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...

Internet of things

Another interesting release from google - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/google_favourite_places/ linking favourite places on google maps with real life. Essentially the system uses barcodes in particular places, the user takes a picture and pxts it to a server and the phone gets back the details. RFID or NFC may make this slightly easier.
This sort of thing also raises the issue of privacy and anonymity.
My definition is that anonymity means that you cannot be identified
Privacy means that information about you is only released when you think it is appropriate.
My personal view is that there is little credible right to anonymity - in a public place it is always possible that someone could recognise you, and there is no way to legislate against that. However a stronger right to privacy- which can include information derived from publically available sources (data matching) seems reasonable.

Big Bang Theory

On the TV last night 21st October ( episode not yet on TVNZ Website )
Sheldon was busy tagging his socks with RFID so he could select the correct ones for different situations. Very similar to the "magic" bag http://www.hinz.org.nz/uploads/file/2008conference/P08.pdf . One thing I wondered was why he didn't use that technology to ensure that he didn't forget his USB stick ?

On-body tagging

Interesting US Patent (7,602,301 - link)
on a system to record human movement based around on-board sensors, and then uplinking via cellular or other networks. To me, one of the intersting aspects, particularly in terms of activity tracking is the degree to which already installed sensors and tracking devices along with existing infrastructuctures can support it. This is already a commonplace in terms of cell-phone tracking, but I just got to wondering if what we will end up tracking is people's things, not them. For example if exoskeletons (http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/10/hal_robot_exoskeletons_available_for_rent-2/) catch on, tracking their ;location and settings and hence inferrring activity should be trivial.

RFID for healthcare

There is a call for papers for a micro edition of the open medical informatics journal - for RFID in healthcare - at http://www.bentham.org/open/tominfoj/Special-Issues.htm Off to HINZ next week (www.hinz.org.nz), It will be interesting to see if the health IT industry is moving forward in this area.

RFID for conception

From the RFID journal, an interesting approach to using RFID enabled systems as data-loggers http://www.temperatureconcepts.com/ a UK-based company has a device that detects ovulation by logging armpit temperature and then downloading the data via RFID. What is interesting is that the RFID element is used as a communication channel, which is turned off most of the time, rather than a conventional zygbee or mobile phone type device. In some ways its not RFID at all, its just piggybacking on the fact that readers are cheap and RFID technology allows this sort of reader- powered data transmission to be implemented easily. The device is pretty expensive - 500 UKP but this is a nice market to be in and one could conceive (sorry) of models where people hire them or are lent them as part of a fertility programme.
The model of using RFID as a data transmission tool is certainly interesting, and it may be that there is a markte for "dumb" tags, "Smart" tags and communication tags too.

Is it you, or is it me ?

RFID in new zealand passed a new milestone when RFID tags were mentioned on "Shortland Street" - http://tvnz.co.nz/shortland-street-episodes/happened-wednesday-2758512
"TK is disturbed by the strange microchip he finds in Jeff's skin, which he identifies as a pet identification advice. When Jeff reveals his wife is a vet, TK is certain something sinister is going on. " I won't spoil the plot but the RFID tag is not the villan of the piece.