geographic area. Where an object needs to be tracked outdoors and also within buildings, then a combined RFID and GPS tagging system can be used as GPS alone does not provide indoor positioning.

RFID Centre can provide complete tracking systems including GPS personnel, asset or vehicle mount units and a unique flexible web based application software system called Universal Tracker. Tracking information is made available to multiple end-users over the Internet from a dedicated password protected web server. The system provides control, visibility, security, safety and real-time management of remote resources such as assets, vehicles and staff.

The Universal Tracker GPS software can be rapidly configured to represent the key information associated with any object class that your organisation wishes to track – so it can literally ‘track anything’ through one consolidated system. Most GPS tracking systems assume that only vehicles needs to be tracked and so have hard-coded only the handful of fields associated with vehicle information. By contrast our Universal Tracker system has been designed in such a flexible way that it allows customers to represent many different mobile object classes or resources such as plant, equipment, products, machinery, containers, consignments, vehicles, loan workers – so they may be all tracked and optimised. The system adopts the customer’s naming conventions, icons and terminology for any object class such that it can be rapidly implemented and instantly understood by staff users. An overview diagram showing how the system is used to track vehicles is shown below :
Universal Tracker System Features : Overt or covert installation of vehicle or asset GPS units, plus small form factor personnel GPS units Long battery life units with regular data reporting via the GSM/GPRS mobile phone network back to the server Geo-fencing - create multiple user defined boundaries and zones Create custom rules associated with vehicles or objects passing into or out of the zone that may trigger further actions or messages Issue alerts by SMS, systems messages or e-mail if rules or conditions are triggered such as a zone boundary being crossed by a specific vehicle or object class View object movements in real-time by configurable tables or through on-screen mapping with different icons for each object class Real-time position reporting Automatic arrival and departure notification with date/time stamp Snail trails and journey reports Supports combined GPS and RFID reporting – know where your vehicle is and what load is inside Route history log and reporting including downloads to MS Excel spreadsheets for further analysis

Indoor RFID Tracking

Passive RFID systems can be used over short-ranges where the objects to be tracked pass through a small number of known narrow points that can be automatically monitored – such as a pallet of goods passing through a door in a warehouse. Passive RFID systems are only capable of recording the movement of objects at those specific choke points and loose visibility outside of those points. Active RFID provides superior performance where real-time tracking is required throughout a larger or more complex area, such as within a hospital, industrial or office building with many corridors, doors and rooms. Battery powered active tags have far greater signal range and the active readers are generally cheaper, thus making deployment more cost effective overall. An active RFID system is viable where the objects to be tracked are higher value, mission critical, have a consequential impact if not quickly located, or there is an additional security, regulatory or health and safety requirement for such information. TagMobile is the brand name of the RFID Centre active real-time location and tracking system which incorporates both hardware and software in an integrated solution. TagMobile is a highly configurable system that provides superior indoor positional accuracy to all other systems as it uses patented tri-technology allowing the intelligent tag to ascertain its location with 100% certainty. TagMobile will locate and record the movements of people and objects anywhere within its predefined reader network. It can govern those movements with a system of rules based on associated events and actions such as an asset passing into a particular zone within the building. The following diagram shows TagMobile system architecure within a hospital environment:

TagMobile is scalable from a standalone department system to a campus wide network and can be customized to meet user’s specific process requirements. TagMobile can be installed as a completely wireless system using WiFi or Ethernet TCP/IP or a combination of the two to send positional data back to the central system with the lowest implementation costs. With appropriate password security authorised staff can then access the server to view the location of those assets or people from anywhere within the organisation.

Tag Mobile gives customers the ability to manage the following: People and Asset Visibility Asset and Item Protection Evacuation Management Dwell Time or Time and Attendance Area Detection Access Control Mobile Resource Optimisation Organisations will achieve the following benefits by using TagMobile: Secure facilities Protect personnel Reduce asset loss Locate assets/equipment Optimise mobile resources Increase workforce productivity Compliance to process Perform real-time stock Improve estate utilisation

HALO Infant Protection System

EXI Wireless Systems Inc.

