Interesting paper from Chris Paget (http://www.tombom.co.uk/extreme_rfid.pdf) about accessing epc gen2 tags from very long ranges (100's of metres) using equipment built for less than $1000. Basically he increases the range by increasing the power of the transmitter and using a more directional antenna, thus increasing the power density in the region of the tag. You do need a ham radio operators licence to broadcast at these powers though...
This is really not new - physics is physics but the "loophole" of the ham radio licence is new.
Aside from the fact that you could use this approach to pick up Bin Ladins underpants assuming they are tagged, this may open the way to other applications - eg a foursquare-like (http://foursquare.com/) scanning RFID reader that you could install in particular locations, or long-range tracking in warehouses, assuming safety - he is using 70watts output - and regulatory compliance
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
RFID Live !
Report on RFID LIVE!/IEEE RFID 2010
This conference and commercial exhibition ran from 14th/17th April 2010. The IEEE conference was relatively small, with 35 papers 20 odd posters and about 100 attendees. Highlights of the conference included work on accurate range, bearing and velocity measurements for Passive RFID, work on antenna design and some work on localisation. On the commercial side the RFID in healthcare consortium workshop was well attended. In the US the main healthcare uses include equipment tracking and billing for equipment. Hospital systems tend to be active tags with indicators for location or WiFi-based. Handwash checking is becoming an important application. Vendors are still not always satisfying the customers -Aeroscout especially worrying because of interference issues (and middleware not always helpful), and the workload associated with keeping tags maintained is high when a hospital has 10000+ tags….Nobody knows how to calculate ROI
Interesting that data-processing algorithms are not very far advanced at present.
Take Home messages:
Localisation is requiring increasingly complex modelling. Multipath remains the biggest issue. Machine learning not very common (yest)
EPC GEN2 UHF tags are becoming universal – range is steadily increasing as is memory space and survivability
The Fujitsu washable tags are encouraging apparel manufacturers and retailers to begin including them in garments and in scrubs etc. Many stalls had demos running.
Middleware is a big issue – Microsoft SAP IBM all trying to get into the game ,but there is a backlash against “BIG ERP”
Ubisense ultrawideband tags give very high resolution but expensive.
DASH 7 consortium trying to get into the RTLS market
FDA still don’t know what they are doing with tags, but blood labelling via HF becoming important.
Lots of opportunities in secondary health care market.
This conference and commercial exhibition ran from 14th/17th April 2010. The IEEE conference was relatively small, with 35 papers 20 odd posters and about 100 attendees. Highlights of the conference included work on accurate range, bearing and velocity measurements for Passive RFID, work on antenna design and some work on localisation. On the commercial side the RFID in healthcare consortium workshop was well attended. In the US the main healthcare uses include equipment tracking and billing for equipment. Hospital systems tend to be active tags with indicators for location or WiFi-based. Handwash checking is becoming an important application. Vendors are still not always satisfying the customers -Aeroscout especially worrying because of interference issues (and middleware not always helpful), and the workload associated with keeping tags maintained is high when a hospital has 10000+ tags….Nobody knows how to calculate ROI
Interesting that data-processing algorithms are not very far advanced at present.
Take Home messages:
Localisation is requiring increasingly complex modelling. Multipath remains the biggest issue. Machine learning not very common (yest)
EPC GEN2 UHF tags are becoming universal – range is steadily increasing as is memory space and survivability
The Fujitsu washable tags are encouraging apparel manufacturers and retailers to begin including them in garments and in scrubs etc. Many stalls had demos running.
Middleware is a big issue – Microsoft SAP IBM all trying to get into the game ,but there is a backlash against “BIG ERP”
Ubisense ultrawideband tags give very high resolution but expensive.
DASH 7 consortium trying to get into the RTLS market
FDA still don’t know what they are doing with tags, but blood labelling via HF becoming important.
Lots of opportunities in secondary health care market.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Spy in the bin
Much ado via big brother watch http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/ about 2 million households in the UK having microchips in their bins. Not sure but it sounds like RFID to me.. basically the system reads the bin ID when being loaded into the rubbish truck- and hence can work out your waste weight and lead to "pay as you throw". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8550929.stm
maybe less concerned.
There does seem to be some exaggeration, the bins can't really tell if you are putting recyclicables in the normal bin and you can always put things in next doors bin. We pay for water on this basis, why not other services ?
maybe less concerned.
There does seem to be some exaggeration, the bins can't really tell if you are putting recyclicables in the normal bin and you can always put things in next doors bin. We pay for water on this basis, why not other services ?
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
City of Parthenope
This is a project - reported by the BBC world service and in italian http://comunedipartenope.it is a "community of virtue" based in Naples ( Parthenope was a greek settlement where naples now stands). People sign up to a code of ethics http://comunedipartenope.it/content/codice-etico (in italian). From the RFID aspect what is interesting is that they are using RFID to identify people who sign up to this, so that they can be acknowledged in shops etc. I'm not sure what the enforcement policy is...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
More on RFID and "popular culture"
Watching the "Andromeda Strain" (2008 Miniseries) an important plot point hinges on having both RFID and biometric security tokens being validated. Passwords are so 20th century...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
