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 ?

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...

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.