HALO is the ultimate infant protection

Details

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HALO is the ultimate infant protection. HALO "P-Tag" transponders will create system alarms if removed from the patient. Any attempt to exit the HALO system perimeter will invoke countermeasures and alarms alerting staff. The HALO central station is a computer with full color video display. HALO alarms and detection points are clearly identified in the graphical representation of your facility layout.

FEATURES
• EXI's exclusive patient tag senses if it has been removed from the patient.
• HALO supports up to 10 central stations, providing color displays of your facility's controlled exits and alarm conditions.
• Simple user interface minimizes staff training.
• Automatic patient identification for tag removal or egress alarms.
• Door bypass features allow staff to escort patients without alarms.
• Automatic door control prevents unattended patient egress.
• Industry leading lift elevator interface locks down elevators while minimizing staff interruptions.

Infant Protection
HALO transponders are specially designed for infants. Cut band technologies require constant supervision from staff to ensure the protective device remains on the infant during weight loss periods. EXI patient transponders' flexible band does not require repeated tightening. If the band does slip off or is intentionally removed, HALO will immediately notify staff at the central station by identifying the infant and the area where tag removal has occurred in your facility. The HALO central site will maintain a log of activity in the system including alarms, staff bypasses and tag removals. The central site is also used to re-assign patient tags when admitting new patients into the facility.

Flexibility
HALO can operate stand-alone or integrate into a larger system, providing your facility with the desired level of protection. HALO systems may operate in conjunction with:
• fire alarm overrides;
• lift elevator control;
• video equipment;
• various card reader systems;
• door mag-lock systems;
• paging systems.

EXI provides a full compliment of peripheral hardware such asannunciators and bypass devices to tailor your system needs.

EXI Wireless Systems Inc., Suite 100 - 13551 Commerce Parkway, Richmond, BC V6V 2L1. Tel: (800) 667-9689; Fax: (604) 207-7765.

Computer chips get under skin of US enthusiasts

Forgetting computer passwords is an everyday source of frustration, but a solution may literally be at hand - in the form of computer chip implants.

With a wave of his hand, Amal Graafstra, a 29-year-old entrepreneur based in Vancouver, Canada, opens his front door. With another, he logs onto his computer.

Tiny radio frequency identification (RFID) computer chips inserted into Mr Graafstra's hands make it all possible.

"I just don't want to be without access to the things that I need to get access to. In the worst case scenario, if I'm in the alley naked, I want to still be able to get in (my house)," Mr Graafstra said in an interview in New York, where he is promoting the technology.

The computer chips, which cost about $US2 ($2.70), interact with a device installed in computers and other electronics. The chips are activated when they come within 3 inches of a so-called reader, which scans the data on the chips.

The "reader" devices are available for as little as $US50.

Graafstra said at least 20 of his tech-savvy pals have RFID implants.

"I can't feel it at all. It doesn't impede me. It doesn't hurt at all. I almost can't tell it's there," agreed Jennifer Tomblin, a 23-year-old marketing student and Mr Graafstra's girlfriend.

'Abracadabra'

Mikey Sklar, a 28-year-old Brooklyn resident, said, "It does give you some sort of power of 'Abracadabra,' of making doors open and passwords enter just by a wave of your hand."

The RFID chip in Mr Sklar's hand, which is smaller than a grain of rice and can last up to 100 years, was injected by a surgeon in Los Angeles.

Tattoo artists and veterinarians also could insert the chips into people, he said.

For years, veterinarians have been injecting similar chips into pets so the animals can be returned to their owners if they are lost.

Mr Graafstra was drawn to RFID tagging to make life easier in this technological age, but Mr Sklar said he was more intrigued by the technology's potential in a broader sense.

In the future, technological advances will allow people to store, transmit and access encrypted personal information in an increasing number of wireless ways, Mr Sklar said.

Wary of privacy issues, Mr Sklar said he is developing a fabric "shield" to protect such chips from being read by strangers seeking to steal personal information or identities.

One advantage of the RFID chip, Mr Graafstra said, is that it cannot get lost or stolen. And the chip can always be removed from a person's body.

"It's kind of a gadget thing, and it's not so impressive to have it on your key chain as it is to have it in you," Mr Sklar said. "But it's not for everyone."

Mr Sklar's girlfriend, Wendy Tremayne, has yet to be convinced. She said she probably would not inject the computer chip into her body unless she thought it was a "necessity".

"If it becomes more convenient, I may," said the 38-year-old artist and yoga teacher. "(But) I'd rather have an organic life."

-Reuters

Miniaturization

RFID is the technology which makes it easy to conceal or incorporate them in other items. For example, in 2009 researchers at Bristol University successfully glued RFID microtransponders to live ants in order to study their behavior.^[7] This trend towards increasingly miniaturized RFID is likely to continue as technology advances. However, the ability to read at distance is limited by the inverse-square law.

Hitachi holds the record for the smallest RFID chip, at 0.05mm x 0.05mm. The Mu chip tags are 64 times smaller than the new RFID tags.^[8] Manufacture is enabled by using the Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) process. These "dust" sized chips can store 38-digit numbers using 128-bit Read Only Memory (ROM).^[9] A major challenge is the attachment of the antennas, thus limiting read range to only millimeters.

Potential alternatives to the radio frequencies (0.125–0.1342, 0.140–0.1485, 13.56, and 840–960 MHz) used are seen in optical RFID (or OPID) at 333 THz (900 nm), 380 THz (788 nm), 750 THz (400 nm).^[10] The awkward antennas of RFID can be replaced with photovoltaic components and IR-LEDs on the ICs!

History and technology background

In 1946 Léon Theremin invented an espionage tool for the Soviet Union which retransmitted incident radio waves with audio information. Sound waves vibrated a diaphragm which slightly altered the shape of the resonator, which modulated the reflected radio frequency. Even though this device was a covert listening device, not an identification tag, it is considered to be a predecessor of RFID technology, because it was likewise passive, being energized and activated by electromagnetic waves from an outside source.^[2]

Similar technology, such as the IFF transponder invented in the United Kingdom in 1915, was routinely used by the allies in World War II to identify aircraft as friend or foe. Transponders are still used by most powered aircraft to this day. Another early work exploring RFID is the landmark 1948 paper by Harry Stockman, titled "Communication by Means of Reflected Power" (Proceedings of the IRE, pp 1196–1204, October 1948). Stockman predicted that "... considerable research and development work has to be done before the remaining basic problems in reflected-power communication are solved, and before the field of useful applications is explored."

Mario Cardullo's U.S. Patent 3,713,148 in 1973 was the first true ancestor of modern RFID; a passive radio transponder with memory. The initial device was passive, powered by the interrogating signal, and was demonstrated in 1971 to the New York Port Authority and other potential users and consisted of a transponder with 16 bit memory for use as a toll device. The basic Cardullo patent covers the use of RF, sound and light as transmission media. The original business plan presented to investors in 1969 showed uses in transportation (automotive vehicle identification, automatic toll system, electronic license plate, electronic manifest, vehicle routing, vehicle performance monitoring), banking (electronic check book, electronic credit card), security (personnel identification, automatic gates, surveillance) and medical (identification, patient history).

A very early demonstration of reflected power (modulated backscatter) RFID tags, both passive and semi-passive, was performed by Steven Depp, Alfred Koelle, and Robert Freyman at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1973^[3]. The portable system operated at 915 MHz and used 12-bit tags. This technique is used by the majority of today's UHFID and microwave RFID tags.

The first patent to be associated with the abbreviation RFID was granted to Charles Walton in 1983 U.S. Patent 4,384,288.

The largest deployment of active RFID is the US Department of Defense use of Savi ^[4] active tags on every one of its more than a million shipping containers that travel outside of the continental United States (CONUS). The largest passive RFID deployment is the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) deployment across 72 facilities implemented by ODIN ^[5] who also performed the global roll-out for Airbus ^[6] consisting of 13 projects across the globe

RFID Criticism

As with many new technologies, people fear what they don't understand. In the case of RFID, consumers have many fears, some of which may be justified. This debate may be one of the few in which you'll find the American Civil Liberties Union and Christian Coalition on the same side.

Human chipping has seemingly higher stakes than merchandise tagging, and RFID critics are concerned that human chipping may one day become mandatory. When the company CityWatcher.com chipped two of its employees in 2006, these fears spun out of control. CityWatcher.com insisted that the employees were not forced to be chipped -- they volunteered for the microchip implants for easier access to secured vaults where confidential documents are stored. Other employees declined the implants, and their positions with the company were unaffected.

­Aside from the limitations of VeriChip scanning discussed in the last section, human chipping has profound religious and civil liberty implications for some people. Some believe that human chipping is foretelling a biblical prophecy from the Book of Revelation, interpreting the chip as the "Mark of the Beast." To others concerned with civil liberties, the chip is bringing us one step closer to an Orwellian society, in which our every action and thought will be controlled by Big Brother.

While we can choose whether or not to put RFID chips in ourselves or our pets, we have little control over tags being placed on commercial products that we buy. In the book "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID," Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre describe the most extreme implications of RFID tags. They describe how RFID tags could be used to gauge your spending habits and bank account to determine how much you should be charged for the products you buy. This may sound paranoid, but hackers have proven that some RFID tags can be tampered with, including disabling their anti-theft features and changing the price that corresponds to their product. Better encryption is needed to ensure that hackers can't pick up RFID frequencies with super-sensitive antennae.

What's more, some critics say that relying on RFID as the primary means of security could make human security checkpoints lazy and ineffective. If security guards rely solely on the RFID anti-theft devices in merchandise and RFID technology of government-issued identification to screen for criminals or terrorists, they might miss the criminal activity happening right in front of their eyes

Animal and Human Chipping

The Jacobs family of Boca Raton, FL served as early subjects for VeriChip implants. In 2002, Jeffrey, Leslie and their son Derek were chipped.

Animal chipping is nothing new -- farmers have been tracking livestock for years using RFID technology. But companies are turning animal chipping for pets into big business, and some companies are offering options for human chipping.

RFID pet recovery systems rely on tiny microchips the size of a grain of rice that contains the pet owner's contact information and sometimes an animal's medical history. Veterinarians scan lost pets with an RFID reader to determine whether or not the pet has a microchip. But the system can break down here. There are many competing pet recovery systems and consequently, many pet microchips. The Humane Society of the United States has been campaigning for development of a universal RFID reader that vets could use to read a pet's microchip, no matter its manufacturer or year of manufacture. In November 2005, President George Bush signed a bill for the standardization of pet microchips and a national database of pet owner information [source: RFID Journal].

Even though the FDA approved the implantation of RFID microchips in animals and humans in 2004, research from as far back as 1996 shows that these implants can cause cancerous tumors in lab rats and mice [source: Washington Post]. Specifically, the implants caused sarcomas, which affect body tissue. No studies have proven yet that cancer can form in animals other than lab rats and mice, and it's still too early to tell what effects the chips can have on humans. Despite this evidence, or lack thereof, other disadvantages of human chipping may outweigh its advantages.

VeriChip Corp. is leading the human chipping business. The company makes microchips with unique identification numbers that link to a VeriChip medical database. The VeriChip database contains emergency contact information and medical histories. Patients with serious medical issues and Alzheimer's are ideal candidates for the VeriChip. In addition to a one-time implantation fee, VeriChip charges annual fees based on how much information you want in the database -- you can choose to have just your name and contact information or your full medical history. VeriChip is still growing, so there are not RFID readers in every hospital. Also, doctors might not scan every patient to check for a chip, so depending on the hospital or doctor, your VeriChip could prove useless.­

­­One VeriChip with greater rates of success is the Hugs Infant Protection Program. Under this RFID monitoring system, newborns in some hospital nurseries wear ankle bracelets with RFID chips. If an unauthorized person tries to remove a baby from the hospital, an alarm is sounded at the nurses' station and at exit doors. You can read more about successful infant abduction prevention on the VeriChip Web site.

In the next section, we'll hear what RFID critics have to say about tracking devices in our modern world.